Lidl and WWF launch five year partnership

Committing to a five-year international strategic partnership, Lidl and WWF have announced that they will be working together to support Lidl’s value chain, helping to address the global ecological challenges in 31 countries.

The companies claim that through joining forces “more households have access to more sustainable choices and encouraging business models that work in harmony with nature and within planetary boundaries”.

What’s more, Lidl has shared that the common goal of the five-year collaboration is to enable customers to make even more sustainable choices.

“In our role as one of the largest food retailers, we are aware of our responsibility and our influence. We take responsibility with the aim of doing business within planetary boundaries. For Lidl, sustainable management is not only a question of attitude, but also the basis for the future viability of our business model,” explained Christoph Pohl, Chief Purchasing Officer at Lidl International.

“With the support and expertise of WWF, we will now take our commitment to sustainability to the next level. We can only overcome major global challenges such as climate change and nature loss by working together. That’s why we believe in strong partnerships to work together to provide more sustainable choices,” continued Pohl.

Meanwhile, Kirsten Schuijt, Director General WWF International noted that the way we produce and consume food and energy is “one of the leading drivers of nature loss and climate change”, and in her view, in order to “halt and reverse what is the biggest crisis facing humanity today, we need bold and urgent actions towards changing our food and energy systems, and the food and retail sector has a big role to play in driving this change”.

“As one of the largest retailers, Lidl has enormous international leverage to drive sustainable change in the food and retail industry. WWF is proud to accompany Lidl on this journey on which we will both support and challenge the retailer,” continued Schuijt.

Since 2023, Lidl GB has been working with WWF on its Retailers’ Commitment for Nature – an agreement to work with WWF to halve the environmental impact of UK shopping baskets by 2030. So far, the discount retailer and the organisation have worked together across other individual markets, for example in Switzerland and Austria, over the last few years.

However, the newly announced partnership is set to expand the scope of this work globally in order to accelerate sustainability at an international level.

Lidl aims to simplify sustainable shopping for its global customers and actively shape sustainable transformation through collaboration with WWF. This partnership will focus on the following key areas to support this goal:

• Conservation and promotion of biodiversity
• Responsible management of water resources
• Climate protection through science-based climate targets
• Building and expanding traceable, deforestation-free and conversion-free supply chains
• Responsible sourcing of critical raw materials such as palm oil, soy, cocoa, tea, coffee, wood, and paper products
• Responsible sourcing of fish and seafood and safeguarding of critical fishing grounds and stocks
• Engaging in advocacy for more conscious, sustainable diets and consumption
• Reduction of food waste

Beyond its efforts within its own value chain, Lidl will support various WWF conservation projects to help protect the environment in the regions it sources from.