Kesko conducted its first assessment of the biodiversity footprint of its private label products in grocery trade. The assessment comprised Kesko’s own brands, including Pirkka, Pirkka Parhaat, K-Menu, Menu, mywear and myhome.
“The assessment helps us identify where the most significant potential species loss impacts occur across product categories, countries and our supply chain, and how these impacts can be reduced effectively. In practice, this means, for example, improving the accuracy of product origin data and developing sourcing practices together with suppliers,” says Noomi Jägerhorn, Kesko’s Vice President, Sustainability.
Aspects related to biodiversity are crucial not only from an environmental standpoint but also from a business perspective, as many ingredients in food production depend on healthy ecosystems.
The assessment included an in-depth analysis of seven product categories that account for approximately 65% of the biodiversity footprint of our private label products: meat, dairy products, bananas, tuna, coffee, beans, and cotton. Food products account for the vast majority of impacts, while the contribution of non-food products is small.
Among individual products, bananas stood out, accounting for as much as 13% of the biodiversity footprint of private label products. This is largely explained by the concentration of production in Central America, where some cultivation areas may be located close to areas that are particularly sensitive from a biodiversity perspective. Central America has highly sensitive ecosystems, and land use there has the potential to cause significantly greater biodiversity loss than, for example, in Northern Europe.
“Major banana importers source bananas largely from the same region, yet biodiversity impacts can vary considerably at local level. The assessment provides us with valuable information on where to focus our biodiversity efforts in order to reduce impacts as effectively as possible,” says Jägerhorn.
Although Finland accounts for more than half of the sourcing volumes analysed, it only accounts for 2% of the potential species loss impacts. Colombia, by contrast, accounted for as much as one-fourth of the impacts, even though its share of sourcing volumes was only around 6%. Significant impacts also arose, for example, from fruit and vegetables sourced from Spain, meat and cheese from Italy, and coffee and fruit from Brazil and Peru.
“In Finland, land and water use account for only a fraction of the risk of species loss associated with Southern Europe or Central America, although naturally, Finnish production also has local biodiversity impacts,” says Henrik Suikkanen, Founder of Nios, which conducted the assessment for Kesko.
As expected, a significant share of the biodiversity footprint is attributable to meat and dairy products. Meat accounts for as much as one-fourth of the potential species loss impacts, even though it represents only 3% of sourcing volumes. Dairy products account for approximately one-fifth of the impacts.
“The potential species loss impacts associated with meat production arise particularly from greenhouse gas emissions and land use related to feed production outside Finland. The most important measures for reducing these impacts are lowering production-related climate emissions, favouring products of Finnish origin, and obtaining more detailed information on the origin of feed,” says Jägerhorn.
Background: Kesko’s biodiversity footprint assessment in brief
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