The Challenge
As major UK supermarkets increasingly demand product-level emissions data from their suppliers, food businesses face a clear imperative: measure, or be left behind. Tazaki Foods, a leading Japanese food supplier to UK retailers, found themselves in this position — needing to provide carbon footprint data across their extensive product range but lacking the baselines to do so.
Without product-level carbon footprints, Tazaki had no way to identify which products carried the heaviest environmental burden, which ingredients drove the most emissions, or where reformulation could deliver meaningful reductions.
Selecting the Right Platform
Tazaki Foods selected Sustained's platform to footprint their product portfolio at scale. The goal was not just to generate numbers for retailer reporting, but to build genuine understanding of where emissions originate across their supply chain.
Key Results
The results were significant:
- Over 1,000 SKUs footprinted across their product range
- Hotspot identification revealed which ingredients and processes contributed most to each product's environmental impact
- Reformulation opportunities were uncovered that could reduce impact without compromising product quality
The Supplier Opportunity
What set Tazaki's approach apart was their decision to share impact breakdowns directly with their suppliers. Rather than simply reporting aggregated numbers upstream to retailers, Tazaki used the granular data to engage their supply chain in meaningful conversations about emissions reduction.
"Visualising emissions by raw material and process gives suppliers the insights they need to understand where emissions originate and what actions matter." — Maasa Kanai, Tazaki Foods
By making emissions data transparent and actionable at the supplier level, Tazaki transformed what could have been a purely compliance-driven exercise into a collaborative effort to reduce impact across the value chain.
Looking Ahead
Tazaki's experience demonstrates that product-level LCA at scale is not just feasible — it is a powerful tool for supplier engagement. When suppliers can see exactly how their ingredients and processes contribute to a product's footprint, the conversation shifts from abstract sustainability targets to concrete, measurable actions.