To co-incide the upcoming opening of Aldi Dunshaughlin on Thursday, August 19, the Dunshaughlin store staff teamed up with Green Belt and local landowner Joseph Corry to plant 37,700 trees in Ashbourne, Co. Meath.
Aldi is the first retailer in Ireland to commit to planting one million native Irish woodland trees by 2025 in partnership with Green Belt.
The supermarket chain has said that the native trees will create a wildlife corridor for native species and enhance biodiversity, while also removing more than 160,000t of carbon emissions over their 100-year life span, if it reaches its target of planting one million trees overall across the country.
Located at Lagore Road, Aldi Dunshaughlin will be the brand’s seventh store in Meath.
Aldi Ireland
Aldi has 147 stores across the country, with stores in each county in the Republic of Ireland stocking over 1,800 products and works with over 330 Irish suppliers across Ireland.
The company said it has invested more than €3,000,000 in its ‘Grow with Aldi’ supplier development programme since 2018.
The programme provides an opportunity to Irish food and drink companies to gain a listing in Aldi’s 147 stores.
Earlier this year, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, and Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, Pippa Hackett, joined with Aldi Ireland to launch its campaign to plant one million trees across the country by 2025.
The supermarket has committed to the partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM) Woodland Environment Fund (WEF), which is an initiative under which Irish businesses can partner with landowners and the DAFM to help create new native woodlands in Ireland.
It provides additional incentives to plant new native woodlands and supports the government’s target to plant 22 million new trees a year until 2040.
Sustainability
Aldi Ireland and its UK stores claim to be carbon neutral since January 1, 2019.
Over the past year, Aldi said it has introduced a number of initiatives as part of its long-term commitments towards sustainability and the environment, including being the first retailer in Ireland to successfully trial traceability technology to increase sustainability credentials across wild-caught fresh fish.
Aldi has removed at least 616t of plastic from its 145 Irish stores, replaced over 870t of unrecyclable material with recyclable alternatives and removed more than 500t of packaging from its core ranges.