Airfreight, poverty and the planet

Cast your mind back

The Headlines…

Local food ‘greener than organic’ – March 2005

Food miles don’t go the distance – Mar 2006

Food miles can mislead – Nov 2007

The facts

Food production accounts for 18% of UK emissions

Source; Food Climate Research Network, work in progress 2007

Business context

Airfreight in M&S Small number of products

Fruit, vegetables and flowers

Choice and quality not available in UK or countries nearby

Sourcing location decisions driven by availability and quality of produce

Small amount of contingency sourcing

AvailabilityPRODUCT SUPPLIER

Soft Strawberries KG/ SFC/ Alconera Israel/ Egypt UKJubilee KG/ SFC/ Alconera UKRaspberries KG/ SFC/ Alconera Spain/ USA/ Mexico/ South Africa Spain/ UK glassBlueberries Summer Fruit Co Chile Chile/ NZ NZ Spain/ USA France

Cherries Cherries Sims/ Utopia Chile Arg Tasmania CaliforniaTurkeyRainier Sims/ Utopia Arg/ chile

Grapes White Mack/ Munoz SA + Chile Chile Peru Spain/ Israel/ MoroccoRed Mack/ Munoz Peru/ SA SA (till June) Chile (till June) Brazil Spain (till Oct)Black Mack/ Munoz SA Chile USA

JAN FEB MARCH APR MAY JUNE

1 Climate research at the Met Office Hadley Centre

GRAPES SOURCING

MONTH MAINSTREAM SOURCES

CONTINGENCY SOURCES

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

January S. Africa Chile, Namibia Peru February S. Africa Chile Peru

March S. Africa, Chile April Chile India May Chile India, Mexico June Israel, Egypt,

Morocco USA Peru, Lebanon, S.

Arabia July Spain, Israel,

Morocco USA Egypt

August Spain, Israel, Italy USA Turkey September Greece Israel, Italy, USA Turkey

October Greece USA Greek Crimson November Brazil Namibia December Brazil Namibia / S. Africa

Climate Change

HealthFair Deal

SustainabilityWaste

Plan A

Our carbon footprint

In Food, we identified 9 key carbon drivers

Input / Output Ratio

Transport

Domestic Cooking

Packaging

Primary Protein Processing

Primary Produce

Primary Grain

Type of Storage

Overall Food ‘heatmap’

Aggregated Carbon Heat Map*

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 25 50 75

Percent

100

HighProtein

MediumProtein

LowProtein

Medium Produce

Low Grain

Medium Grain

Low Produce

Air

Fre

igh

tC

SF

**O

ther

High

Medium

Low

Metal

Glass

Fo

rmed

Pla

stic

Pla

stic

Bag

***

CardboardFrozen

Distribution

Frozen At Store

Medium

High

ChilledDistribution

AmbientDistribution

ChilledAt Store

Wastage At Store

Aggregated Carbon Heat Map*

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 25 50 75

Percent

100

HighProtein

MediumProtein

LowProtein

Medium Produce

Low Grain

Medium Grain

Low Produce

Air

Fre

igh

tC

SF

**O

ther

High

Medium

Low

Metal

Glass

Fo

rmed

Pla

stic

Pla

stic

Bag

***

CardboardFrozen

Distribution

Frozen At Store

Medium

High

ChilledDistribution

AmbientDistribution

ChilledAt Store

Wastage At Store

3.3m tonnes of CO2e per

year

Airfreight in context

Aggregated Carbon Heat Map*

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 25 50 75

Percent

100

HighProtein

MediumProtein

LowProtein

Medium Produce

Low Grain

Medium Grain

Low Produce

Air

Fre

igh

tC

SF

**O

ther

High

Medium

Low

Metal

Glass

Fo

rmed

Pla

stic

Pla

stic

Bag

***

CardboardFrozen

Distribution

Frozen At Store

Medium

High

ChilledDistribution

AmbientDistribution

ChilledAt Store

Wastage At Store

Aggregated Carbon Heat Map*

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 25 50 75

Percent

100

HighProtein

MediumProtein

LowProtein

Medium Produce

Low Grain

Medium Grain

Low Produce

Air

Fre

igh

tC

SF

**O

ther

High

Medium

Low

Metal

Glass

Fo

rmed

Pla

stic

Pla

stic

Bag

***

CardboardFrozen

Distribution

Frozen At Store

Medium

High

ChilledDistribution

AmbientDistribution

ChilledAt Store

Wastage At Store

Processing also makes a significant

contribution

Protein is the largest area

Transport and retail operations have smaller impact

Within that airfreight has highest impact

Airfreight is the most

carbon intensive form of

transport

Emitted at atmosphere so

higher impact

Less than 1% of all food

carried by air but accounts

for 11% of food transport

emissions

Short haul

flight

3.79

Short Haul

ship

0.0374

Short Haul

truck

0.02

Long haul

flight

5.53

Long haul ship 0.1497

Long haul

truck

0.15

CO2e KG’s emissions per

KG of freighted product*

*M&S food carbon footprint – LEK, Carbon Trust

What options are open to us…

Aggregated Carbon Heat Map*

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 25 50 75

Percent

100

HighProtein

MediumProtein

LowProtein

Medium Produce

Low Grain

Medium Grain

Low Produce

Air

Fre

igh

tC

SF

**O

ther

High

Medium

Low

Metal

Glass

Fo

rmed

Pla

stic

Pla

stic

Bag

***

CardboardFrozen

Distribution

Frozen At Store

Medium

High

ChilledDistribution

AmbientDistribution

ChilledAt Store

Wastage At Store

Aggregated Carbon Heat Map*

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 25 50 75

Percent

100

HighProtein

MediumProtein

LowProtein

Medium Produce

Low Grain

Medium Grain

Low Produce

Air

Fre

igh

tC

SF

**O

ther

High

Medium

Low

Metal

Glass

Fo

rmed

Pla

stic

Pla

stic

Bag

***

CardboardFrozen

Distribution

Frozen At Store

Medium

High

ChilledDistribution

AmbientDistribution

ChilledAt Store

Wastage At Store

Behaviour options•Stop providing out of season food•Reducing quality, availability of products after weather events

Technology options

•Shift to alternate modes of transport

•Extend British sourcing season

•Source from other developing economies

Airfreight is also growing

Airfreight grew 140%

between 1992 and 20021

Food is fastest growing air

freighted commodity

As we fly, more it becomes

cheaper to fly..a viscous

circle

1. Soil Association Air freight consultation

Are we building a carbon intense supply chain for the future?

What impact will climatic changes have on food sourcing?

What impact will increasing fuel prices have ?

High value agriculture is important for developing economies

83% air freighted organic from

countries with average income less

than £150 a month

40% from countries such as Kenya and

Ghana - average income < £40 a

month Average carbon footprint is 0.2

tonnes/person in Kenya

Other issues such as water are increasingly important

Check food cabinet office reportSource: Cabinet Office Strategy Unit review, Jan 2008

The decisions could be made for us…

Source: Cabinet Office. Realising Britain’s Potential

Commitments on air freight

20. “Reducing air freight – investigating and minimising our use of air freight whilst balancing the need to trade with developing countries and provide nutritional choice”

24. “Labelling air freighted food”

What are we doing

Working with suppliers – we need to do more

Understanding

extent of

airfreight

Providing

maximum value

back to

community

Better planning

for future

Extending British Season

Innovation

Summary

Not easy decisions due to uncertainty, lack of data and

managing trade offs

Need to work harder on how we communicate such trade

offs with consumers

Business needs to move forward even when things are

murky

Need to take into account impacts of different issues (not

just now but in the future)

Approach may have to change over time

What might good ‘air freight’ look like?

Transparency

Ethical labour

UK paying full environmental cost

Development of growers – investing in agriculture

Helping countries at risk adapt

Gold standard airfreight – high value add, environmental and

social benefits to local economy

UK paying full environmental cost Managing reductions in sensitive manner