Your category manager at Woolworths raises sustainability: the group wants its suppliers working towards science-based emissions targets, and asks where you are. Two questions follow: what is Woolworths actually asking, and what do you need to do about it?
About this guide
CO2 Lab is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with Woolworths Group. This guide explains their publicly stated supplier engagement and targets, as at October 2026, to help suppliers respond, and is based on the sources linked below. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
What Woolworths is asking
About 96% of Woolworths Group's footprint is Scope 3, roughly 23 times its Scope 1 and 2 combined. Its emissions targets are validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, and they cannot be met from its own operations alone. So Woolworths set a target for suppliers representing 25% of its purchasing spend to adopt their own science-based targets, and runs a supplier-engagement programme that works directly with priority categories.
Because it is measured by spend, Woolworths works through its larger suppliers first. If you are material to a category, the request is coming.
The target at a glance
| Woolworths' supplier target | Detail |
|---|---|
| Supplier target | Suppliers representing 25% of purchasing spend to adopt their own science-based targets |
| Scope 3 share | About 96% of the group footprint is Scope 3 |
| Validation | Group targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative |
| How it works | Measured by spend, so larger suppliers and priority categories are engaged first |
| What you provide | A credible Scope 1 and 2 footprint from your own records |
A target starts with a footprint
A science-based target is a commitment to reduce emissions on a defined path. You cannot set one without first knowing your footprint, so the practical first step is always the same: measure Scope 1 and 2 from your own records, honestly, with the method shown. For a food or produce supplier that includes the biological and energy lines; for a farm or primary producer it starts with fuel, fertiliser and herd. This is the same first footprint behind any customer's data request.
“A target without a credible baseline is a guess with a deadline. The baseline is the work, and it is also what you would need for your own reporting anyway.”
Why the footprint comes firstHow to respond
A first response to Woolworths
- Build a Scope 1 and 2 footprint from your energy, fuel and activity records
- Apply the current NGA Factors, and show the method behind each figure
- Flag what is measured and what is estimated
- Use the baseline to set a reduction target aligned to the SBTi method
- Keep the source documents together, so the target is defensible
Turn the Woolworths request into a defensible baseline. What our AI Sustainability Analyst gives you:
Give Woolworths a baseline that stands up
Our AI Sustainability Analyst builds a Scope 1 and 2 footprint from your own records, with the method and evidence behind every figure, ready to set a target from.
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