Ocado Retail - a joint venture between Ocado Group and Marks & Spencer and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket - is the first grocery retailer to have signed a carbon dioxide removal agreement with Climeworks. Joining other pioneering companies like Microsoft and Shopify, Ocado Retail is helping to pave the way for a more sustainable future.
Climeworks will permanently remove more than 1’000 tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere for Ocado Retail via direct air capture and storage, the equivalent of what the online supermarket will emit over the next seven years at its headquarters. Climeworks’ carbon removal solution thus helps to make Ocado Retail's head office net zero.
Climeworks one puzzle piece of Ocado Retail’s overall net zero strategy
The agreement is the latest addition to Ocado Retail’s overarching sustainability strategy to become entirely net zero by 2040. As well as working to remove residual emissions, Ocado is working to reduce emissions across its entire operations.
Carbon dioxide removal is an important tool in the fight against climate change. The IPCC clearly states that in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, carbon removal solutions like direct air capture and storage are urgently needed on a large scale because they allow to remove historic and residual CO₂ emissions. More companies, like Ocado Retail, purchasing Climeworks’ high-quality carbon removal means a growing demand for such solutions, which, in turn, supports the technology’s scale-up: the direct air capture capacity will be further increased to meet this growing demand until it reaches climate-relevant scales.
Daniel Costigan, sustainability lead at Ocado Retail
"We are immensely proud to be the first supermarket in the world to have a net zero office. Running a sustainable business is incredibly important to us and our customers and our deal with Climeworks will help as we continue to look at ways of reducing our carbon footprint."
Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks
“We are excited and thankful to welcome a new industry leader through the agreement with Ocado. Ocado Retail’s net zero strategy is a great example of how emissions reduction and emissions removal should be combined.“
Key take-aways
Scientists and opinion leaders agree that direct air capture and storage is needed to fight climate change and the technology needs to be scaled up as fast as possible, as highlighted in a recent IPCC report.
Ocado Retail, the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket, has signed an agreement with Climeworks, a leader in carbon dioxide removal via direct air capture technology.
As part of its wider sustainability strategy, Ocado Retail purchases 1’000 tons of carbon dioxide removal from Climeworks, the equivalent of what the company will emit over the next seven years at its HQ.
For the full English press release, see here.
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