The Ratio Institute, an independent non-profit located in Santa Cruz, California, has released a standard that include environmental, social, and governance criteria designed for food retailers to understand and track their sustainability performance.
The institute has partnered with the Independent Grocers Alliance to provide a sustainability program for its members, including education resources, a certification program, and marketing materials to foster awareness for sustainability initiatives.
With its standard, The Ratio Institute seeks to empower companies to set targets and define strategies to achieve them, while providing insights on operational improvements.
“Equipped with a systematic approach to grade their operations, food retailers can more easily define their baseline and identify the changes necessary for large greenhouse gas emissions and other performance gains,” said Jonathan Tan, Ratio Institute co-founder, in a statement. “This is a huge opportunity to raise the industry’s profile as a sustainability leader. It is also a big profit opportunity for both retailers and investors. Now, investors can easily compare food retail companies against best-in-class performers and make better-informed investment decisions.”
To ensure the standard accurately reflects the best practices of the industry, the company solicited feedback from relevant stakeholders and is working with other large retailers and cooperatives to adopt it.
“This is a great first step in defining sustainability reporting in the grocery industry,” said Mark Koppang, director of sustainability at Raley’s Supermarkets, in a statement. “It enables companies to demonstrate their ESG commitment to their team members and customers and improve the industry overall.”
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