Groundswell NZ calls for two-week boycott of Countdown supermarkets

Groundswell NZ is calling for its supporters to boycott Countdown supermarkets for a fortnight, saying the company blames farmers for its emissions.

Earlier this week, Countdown’s head of sustainability Catherine Langabeer said the company had invited all its suppliers to join its Thesis program, which required suppliers to measure and report their emissions.

She said the company committed to reduce supplier emissions by 19% by 2030, and that supplier emissions made up 98% of Countdown and Woolworths New Zealand’s carbon footprint in the 2022 financial year.

Groundswell NZ co-founder Bryce McKenzie said the group was sceptical of Countdown’s claim that most of their emissions were the fault of local suppliers.

It wants its supporters to boycott the supermarket chain, which has 194 stores New Zealand-wide, from Monday, July 24 to Sunday, August 7.

“This is a massive chain operation that utilises refrigerants, has massive distribution networks requiring a great deal of fuel, and substantial energy costs to run nearly 200 stores. They also import huge amounts of products from overseas, relying on air and sea travel. They cannot expect us to believe that they are practically carbon-neutral except for emissions that farmers are responsible for,’’ he said.

“We call BS on Countdown’s buck passing and suggest they substantiate their claims. Following that, they might like to reflect on why they had to push out their own zero-waste-to-landfill target from 2020 to 2025 while spending $400million on a rebrand.’’

He said the farming community was ‘’sick to death’’ of being the scapegoats of governments and big corporations who don’t want to take responsibility for their own environmental impacts.

A Countdown spokesperson responded that the company was “proud” of its relationships with farmers and growers.

“Our approach to reducing Scope 3 emissions is a collaborative one.

“Our commitment is to reduce our Scope 3 emissions by 19 per cent by 2030, and we want to do this by helping our suppliers make positive changes, which we know many of them are already taking steps towards.”

Countdown’s emissions were made up of Scope 1 and 2 emissions, these being direct and indirect emissions generated by business operations and purchased energy, and Scope 3 emissions reflecting the large supply chain.

“These emissions figures are published in our annual sustainability reporting and are third party assured,” the spokesperson said.

“We are highly focused on our scope 1 and 2 emissions – for example with our long-running refrigeration decarbonisation programme.”

The spokesperson said the company was on track to achieving its targets by 2030.

“In FY22 we achieved a 46% reduction in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions against our FY15 baseline.”