Sustainability

By sustainably sourcing our products and ingredients, we aim to make it easier for customers to make  sustainable choices. We’re committed to working collaboratively with our suppliers and other supply chain partners to minimise negative environmental and social impacts. We focus on primary deforestation-linked commodities – paper, pulp, timber, palm oil, cocoa, soy (in stock feed) and fresh beef. Additionally, we consider other high-risk commodities such as tea and coffee, and the ethical sourcing of cotton.

No-Deforestation Policy

Woolworths Group aims to achieve No-Deforestation across our Primary Deforestation-Linked Commodities with a target date of 31 December 2025. 

Our Primary Deforestation-Linked Commodities are:

  • Paper, pulp & timber (packaging and products)

  • Palm oil (food and non-food) 

  • Cocoa

  • Soy (in Stockfeed) 

  • Fresh beef 

Our No-Deforestation target applies to both own brand and vendor brand products.

Our Group No-Deforestation Policy, details our approach to our No-Deforestation target focused on commodities presenting the most material risk of deforestation within our supply chain. 

This Policy will be updated, for fresh beef sourced from Australia once we have further progressed our work with industry to finalise a definition and approach that meets international requirements while reflecting the unique landscapes and practices of Australian agriculture. Fresh beef produced in New Zealand is not considered in scope of this policy.

Paper, pulp and timber

In addition to supporting our No-Deforestation target, our Paper, Pulp and Timber Policy has been updated to support our compliance with illegal logging legislation. All primary and secondary packaging in high‑volume own and vendor brand products is within the scope of our policy.

Net-Deforestation

Some additional commodities are not part of our updated No-Deforestation target, but remain within scope of our existing Net-Deforestation target. We will continue to source products containing the following commodities to a Net-Deforestation standard in our own brand products:

  • Soy (food)

  • Tea (product and ingredient)

  • Coffee (product and ingredient)

Policy - Net-Zero Deforestation: Tea, Coffee, Soy (in food) & Sugar Sourcing.

We have met our 2020 Sustainability Commitment to have all Woolworths Own brand coffee, tea, cocoa and sugar single ingredient products sourced sustainably and certified through Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade or Bonsucro Certification. 

To find out more about our achievements in this area see our Sustainability Reporting Suite.

We are committed to using cotton that has been produced sustainably and responsibly, and encouraging the use of recycled and reclaimed cotton wherever possible. The majority of cotton across Woolworths Group is used in BIG W’s own brand products.

In F23, BIG W sourced 9.6% of its cotton from a certified standard or program aligned to the Woolworths Group Sustainable Cotton Policy. Other highlights include:

  • finalising our in-scope suppliers and cotton consumption baselines and segmenting our Sustainable Cotton Policy roll-out plan 
  • achieving certification for Organic Content Standard (OCS), which required auditing of the BIG W policy and procedures by Control Union to ensure compliance to the Chain of Custody Standards for OCS 
  • partnering with Cotton Australia to explore end-to-end opportunities to procure high quality, sustainable Australian grown cotton at a competitive price.

Our full program of work is reported in the 2023 Modern Slavery Statement. 

For our progress against this goal, see our 2024 Sustainability Report. For more information on our metrics, see our 2025 Sustainability Plan.