By Sarah George

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The statistics are among the findings of the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) latest survey of its 200+ members on environmental sustainability.

Of the retailers surveyed, 52% are yet to make any public commitments to protect or restore nature in their operations or supply chains.

Commitment-making has proven particularly slow to catch on in the electronics, media and entertainment and electronics retail categories. In comparison, textiles and food and drink retailers are more advanced.

Two-thirds of the retailers assessed lack a data-led strategy for measuring, managing, disclosing and reducing nature-related impacts and risk.

Many BRC members said they have struggled to do so due to barriers such as budget constraints, data gathering and supplier engagement. Only one-quarter of the retailers polled have begun directly engaging with their suppliers on nature.

The Consortium is warning that this lack of progress is leaving many in the sector exposed to the risk of regulatory non-compliance.

The EU is notably set to ban the sale of imported forest-risk commodities that are linked to deforestation that took place after the start of 2020.

The bloc is also stepping up requirements for large businesses to conduct supply chain due diligence and measure their environmental risks and opportunities, through the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

In the UK, specifically, new commercial developments are subject to the Biodiversity Net Gain requirement. They must deliver at least 10% uplift in biodiversity on pre-development levels, ideally on-site.

Both the UK and the EU are signatories to the global biodiversity framework. Ratified in 2022, the framework sets out a shared goal of halting nature’s decline by 2030 and bringing about large-scale restoration thereafter.

A growing focus

Promisingly, the BRC did find that retailers are planning to step up their ambition and action on nature in the coming 12 months. One-quarter of those polled said nature is a top business priority for the year ahead. Three in ten said their business is developing public nature commitments as part of a broader nature strategy.

The BRC itself is developing a new ‘Nature Positive Plan’ to enable the sector to share best practice and common goals. The organisation has been providing specific resources on biodiversity to members for almost two years.

“Despite the huge costs and pressures in supply chains, it is imperative that we maintain progress to protect and restore our environment,” said the BRC’s director of food and sustainability, Andrew Opie.