Reducing Emissions: In Our Own Operations
Energy Efficiency
Reducing energy consumption where feasible is one of our first considerations for reducing emissions. Operations
teams in each of our geographies are actively working to manage our energy consumption and costs, analyze and
improve our operational performance, and test potential technologies in the facilities we operate to help us drive
progress against our operational goals. Where feasible, we are taking the following steps:
- Implementing light-emitting diode (LED) technologies in stores and distribution centers globally
- Installing high-efficiency HVAC systems in existing stores and distribution centers in certain geographies
- Utilizing energy-efficient building designs and controls in new buildings
- Exploring and leveraging utility-level energy efficiency incentives and programs
In Fiscal 2023, we conducted triple the number of store LED lighting retrofits compared with Fiscal 2022, and it is
our intention to upgrade all applicable stores globally to LED lighting. We are also exploring, and in some
instances piloting, new technologies to optimize access to and use of our energy data as well as evaluating
high-volume, low-speed (HVLS) fans and demand-control ventilation for HVAC, which may be applicable across certain
facility types.
Renewable and Low-Carbon Energy
We source low-carbon and renewable energy to help further reduce the GHG emissions associated with our electricity
consumption. To work toward the achievement of our 100% renewable energy goal, we have developed a variety of
renewable energy sourcing strategies across our global operations. Some examples of our current sourcing strategies
include:
- Wholesale off-site power purchase agreements
- On-site solar power purchase agreements
- Electricity supply contracts and utility green tariffs
- Renewable energy credits
We have deployed on-site solar at some of our U.S. distribution centers, including in Arizona, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and Nevada, as well as at our processing center in Germany. Because we lease, rather than own,
nearly all our store locations, we have less flexibility in installing solar on store rooftops. That said, we are
pleased to have installed solar at select stores in both the U.S. and the U.K. We continue to engage in
conversations with certain landlords to explore the feasibility of installing rooftop solar panels at additional
locations.
In Europe, for stores where TJX can manage our own electricity use, we covered 100% of our electricity use with
renewable sources in Fiscal 2023.
Offsetting
In certain geographies, we have leveraged carbon offsets3 to offset emissions resulting from our own operations and
certain reported Scope 3 emissions. For example, TJX Canada has now been carbon neutral for its Scope 1 and 2 and
reported Scope 3 (business travel and operational waste) emissions for five consecutive years. The team reduced
energy usage and purchased renewable energy credits as well as carbon offsets to support this strategy. In Fiscal
2023, from a combination of projects including peatland restoration in Indonesia and a low-impact hydroelectric
project in Turkey, TJX Canada offset a total of 20,200 metric tons of CO2e.
As part of our longer-term approach for achieving our 2040 global net zero emissions goal, we are exploring ways to
source carbon offsets only in the event that there are remaining emissions that need to be neutralized following
our efforts to reduce emissions through energy efficiency and switching to renewable and low-carbon sources of
energy through 2040. In this case, we would intend to source carbon offsets from neutralization projects that we
determine to be consistent with publicly available guidance on the attainment of net-zero GHG emissions targets.
Transportation and Fuel
To help reduce our Scope 1 emissions (which include emissions from the use of natural gas and diesel in our own
operations), we are monitoring the development and deployment of alternative fuel/electric vehicles.
Although TJX does not generally own or lease the vehicles that transport our merchandise, some vehicles do fall
within our operational footprint (Scope 1) in limited instances, including where we directly manage our logistics
and distribution for long-haul and outbound store deliveries, such as in the U.K. and Ireland, as well as some
fleet vehicles. Together with our partners, we work to simultaneously increase fuel efficiency, reduce costs, and
decrease the impact of our vehicles on the environment. Our key strategies for reducing these emissions include:
In the U.S. we:
- Utilize hybrid cars for a small portion of our fleet vehicles.
In the U.K. and Ireland, we:
- Have begun to switch to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in our shunt vehicles, which we plan to implement across our three U.K. processing centers.
- Continue to increase the use of both longer-semi trailers and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) tractor units. Using
longer trailers improves efficiency by increasing average payload.
- Support ongoing initiatives including the implementation of fleet analytics and tire pressure monitoring to
deliver incremental fuel efficiency as well as regularly reviewing our delivery schedules to reduce miles
traveled and empty miles.
We are also monitoring the development and deployment of technologies that could help us reduce Scope 1 emissions in
our owned and leased buildings, including new HVAC technologies such as heat pumps.
Building Green
Where feasible when we construct new buildings, we have worked to incorporate environmentally sustainable features.
For example, our newly constructed distribution centers and processing centers are built to include the addition of
on-site solar arrays wherever feasible. Furthermore, when we move into existing properties, as part of the
renovation process, our design teams typically consider ways to improve energy efficiency and water conservation
and to develop recycling infrastructure.
LEED- or BREEAM-Certified Buildings
- Phoenix, Arizona, US
- Jefferson, Georgia, U.S.
- Marlborough, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
- New Albany, Ohio, U.S.
- Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- Balham, U.K.
- Didcot, U.K.
- Hackney, U.K.
- Hereford, U.K.
- Wakefield, U.K.
- Watford, U.K
- Sulechów, Poland
On-Site Solar Installations*:
- Phoenix, AZ, , U.S.
- Tucson, AZ, U.S.
- Clovis, CA, U.S.
- Dublin, CA, U.S.
- El Segondo, CA, U.S.
- Paso Robles, CA, U.S.
- Petaluma, CA, U.S.
- San Diego, CA, U.S. (x2)
- Torrance, CA, U.S.
- San Dimas, CA, U.S.
- Palmdale, CA, U.S.
- Oxnard, CA, U.S.
- Vallejo, CA, U.S.
- Rowland Heights, CA, U.S.
- Bloomfield, CT, U.S.
- Bristol, CT, U.S.
- Norwell, MA, U.S.
- Worcester, MA, U.S.
- Brick, NJ, U.S.
- Bridgewater, NJ, U.S.
- Edgewater, NJ, U.S.
- Holmdel, NJ, U.S.
- North Brunswick, NJ
- Secaucus, NJ, U.S. (x2)
- N Las Vegas, NV, U.S.
- Westbury, NY, U.S. (x2)
- Barnsley, U.K.
- Altringcham, U.K.
- Bergheim, Germany
Off-Site Renewable or Carbon-Free Product:
- Phoenix, Arizona, US
- Jefferson, Georgia, U.S.
- Marlborough, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
- New Albany, Ohio, U.S.
- Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- Balham, U.K.
- Didcot, U.K.
- Hackney, U.K.
- Hereford, U.K.
- Wakefield, U.K.
- Watford, U.K
- Sulechów, Poland
Reducing Emissions: In Our Value Chain
Estimating Scope 3 Emissions
Addressing Scope 3 emissions is a priority for TJX, and in recent years, we have begun to evaluate how our commitment to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions might be extended to certain Scope 3 emissions sources as well. Our environmental sustainability team has been thoughtful in constructing and executing on a multi-year feasibility assessment, and we have made strides in addressing Scope 3 emissions.
As an off-price retailer, assessing and calculating Scope 3 emissions is challenging for TJX. Our opportunistic and flexible buying strategy is to acquire a rapidly changing assortment of merchandise in a variety of ways on an ongoing basis and close to need from an expansive universe of merchandise vendors. This means that the volume we buy from any single vendor can vary greatly from time to time. Unlike more traditional retailers, we do not own, operate, or control the facilities that manufacture products sold in our stores. In addition, we do not replenish specific branded products purchased from a small or generally very consistent vendor base on a regular basis and our product mix changes frequently based on a variety of factors.
Despite the complexities of Scope 3, we are taking action in this area. As part of our feasibility assessment, we evaluated all 15 categories of Scope 3 GHG emissions, both upstream and downstream, and developed order of magnitude estimates of relevant categories using a variety of methodologies, including economic input-output lifecycle assessment (EIO-LCA). This provided us with a better understanding of emissions hotspots in our value chain and identified that our largest category of Scope 3 emissions is purchased goods and services (category 1). Other relevant categories of Scope 3 emissions include upstream transportation and distribution (category 4) and use of sold products (category 11).
We also looked at what data were available across the organization that could support calculation of relevant Scope 3 categories. We have access to activity data related to business travel (category 6) and waste generated in our operations (category 5) and have reported on our Scope 3 GHG emissions for these two categories for several years. Following collaboration with our e-commerce fulfillment providers, we recently expanded our disclosure to include downstream transportation and distribution (category 9).
We are now taking preliminary steps to establish processes designed to more precisely estimate relevant Scope 3 categories. We expect that these processes will continue to rely on EIO-LCA and other methodologies that rely on economy/industry-wide emissions intensities in the estimation of some of our largest emissions categories. Given the limitations of these methodologies and the limitations in our access to supplier-specific data, developing precise Scope 3 emissions targets aligned to actionable emissions reduction pathways continues to be a challenge for our business, particularly for categories, such as purchased goods and services (category 1), that are made even more complicated by our opportunistic buying strategy and off-price business model.
Some of these steps we have begun to take include:
Monitoring and collaborating with others in the industry. TJX has monitored what other retailers are doing in this space. We also joined the Textile Exchange and have begun to have conversations with partners, such as certain of our transportation providers. We hope that these collaborations will provide new ideas about how we might approach certain Scope 3 data.
Mining our data. Given the challenges of our business model as it relates to Scope 3, we have begun to mine our own product data to determine what information we have that could support our work in this space. We have started this work by focusing where we have access to the most data, including products for which we have more control in bringing to market. While this is very early stage, an initial test with one product category provided us with insight that we believe may help us better estimate emissions across the entirety of that product category, regardless of how we source it.
Transportation and Fuel (Scope 3)
Our logistics teams worldwide seek out strategies and solutions that can help us increase the efficiency of our
logistics and transportation operations and reduce fuel used to transport our merchandise throughout our
distribution network. We strive to conserve fuel, reduce travel time, and decrease the number of trucks on the
road. We use a variety of tactics and technologies to support our efficiency and fuel conservation initiatives—for
example, using modeling software to improve the efficiency of our store delivery network, increasing utilization of
trailer space, and testing new alternative fuel vehicles.
In the U.S., where practicable, we utilize intermodal4 as well as centrally located service centers to reduce our
transportation-related emissions. Our service centers, which are smaller than distribution centers, are located
closer to store clusters and are designed to improve the efficiency of our store delivery process. We also utilize
these service centers to co-locate our Asset Recovery and Recycling Centers (ARRCs) and maximize our delivery
trucks’ utilization by backhauling re-usable and recyclable materials. Learn more about the environmental
benefits of our ARRCs on the Waste Management page.
Additionally:
- We engage directly with our logistics partners and indirectly through third parties (such as the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay Transport Partnership) to identify potential
opportunities that may result in reducing fuel consumption and increasing fuel efficiencies.
- TJX requires that all new U.S. carriers are SmartWay-certified and has collaborated with existing carriers to
encourage their participation in the program. In Calendar Year 2022, 99% of TJX's U.S. freight and logistics
ton-mileage was with SmartWay-certified carriers.
Where feasible, we use rail and intermodal for moving merchandise throughout our network, which is generally
more fuel efficient and produces fewer emissions than trucking alone. We estimate that in Fiscal 2023, rail
and intermodal shipping resulted in 280,000 fewer metric tons of CO2e emissions than shipping the same volume
by truck only.
Third-Party Verification and Assurance of Emissions Data
- In Fiscal 2023, 100% of our global Scope 1 and 98% of our global Scope 2, location-based emissions data are
third-party verified.
- Our Scope 1 (onsite fuels, refrigerants, and transport fuels) and Scope 2 (electricity and steam
calculated using location-based emissions factors) GHG inventory data for the U.S, Canada, and Europe has
been third-party verified for our Fiscal 2023 reporting period, using AICPA (AT105) standards.
- In Europe, our carbon footprint has been assessed by the Carbon Trust since 2006, and we achieved the Carbon
Trust Standard accreditation for the Fiscal 2022-Fiscal 2023 reporting period.
- Additionally, we also third-party verify about 62% of our global Scope 3 reported business travel emissions
data.