METRO aims to improve its environmental performance in several ways. Our priorities: reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, manage our waste and reduce food waste.
Our ambition is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming by focusing our efforts on key sectors over which we have direct operational control. Through these actions, we aim to contribute to the collective effort to transition to a lower-carbon economy.
Objective
For information on our key performance indicators, see our 2022-2026 Corporate Responsibility Plan
Our ambition is to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to limit global warming by focusing our efforts on key sectors over which we have direct operational control. Through these actions, we aim to contribute to the collective effort to transition to a lower-carbon economy.
Our objective
Reduce GHG emissions by 37.5% by 2035 compared to 2020 for an average reduction of 2.5% per year
To learn more
METRO is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions for several years.
Our teams focus their efforts on key sectors for the company, including:
This year for the first time, we are reporting both our total amount of GHG emissions emitted (absolute) and our GHG emissions relative to our size expressed in square footage (intensity).
Our greenhouse gas emissions
Refrigerant leaks — 42.36%
Transport — 5.20%
Building energy consumption (Fuel) — 19.84%
Building energy consumption (Electricity) — 3.74%
Waste elimination — 13.22%
Merchandise transport — 15.52%
Business travel — 0.12%
| Emission Source | 2022 GHG Emissions (Tonnes CO2e) |
|---|---|
| Scope 1 Total | 270,761 |
| Scope 2 Total | 17,872 |
| Scope 3 Total | 170,769 |
| Overall Total | 459,402 |
Corporate and franchised stores and distribution and manufacturing centres - Québec and Ontario.
2021 GHG emissions and 2022 GHG emissions details are available in our GHG emissions infosheet.
In 2022, METRO submitted its 15th carbon footprint to CDP, reporting data from 2021. This information is publicly available on the CDP’s website.
In 2022, METRO announced its support for the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), publicly committing to working towards implementing TCFD’s 11 recommendations in the next years. This offers us an additional way to share how we are managing climate-related risks and opportunities to help reduce investors’ risks, maximize their financial rewards, and minimize market disruptions related to climate change. For more details, please refer to METRO’s TCFD index.
To learn more, see our Corporate Responsibility Report 2022 (PDF).
Our ambition is to avoid sending waste generated by our activities to landfill with the view to achieving zero waste at our locations, representing a diversion rate of at least 90%. We intend to enhance our performance by mobilizing our teams to optimize our operational practices.
Objective
For information on our key performance indicators, see our 2022-2026 Corporate Responsibility Plan
Our ambition is to avoid sending waste generated by our activities to landfill with the view to achieving zero waste at our locations, representing a diversion rate of at least 90%. We intend to enhance our performance by mobilizing our teams to optimize our operational practices.
To learn more
Our waste management program aims to reduce the environmental impacts of eliminating residual materials, including GHG emissions, and facilitate their valorization.
The waste objectives related to diversion are divided into two targets: one for stores and one for distribution/production centres.
We aim for all stores to achieve at least 50% diversion, 25% of stores to achieve 80 to 89% diversion, and 25% of stores to achieve zero waste.
As for our distribution and production centres, we aim to achieve zero waste.
Key to diversion are our recycling and recovery streams.
Distribution and production centres recovery stream quantities during our 2022 reporting year in metric tonnes 
Our ambition is to ensure that food that is safe for consumption and food residue generated by our activities are not thrown away. By redistributing them to organizations or giving them a second life, we are helping to address food insecurity and reduce the GHG emissions caused by landfilled organic waste.
Objective
For information on our key performance indicators, see our 2022-2026 Corporate Responsibility Plan
Our ambition is to ensure that food that is safe for consumption and food residue generated by our activities are not thrown away. By redistributing them to organizations or giving them a second life, we are helping to address food insecurity and reduce the GHG emissions caused by landfilled organic waste.
To learn more
METRO is committed to reducing the food waste generated by our activities by half by 2025 compared to 2016 in an effort to tackle two major challenges for society:
Our food loss and waste methodology aligns with the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard, including its recommendations on the preferred solutions to manage surplus and FLW.
As a priority, we aim to prevent food surplus. Then, food surplus must be redistributed to feed humans. For example, our One More Bite program redistributes unsold products to people in need through our charitable partners: Food Banks of Québec, Second Harvest, and Feed Ontario. Between 2016 and 2022, we distributed more than 23 million kilograms of food, helping to fight food insecurity while keeping waste out of landfills.
For food products that cannot be sold or donated for human consumption, we look for ways to dispose of them responsibly through high valorization destinations: animal feed or biomaterial processing.
When those destinations are not possible, we prioritize destinations with some valorization: anaerobic digestion, compost, and controlled combustion. Sending food to landfill is the least preferred solution, thus we aim to send zero food to this destination.
For more details on our methodology and performance, please refer to our Food Loss and Waste infosheet.
To consult our environmental reference documents, click here.