CEO Note: A world first on methane

By Glenn Hurowitz, Founder & CEO

I wanted to share an important breakthrough in our work addressing global methane pollution.

Albert Heijn, the largest retailer in The Netherlands and the flagship Dutch brand of Ahold Delhaize, has become the first major supermarket to publicly disclose its methane emissions. Specifically, the company reports that methane – now disclosed as part of its Scope 3 emissions in an updated 2024 sustainability report – accounted for about 14% of its total climate pollution last year. That may not sound like a lot, but methane is a superheater pollutant that is 80 times more potent than CO₂ over 20 years. Scientists agree that cutting methane is the most effective way to slow global warming.

The news is already making headlines in industry publications, including Just Food and The Grocer, with more to come.

This is a significant step. Ahold Delhaize is one of the world’s largest supermarket companies, with more than 7,600 stores across 10 countries and 2024 revenue of nearly $100 billion.

We need more transparency on methane emissions so we can begin to address them. Earlier this year, Mighty Earth and Changing Markets Foundation released research showing that none of the world’s 20 largest supermarket chains were reporting their methane emissions, despite the heavy role of livestock in their supply chains. Mighty Earth also published an in-depth follow-up on Ahold Delhaize, which our colleague Jurjen de Waal presented to Ahold Delhaize’s CEO at their shareholder meeting, and we worked with Dutch think tank QuestionMark on a “Green Superlist” that ranks retailers on environmental impact.

This news also offers some hope at a time of growing concern about methane monitoring. The MethaneSAT satellite, launched earlier this year to track methane emissions from space, has suddenly gone dark, leaving a critical gap in global efforts to monitor this super pollutant. Before falling silent, the satellite identified high levels of methane emissions from agriculture – particularly in the US Midwest – highlighting the urgent need for transparency from major emitters like supermarkets and agribusiness.

While transparency is only the first step, it’s a big one. For years, retailers have claimed that calculating their methane emissions was too complex. Albert Heijn has just shown that this excuse doesn’t hold up. We’re calling on Ahold Delhaize to extend its disclosure to all its brands, including the US supermarket chains it owns: Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Giant, and Hannaford.

Ultimately, retailers need to go beyond disclosure and take concrete action to reduce methane emissions: boosting sales of plant-based alternatives, investing in alt proteins, setting overall methane and climate targets, and requiring the meat and dairy companies that supply them to do the same.

We look forward to using this step to help drive that action with your support.

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