Lidl Switzerland positions itself as a sustainable retailer that pursues the vision of easy sustainable shopping for everyone. By following this approach, Lidl Switzerland has already been making great strides in the area of sustainability since 2014. With the help of Swiss Climate, it achieved the status of Switzerland’s first climate-neutral retailer.

In line with Lidl Switzerland’s vision, the retailer introduced holistic CO₂ management in 2013 and has been continuously evolving ever since. This includes formulating a strategy, calculating a carbon footprint and carrying out carbon reduction measures. To go one step further and offset its operational greenhouse gas emissions with high-quality climate protection projects, Lidl Switzerland commissioned Swiss Climate to develop a suitable offsetting strategy in collaboration with South Pole. Lidl Switzerland now supports valuable climate protection projects each year. Thanks to these steps, Lidl has been awarded the label ‘CO₂ NEUTRAL by Swiss Climate’.

Offsetting strategy

Each year, Lidl Switzerland selects a mix of different project types and project regions that are aligned with its own business activities. Based on the percentage of emissions in different areas (e.g. transportation, energy, paper), projects are selected that are well-suited for offsetting the remaining emissions. In partnership with the South Pole Group, Swiss Climate composes an attractive mix of high-quality projects in Switzerland and abroad for this purpose. As well as contributing towards climate change mitigation, the carbon offsetting also supports sustainable development and the achievement of different United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

‘Through working with Swiss Climate, we have gained a detailed picture of our greenhouse gas emissions and have been able to vastly reduce our operational carbon footprint over the years. Swiss Climate has helped us to develop innovative projects and it ensures that our carbon footprint requirements are fulfilled efficiently each year. We particularly appreciate that the company is big enough to cope easily with high workloads and yet small enough to guarantee a very personal service.’

Julia Baumann, Department Manager Sustainability, Lidl Switzerland

Swiss Climate provided the following services on this project:

• CO₂ management
• Carbon offsetting