About the data
This metric is part of Eticonsum's research study on the evaluation of companies in the Retail Food sector on environmental, social and ethical issues.
Eticonsum is a non-profit market research agency specialising in ESG (environment, social, governance) corporate performance applied to consumer insights.
We research and analyse the ethical market in the FMCG sector and evaluate the environmental and social performance of companies in order to help both conscious consumers to decide according to their values and companies to compete on ethical reputation.
With this metric, based on GRI 204-1 Proportion of expenditure on local suppliers, we assess the local sourcing of products offered by retailers, especially fresh produce.
These products are likely to have the greatest environmental impact due to delocalisation because of their sales volume: in 2016, according to Femex data, in Spain we imported 1.6 million tonnes of fruit and 1.2 million tonnes of vegetables. Organisations such as Greenpeace warn of the CO2 emissions involved in this process (transport, cold storage...). Specifically, a review of studies carried out by Engineering Without Borders attributed between 15% and 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the agricultural industry to processing, packaging and transport.
Furthermore, the import of fruit and vegetables from countries outside the EU means that crops are often treated with pesticides that are not authorised for use in the EU, banned because of their risks to health and the environment.
A policy of proximity on the part of companies when choosing their suppliers of products, as well as supporting local development at market and community level, contributes significantly to the reduction of emissions by shortening the transport routes for goods. In the case of supermarkets, it is particularly relevant that certain products such as fruit and vegetables are brought from remote places such as South America, the Maghreb, South Africa, etc., with Spain being the main market garden in Europe.
The ideal situation in this sense is for supermarkets to prioritise purchases in Spain and only import produce from other markets if it is not available in the country (or any of its specific varieties which are in high demand by the consumer), or if its quality is not adequate due to circumstances related to the harvest.
Eticonsum is a non-profit market research agency specialising in ESG (environment, social, governance) corporate performance applied to consumer insights.
We research and analyse the ethical market in the FMCG sector and evaluate the environmental and social performance of companies in order to help both conscious consumers to decide according to their values and companies to compete on ethical reputation.
With this metric, based on GRI 204-1 Proportion of expenditure on local suppliers, we assess the local sourcing of products offered by retailers, especially fresh produce.
These products are likely to have the greatest environmental impact due to delocalisation because of their sales volume: in 2016, according to Femex data, in Spain we imported 1.6 million tonnes of fruit and 1.2 million tonnes of vegetables. Organisations such as Greenpeace warn of the CO2 emissions involved in this process (transport, cold storage...). Specifically, a review of studies carried out by Engineering Without Borders attributed between 15% and 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the agricultural industry to processing, packaging and transport.
Furthermore, the import of fruit and vegetables from countries outside the EU means that crops are often treated with pesticides that are not authorised for use in the EU, banned because of their risks to health and the environment.
A policy of proximity on the part of companies when choosing their suppliers of products, as well as supporting local development at market and community level, contributes significantly to the reduction of emissions by shortening the transport routes for goods. In the case of supermarkets, it is particularly relevant that certain products such as fruit and vegetables are brought from remote places such as South America, the Maghreb, South Africa, etc., with Spain being the main market garden in Europe.
The ideal situation in this sense is for supermarkets to prioritise purchases in Spain and only import produce from other markets if it is not available in the country (or any of its specific varieties which are in high demand by the consumer), or if its quality is not adequate due to circumstances related to the harvest.
Formula
Answers are calculated as a weighted average. To find a weighted average of a group of numbers that have been normalized to the same 0-10 scale, you simply multiply each number by its weight (percentage) and add them up.