The retail sector’s net zero challenge
With retail products accounting for nearly a third of all household greenhouse gas emissions, the industry is one of the highest contributors to emissions in the UK. Because the sector’s emissions sit largely in complex global supply chains, the challenge is to identify collective emissions hotspots and then overcome barriers to reduction.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) represents the diverse and influential UK retail sector. The industry is under increasing pressure to demonstrate credible, science-aligned progress on climate action. The BRC uses its unique position with retailers to facilitate collaboration and engage with industry and government to unlock barriers for carbon reduction.
Climate Action Roadmap
In 2020, the BRC published its Climate Action Roadmap. This is the retail industry’s ambition to support its members in delivering net zero across its supply chains, direct operations, and products sold to consumers by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the UK Government’s 2050 net zero target. 3Keel developed the initial strategy and advised on its refreshed recommendations in 2024.
The roadmap provides the retail industry with guidance on the steps it can take to reach net zero by setting targets and directing action for decarbonisation across five key pathways: GHG data, energy, logistics, sourcing, and supporting lower-carbon lifestyles.
We are recognised experts in food systems and FMCG, from footprinting and target-setting to sourcing, insetting, supplier engagement and Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV). We have advised many of the most prominent retailers in the UK, as well as supporting industry-level initiatives to reduce emissions from the sector. This experience, together with our experience with large and complex emissions datasets, made us well placed to combine technical expertise with sector-specific knowledge to deliver this novel and ambitious piece of analysis.
Measuring sector-wide progress on emissions
The roadmap was endorsed by members, who committed to engaging with it to drive change within their own businesses and supply chains.
However, monitoring progress towards a sector net zero goal can be difficult without adding a significant reporting load to members. Given that the focus of the roadmap is on enabling action, rather than increasing reporting, the BRC approached us to explore different options for developing insights on progress for its members without imposing an additional reporting burden.
3Keel and the BRC in partnership
The aim of this project was to identify a clear and insightful way to track progress against the net zero ambition. The BRC team wanted a tool that they could update themselves, so that they could annually report on ongoing emissions trends. After consulting with the client, we identified that the optimum solution was a sector emissions dashboard driven by emissions data from the Climate Disclosure Project (CDP) and other publicly available data, using economic estimates and researched assumptions to fill in gaps where there was little or no data.
As the project developed, the BRC became particularly interested in being able to gain further insights from the analysis, such as where emissions hotspots lie across sector activities and sub-sectors.
We worked closely with the BRC’s Head of Climate Action, Tracey Banks, and Senior Analyst, Ian Bendelow. Weekly calls with Tracey helped us understand how she would use the tool we were developing, and with Ian we developed the methodology to calculate the emissions estimates.
“Our partnership with 3Keel has given the BRC a clear and practical way to track and communicate sector-wide emissions trends, enabling meaningful progress towards our 2040 net zero ambition without placing additional reporting demands on retailers.”
“3Keel’s deep technical expertise, combined with a strong understanding of the retail sector, was critical to designing a sector-level approach that is both methodologically robust and credible.”
Tracey Banks, Head of Climate Action, BRC
A retail emissions dashboard
To maximise CDP coverage, we assessed BRC data sources and identified suitable public datasets, including national inventories and statistical data. Once validated, we developed a decision tree to determine the datasets that would be combined to estimate gaps. The approach was thoroughly documented for review and future use. Producing clear and detailed documentation was essential both for internal and external validation, and to secure formal approval.
Once the methodological foundations were in place, we built the required data transformations and calculations within Power BI, the data visualisation platform.
We then developed dashboard visualisations, starting with a design-focused workshop with the BRC team and progressing through iterations. The result was a final product that was usable, insightful and practical, requiring no coding to update.
The Retail Sector Emissions Dashboard estimates the total emissions from the sector and breaks down these emissions by the key decarbonisation pathways identified in the Climate Action Roadmap. The dashboard offers a clear and visually concise analysis of emissions from key subsectors and how these are trending over time.
Retailers’ response
Tracey presented the results at the BRC Climate Action week in October 2025. She received an enthusiastic and engaged reception from retail sector representatives.
Next steps
The BRC will now continue to update the insights each year, using the results to inform collaboration with members on climate strategy. The BRC insights team can develop further visuals and analysis from the existing datasets, allowing them to deep dive into emissions trends and hotspots.
