Overview of sustainability initiatives in European food retail sector

This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of sustainability practices in food retailing sector. Report is structured to reflect on overall sustainability trends among European food retailers, outline drivers and barriers to address sustainability issues in retailer’s supply chain operations and provide classification of sustainability initiatives undertaken by EU retail organizations that could be classified as forerunners in environmental field. Proposed classification embraces wide range of initiatives targeted towards greening particular aspects of business activities in upstream and downstream supply chain, as well as in-shop. Furthermore, analysis of initiatives is undertaken to reflect on how widespread different sustainability activities among retail organizations. Eventually, drawing on examples of ‘best practice’ among European forerunners, recommendations for retailers and policy-makers are provided on how to further sustainability work in food supply chain.