Discount retailer Lidl and WWF have announced a five-year international strategic partnership to address global ecological challenges in 31 countries. The collaboration aims to support Lidl’s value chain, making sustainable choices more accessible to households and promoting business models that work within planetary boundaries. Lidl shared that the partnership’s common goal is to enable customers to make more sustainable choices.
Since 2023, Lidl GB has been working with WWF on its Retailers’ Commitment for Nature, aiming to halve the environmental impact of UK shopping baskets by 2030. They have collaborated in various markets such as Switzerland and Austria in recent years.
The newly announced global partnership aims to expand this effort internationally to accelerate sustainability. This partnership will focus on several key areas including the conservation and promotion of biodiversity, responsible management of water resources, climate protection with science-based climate targets, establishing traceable, deforestation-free, and conversion-free supply chains, responsible sourcing of critical raw materials like palm oil, soy, cocoa, tea, coffee, wood, and paper products, responsible sourcing of fish and seafood, and safeguarding critical fishing grounds and stocks, advocacy for conscious, sustainable diets and consumption and reduction of food waste.
These efforts aim to advance sustainability practices globally and promote environmental stewardship throughout Lidl’s operations and supply chains.
Beyond its efforts within its own value chain, Lidl will support various WWF conservation projects to help protect the environment in the regions it sources from.
Christoph Pohl, Chief Purchasing Officer at Lidl International said, “For Lidl, sustainable management is not only a question of attitude but also the basis for the future viability of our business model. With the support and expertise of WWF, we will now take our commitment to sustainability to the next level. We can only overcome major global challenges such as climate change and nature loss by working together. That’s why we believe in strong partnerships to work together to provide more sustainable choices.”