We're committed to cutting emissions, in line with climate science, to reach Net Zero by 2040.
Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. The science is clear: to avoid its very worst effects, we need to limit global warming to 1.5C.
To play our part in tackling climate change, we need to think and act boldly. The targets we’ve set ourselves are significant; they'll drive us to genuinely change the way we do business, globally.
Our Roastery, opened in 2017, was the first roasting facility to achieve the BREEAM Outstanding sustainability certification.
We’ll halve our emissions per coffee serving by 2030 (from a 2019 baseline).
Achieve Net Zero emissions, across scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2040.
Our starting point was to understand the carbon footprint of our entire global business, including our supply chains. By building this map of where our carbon emissions come from, we are better able to understand where we should be focusing our attention in the years to come.
In July 2020 we were delighted to be one of the 20 UK retailers to join the British Retail Consortium’s ‘Climate Roadmap’ as a founding signatory. This roadmap includes a commitment to tackle climate change that will accelerate the UK’s progress to becoming Net Zero, ahead of the Government’s 2050 target.
In March 2022 we launched our new, ambitious carbon reduction targets across our global business. Our initial focus is to reduce our emissions by 50% per coffee serving: our 2030 target, approved by the experts at the Science Based Targets initiative. Once we achieve this, we’ll continue to reduce emissions even further (as much as we possibly can), before investing in innovative programmes to offset the small amount of challenging emissions that remain. This will help us to achieve our ultimate ambition: to be Net Zero by 2040.
Our carbon mapping work showed us that 95% of our carbon footprint is what’s known as ‘Scope 3’ – the emissions created when our products are grown or produced, transported, prepared and consumed. This means one of the most important actions we can take is to work in partnership with the suppliers who source our most important and iconic products: coffee beans, milk and food. You can find out more about our work with Rainforest Alliance and our milk suppliers here.
In early 2017, we opened our new state-of-the-art roastery in Basildon, Essex - one of the largest in Europe - quadrupling Costa’s roasting capacity.
Some of its features include:
New equipment and processes to reduce the energy taken to roast each tonne of coffee by 30% compared to our previous roastery.
Renewable energy generation, with 249kw of solar panels on the roof of the building.
Facilities to make sure that zero waste is sent to landfill.
Electric car chargers, LED lighting and a rainwater harvesting system.
Even the location of our roastery was especially chosen to improve efficiency. Being so close Tilbury Docks, our Rainforest Alliance Certified™ green coffee beans only have to travel 14 miles to our roastery – halving the original journey distance they used to take to our previous roastery in Lambeth!
This huge investment in sustainability when building our roastery means that it was the first industrial process site to ever be awarded a BREEAM Outstanding accreditation. Read our Roastery's Energy Management Policy here.
We are always trying to improve the energy efficiency of our stores, for example by investing in new equipment and LED lighting. One of the ways that we have been able to test new efficiencies in our stores is through the construction of four ‘Eco Pod’ stores, for example at Parc Tawe, Swansea and Wrekin Retail Park, Telford.
Read more about our commitment to responsible energy use here.
Our stores and team members are at the heart of communities across the UK. This gives us the opportunity to make a real difference that goes way beyond our doors.
