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.
For example, from 2022 we are beginning to work with our UK milk supplier to engage dairy farmers in our supply chain to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. We know that reducing farm-level emissions is a challenge and that farmers need the support of their customers, like Costa Coffee, to enable them to invest in new equipment and innovations that will help them cut emissions.
We are also starting to work with Rainforest Alliance to more proactively reduce emissions in our coffee supply chain.
In early 2017, we opened our new state-of-the-art roastery in Basildon, Essex. As well as quadrupling Costa’s roasting capacity and being one of the largest roasteries in Europe, it is one of the world’s most sustainable.
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.
And, at the start of 2022 we switched the main energy source to renewables, by sourcing Renewable Gas Guarantees of Origin certificates. This has lowered by carbon footprint of the gas supply at our roastery by around 85%, significantly lowering our overall scope 1 emissions. To cover the remaining scope 1 and 2 emissions for our UK&I business that are currently unavoidable, we have purchased a small number of carbon offsets (backed by the Verified Carbon Standard), which support an afforestation programme in Nicaragua (a coffee-growing country).
We're 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 two ‘Eco Pod’ stores, located in Parc Tawe, Swansea and Wrekin Retail Park, Telford. These stores include:
A special frame made from sustainably sourced FSC timber, which replaces the typical steel frame and so reduces each building’s carbon footprint.
Super-insulation, which keeps the stores warm in winter and cool in summer.
Intelligent positioning of the buildings, designed to make the most of the sun’s heat and so reduce the amount of energy needed to keep them warm.
Rooftop solar panels.
Everything we learn from our two ‘Eco Pod’ stores is being carried into our conventional stores wherever possible, helping us further our efforts to drive down energy consumption and continuing to protect the environment in exciting and pioneering ways. Read more about our commitment to responsible energy use here.
We also work closely with our partners to support the transition to a lower carbon economy. Our stores can now be found at two of GRIDSERVE’s Electric Forecourt® locations in Braintree and Norwich, enabling consumers to buy their favourite coffee whilst waiting for their vehicle to charge.
In 2022 we opened a store at Shell UK’s first EV Hub in Fulham to further support the growth in EV charging points across the UK.
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.
