Ahold Delhaize is shifting to Product Carbon Footprinting for purchased goods as it looks to build a more precise understanding of emissions across its value chain. The move is significant because around 95% of the company’s reported greenhouse gas footprint sits in Scope 3, and 80% of that is tied to the products it sells. For a retailer managing hundreds of thousands of products sourced from thousands of suppliers and farmers, product-level emissions visibility is becoming increasingly important not only for decarbonisation, but also for risk management and long-term business resilience.

Until now, the company has largely relied on industry-average data to estimate the emissions associated with the products in its assortment. While that approach provided a starting point, it offered only a broad approximation of impact. It could not show where emissions are most concentrated, where suppliers are making measurable progress, or where sourcing risks and commercial opportunities may be emerging.

 

Product Carbon Footprinting Brings Greater Precision

 

The transition to Product Carbon Footprinting changes the level of detail the company can work with. Instead of assigning emissions based on broad categories or spend-based estimates, PCF assesses each product more individually and tracks emissions across its lifecycle as far as possible. That includes ingredients, production methods, processing, packaging, and transport.

This matters because product-level insight allows emissions analysis to reflect actual supplier practices more accurately. It creates a stronger basis for identifying where impact is generated and where reductions can be achieved. Although PCF still depends on assumptions and evolving data quality, it gives the business a more decision-useful framework than averages alone.

 

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The Shift Is About Business Resilience as Much as Emissions

 

Ahold Delhaize is presenting this transition not simply as a climate reporting improvement, but as a broader business capability. Better product-level emissions data can help the company identify where supply chains may be more exposed to climate pressures, cost volatility, and long-term availability risks. It can also improve how the business prioritises sourcing decisions, supplier engagement, and assortment strategy.

That makes the PCF move more commercially relevant than a standard accounting update. It enables the company to connect environmental impact with resilience, food security, supply continuity, and innovation. In effect, Ahold Delhaize is moving from managing emissions mainly at a portfolio level to managing risk and opportunity more directly within the products and supply chains that drive its footprint.

 

Supplier Engagement Becomes More Important

 

The company’s approach also depends heavily on supplier participation. Ahold Delhaize said it is partnering with HowGood to build product-level insights across its assortments and will work directly with suppliers through the platform and through one-to-one engagement to gather better data and reflect the actions suppliers are taking to reduce their footprints.

This is an important part of the strategy because product carbon data cannot become more accurate without stronger collaboration across the value chain. For large retailers, supplier engagement increasingly determines whether Scope 3 data remains generic or becomes operationally useful. The shift to PCF therefore suggests a more active model of value chain data collection and supplier alignment.

 

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Baseline Recalculation Reflects Better Data, Not Lower Ambition

 

As part of the transition, Ahold Delhaize will recalculate its 2020 Scope 3 purchased goods baseline to maintain comparability over time. The company has made clear that any change in the baseline will reflect improved data quality rather than a change in targets or underlying performance.

That is a notable point because recalculating emissions baselines can sometimes raise questions about whether companies are changing their targets indirectly. In this case, the company is framing the reset as a technical adjustment driven by more accurate measurement. This reflects a wider reality in corporate climate reporting: as data quality improves, older baselines often need revision to ensure performance trends remain meaningful.

 

A Sign of Where Retail Climate Strategy Is Heading

 

The broader significance of this move is that product carbon accounting is becoming more central to how large retailers manage their businesses. Ahold Delhaize is treating product-level emissions data as something that supports commercial decisions, supplier resilience, and value chain strategy, not just ESG disclosures.

That signals a wider shift in corporate climate practice. As food and retail supply chains become more exposed to climate disruption, cost pressure, and regulatory scrutiny, better product-level emissions data is increasingly becoming a practical business tool. For Ahold Delhaize, the transition to PCF is less about producing another sustainability metric and more about building a more resilient operating model for a resource-constrained and volatile future.