Food & beverage sector falling behind in sustainability

A new report card has ranked Australian food & beverage companies for how clean their vehicle fleets are, as new research shows the business case for electric vehicle fleets is rapidly strengthening.

In the 2023 Electrify Fleets Rankings from Greenpeace Australia Pacific, the food and beverage sector fell behind some of the other industry sectors in electrifying its fleets, with an average ranking of only 3/10.

Unilever was the highest ranked company in the food and beverage sector, given a 4.77/10 for its commitment to electric or hybrid cars, utes and vans through EV100. It has also globally committed to transition all medium and heavy-duty vehicles to zero emissions by 2040.

Coming in last in the ranking report for the sector was Mars Australia, with a score of 1.5/10 for its lack to commitment to 100% electric passenger cars, utes and vans.

With other sector rankings in the report:

• IKEA topped the list, scoring 9.5 out of 10, while the podium consisted of Bank Australia with a score of 7.5 and Westpac with a score of 6.5.
• Bank Australia received an honourable mention for not only its commitments to fleet electrification but also ruling out lending for fossil fuel vehicles.
• Major supermarkets have a lot of catching up to do, with Woolworths scoring 3 out of 10 and Coles scoring 2.5 out of 10.
• Rental car company Avis took out the wooden spoon, with a score of 0.0, with Aldi, Officeworks, JB Hi-Fi, Myer and David Jones rounding out the bottom of the pack.
• The national average score of companies ranked was only 3 out of 10, showing Australian companies really need to hit the accelerator on cleaning up transport emissions.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific Senior Campaigner Violette Snow said, “Transport is the third largest and fastest-growing source of climate pollution. The companies which operate corporate fleets in Australia can play an outsized role in tackling this present and growing threat to the climate, while benefiting their own bottom line.”

According to Snow, switching to electric vehicles could reduce annual climate pollution from cars by up to 10% and pollution from light commercial vehicles by up to 30%.

Alongside the rankings, Greenpeace Australia Pacific released a report, ‘Charging Corporate Action: The Case for Renewable-Powered Electric Vehicle Fleets’, which found that electric vehicles will be the cheaper option for corporate fleet by 2025.

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