The UK retail industry has signed up to a range of ambitious targets for reducing its impact on the environment, including pledging to send less than one percent of waste to landfill by 2020.

Commitments announced at a recent launch event also include a collective pledge to reduce absolute carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2020, putting the industry well on course to meet the 80 percent overall target set by the UK Climate Change Bill, and supermarkets revealing food waste figures at the retail stage.

The new report sees BRC members committing to an ambitious and challenging environmental strategy – one designed to make a significant impact on the way goods are produced, sold and used in the home.

The report shows that the 25 signatories, which include Tesco, Argos, Sainsbury’s, Boots and Gregs, represent half of UK retail by turnover, exceeded all their targets for reducing waste, energy and water usage up to 2013.

For the first time supermarkets signed up to the initiative have also committed to publish their data on food waste created at the retail stage, along with annual progress reports. The signatories, which include all of the major grocery retailers, already provide data on waste in the supply chain to the resource efficiency body WRAP, and are working closely with customers to help reduce food waste in the home.