Sustainability

 

Aligned with our goal to positively impact our planet and leverage our partnerships for change, we’re working to make it easier for customers to make sustainable choices – by ensuring high‑impact commodities are sourced sustainably through suppliers that have low risk of negative social and environmental impacts, such as deforestation, climate change and exploitative working conditions.

100% of the palm oil in our own brand food products supports sustainable palm oil production through Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification and, where certification has been deemed infeasible, book and claim credits.

61% of the palm oil in our formulated non-food products, such as cleaners and laundry products,  supports sustainable palm oil production through certification; up from 14% in F22.

In F21, our Palm Oil Policy was updated to further reduce the risk of deforestation in palm oil supply chains by:

  • Transitioning to CSPO in all own brand non‑food products, such as cleaners and personal care products
  • To give customers choice, we label palm oil in our own brand food products where used as an ingredient and impactful

Our Soy Policy has been developed to make sure high‑risk/ high‑volume soy used in all own brand products and livestock feed does not contribute to deforestation. 

Woolworths Group is a member of the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS), a multi‑stakeholder organisation promoting the growth of production, trade and use of responsible soy. It does this through facilitating dialogue, and the implementation of a global certification standard. 

Certified sustainable soy is an emerging commodity in the Oceanic Region, and we are leading on this issue by engaging with the whole value chain, from growers to product manufacturers, to convey our expectations and seek assurance that Woolworths Group will support the production of sustainable soy. 

In F24, we are continuing our supply chain engagement with priority protein suppliers to identify pathways towards transitioning to more responsible soy in our livestock feed, and where feasible a transition to alternate proteins to reduce reliance on the commodity.

We met our 2020 Sustainability Commitment to have all Woolworths Own Brand coffee, tea, cocoa and sugar products sourced sustainably and certified through Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade or Bonsucro Certification. Our Sustainability Plan 2025 outlines how we will extend this commitment to include ingredients in all our own brand products, supporting this transition with increased industry engagement and customer awareness. For instance, our Woolworths World Environment Day 2021 campaign incorporated multiple sustainability messaging across various communications touchpoints, such as digital, out of home, and national newspapers over eight weeks. 

Our High‑Impact Commodities Policy has been updated, and will inform the Group’s focus on sourcing these commodities sustainably at the ingredient level. This will amplify our commitment to protect forests, rivers, soils and biodiversity, as well as improving the quality of life of farming communities.

 

For our pulp, paper and timber products, 100% are either FSC® or PEFC® certified or comprise at least 95% recycled content.

Our Paper Pulp and Timber Policy has been updated to drive an increased focus on fibre‑based packaging. All primary and secondary packaging in high‑volume own brand products, such as cereal boxes, long life milk and egg cartons, have been sustainably‑sourced either through independently‑certified or recycled sources. All other Own Brand product packaging will meet this commitment by the end of 2025.

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.