As we look ahead in 2026, the major sustainability issues haven’t changed but the urgency has.
The world is progressing deeper into what the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls the “decisive decade”: the critical window in which global action will meaningfully determine the planet’s long-term health.
Looking back at the lessons of 2025, it’s clear that the year ahead will demand greater ambition, deeper collaboration, and faster innovation from businesses everywhere.
Climate change and biodiversity protection in focus
Climate adaptation and nature-positive strategies will continue to take centre stage. With extreme weather events increasing in frequency and severity and biodiversity loss accelerating, organisations need to invest more heavily in resilient infrastructure, climate-smart supply chains, early-warning technologies, and holistic approaches to protecting ecosystems.
The Farming for the Future programme is one of Woolworths’ leading initiatives to build climate resilience and restore biodiversity.
By using science-based and regenerative farming techniques to improve soil health and strengthen ecosystems, the programme enables the retailer’s suppliers to consistently recover more quickly from erratic or extreme weather events, sustain production, and maintain quality while reducing the environmental footprint of food production.
Minimising carbon emissions
Reducing carbon emissions remains essential for long-term climate stability, and Woolworths continues to scale solutions that deliver measurable results.
A key part of this work is its partnership with DSV and Everlectric, who operate the fleet of electric vans delivering customers’ online food orders. These vans have been on the road for the past three years and have saved 840 tonnes of carbon emissions over a combined distance of 4.2-million kilometres.
Woolworths has also partnered with DP World to introduce refrigeration trailers powered by AxlePower technology. This system captures kinetic energy generated as the trailer moves and converts it into electricity, allowing the refrigeration unit to run independently of the truck’s diesel engine.
The result is a fully electric, emission-free cooling process, improved energy efficiency, and more reliable cold-chain logistics.
To maximise impact, these trailers currently service the retailer’s long-haul routes and in the past year alone, they have helped avoid 102 tonnes* of carbon emissions.
Supporting local and inclusive growth
Sustainability requires social impact as much as environmental progress. Supporting small, black-owned and black women-owned businesses will remain a core priority as Woolies works to build a more inclusive economy.
In the last financial year, Woolworths contributed R6.7bn* to the revenues of small black- and black women-owned suppliers within its supply base.
A milestone from this past year was shifting the production of most of the products in Woolies’ Earth Friendly cleaning range to a local, black youth-owned business, empowering the South African economy.
Another local initiative evident in the retailer’s stores is its collaboration with the local wood supply chain. It is a true forest-to-store initiative in that Woolworths is sourcing Australian blackwood, an invasive species being sustainably cleared from indigenous forests in the Western Cape, and transforming it into bespoke shop fittings across its Food and WCellar stores.
The initiative not only contributes to ecosystem restoration but also supports meaningful employment and local craftsmanship.
Making circularity mainstream
Circular design and waste reduction will continue to shape the next wave of sustainability innovation at Woolworths. This includes designing products and packaging for their next life, using recycled materials, investing in take-back schemes, enabling repair opportunities, and partnering with social enterprises that specialise in reuse and skills development.
Circularity is not just an environmental imperative; it is an economic opportunity that can create jobs, spark innovation, and empower micro-enterprises.
Transparency and responsible sourcing
Ethical and responsible sourcing is fast becoming non-negotiable. Woolworths cares deeply how its products are made and remains committed to ensuring that every product has one or more sustainability attributes.
Each product should have at least one or more characteristic that minimises its potentially negative impact on the environment or society, whether it’s free-range production, responsibly sourced cocoa, coffee, palm oil or cotton, recycled content, or reusable or recyclable packaging.
Currently, all of Woolies’ food products have at least one of these attributes, and over 89%* have two sustainability attributes.
Looking ahead
As Woolworths’ Good Business Journey enters its 19th year, the retailer remains committed to its ambitious, future-fit sustainability goals. But it also recognises that no organisation can achieve the scale of change required on its own. Collaboration across industries, sectors, and borders is essential.
Woolies believes the key to successful sustainability initiatives is to ensure they are not a standalone programme. Rather, as is true for its Good Business Journey, sustainability should be deeply ingrained in a business and used as the lens through which resilient, responsible organisations must operate.
With courage, innovation, and meaningful partnership, we can move closer to a regenerative future in which our people and our planet thrive together.
This article was sponsored by Woolworths.
