Canadian Tire

Climate Change

Our Commitment

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact by decarbonizing our operations and empowering our customers to make informed decisions.

Climate change is caused by both natural processes and human influences. However, since the Industrial Revolution, the impact of human activity on our climate – through land use and activities that increase greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration in the atmosphere – has been the predominant driver of climate change. As a large Canadian retailer, we recognize the need to modify our operations and reduce our GHG emissions in consideration of climate change.

The effects of climate change produce various risks for our business and pose a significant threat to the planet. Regions we source from and operate in are affected by extreme weather events such as drought and flooding. Our facilities, retail store locations and supply chain operations are also at risk due to the rapid change in our earth’s climate system. Preventing the worst effects of climate change will take coordinated global action, and we are committed to being part of the solution to protect our planet for future generations.

We are making ongoing investments to reduce our operational emissions, as well as seeking new opportunities to collaborate with our value chain partners to enable significant reductions across our entire footprint. We are also a signatory to the Corporate Knights Action Declaration on Climate Policy Engagement. To learn more about this initiative and our actions, please click here. By understanding the business risks of climate change, we will be better positioned to adapt to the future, mitigate those risks and identify opportunities that will arise as new technologies and products emerge.

We Are Here to Make Life in Canada Better by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, championing innovative products that will support emissions reductions for our customers, and facilitating collaborative action with our vendors and other stakeholders.

Our Approach

Measuring our emissions helps us understand our impact on the environment and enables us to set emissions reduction targets for specific areas of our footprint. To understand how our business contributes to global climate change, we use industry models and Company-specific data to estimate our energy consumption and resulting GHG emissions in accordance with the GHG Protocol. This includes everything from the energy used to extract raw materials that make up the products we sell, to driving the last kilometres to complete deliveries to our customers’ homes.

We have been measuring and reporting the GHG emissions of our business with increasing scope since 2010. Our reporting accounts for the GHG emissions across our value chain under three scopes: Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3. An archive of past reports that speak to our historical emissions is available online. To learn more about our 2022 GHG reporting, including a full description of our organizational boundaries and methodology, please read our 2022 Climate Data Supplement.



What are "Scope 1", "Scope 2" and "Scope 3" emissions?

Canadian Tire Corporation's emissions efforts by 2030

Scope 1

Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from the combustion of on-site and mobile fuels that occur at, or are associated with, facilities and operations under the Company's operational control.

Scope 2

Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions that occur off-site from the production of energy, such as electricity, which is then purchased for use at facilities and operations under the Company's operational control.

Scope 3

Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions from CTC’s value chain that are not under our operational control (e.g., CT REIT properties with non-CTC tenants, combustion of sold petroleum products by customers, and the manufacture and transportation of our products by third parties).

2

Decarbonizing our operations

We recognize that climate change requires urgent action. To do our part to mitigate climate change, we have developed a decarbonization strategy that prioritizes our own operations first. The key elements of our strategy include the following:

Energy

Energy Efficiency

We will prioritize energy efficiency innovations in the design of future store prototypes, including the installation of LED lighting and a more efficient building envelope. Our next store prototype for our corporately built Canadian Tire stores will be designed as net zero ready1 to maximize energy efficiency.

Renewable

Renewable Energy

As we transition to a lower-carbon economy, we will do our part to support the development of clean, renewable energy sources in Canada. We will seek to supply renewable energy for our stores, offices and distribution centres through long-term energy purchase agreements as well as on-site solar.

Electrification

Electrification

We are working to phase out the use of fossil fuels and transition to electric alternatives in our stores and transportation fleet, such as electric air-source heat pumps in our stores as an alternative to natural gas and propane heating. By 2030, we plan to have heat pumps installed at over 30% of our Canadian Tire retail stores.

In 2022, we set a new target to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 40% by 2030 relative to our 2020 baseline, including those of our Dealer-operated Canadian Tire stores. To achieve this target, we have built a robust plan that includes investing in the electrification of our assets and expanding our use of renewable energy.

Our 2030 emissions reduction goal is the starting point of our decarbonization journey. The Scope 1, Scope 2 and Dealer store emissions included in our target represent a smaller fraction of our overall footprint than our Scope 3 emissions. While we have more direct control over decarbonizing our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, we must also address our Scope 3 emissions – those that arise primarily from the manufacture and use of our products. In 2022, our Scope 3 emissions equated to approximately 2,959,683 tonnes of CO2e.

We are assessing decarbonization pathways in our supply chain to reduce the environmental impact of the manufacture of our products, focusing on areas where we have greater influence or can work collaboratively with others to create the scale needed to influence larger change. This will allow us to provide customers with products that are manufactured with fewer emissions, and support global efforts to fight climate change.

We are also conscious of the Scope 3 emissions that come from the combustion of gasoline sold at our gas bars. We continue to expand our electric vehicle charging network to contribute to the global shift towards lower-carbon forms of transportation, while still supporting owners of combustion vehicles through this transition.

Prioritizing energy efficiency

GHG emissions from our stores, distribution centres and offices represent more than 80% of the scope 1 and scope 2 emissions covered by our 2030 target. To achieve our emissions reduction target, we are focusing on retrofitting our stores and incorporating energy-efficient designs into our store prototypes.

Starting in 2024, we aim to build new Canadian Tire stores to our net zero ready prototype. These net zero ready stores will be significantly more energy efficient than previous prototypes and will have the capacity to become fully net zero with the addition of on-site solar panels. The net zero ready stores will feature enhanced construction details as well as thicker insulation that will improve building envelope tightness, reducing the need for heating and cooling. Air-source heat pumps will also be installed, which will further reduce carbon emissions as they are more efficient and rely on electricity to generate heat instead of natural gas.

Air-source heat pump on the roof of a PartSource store in Hamilton

We will also continue reducing emissions from existing buildings that we own or lease, including our offices, stores and distribution centres within Canada, primarily through continued investment into HVAC system retrofits, improvements to the thermal performance of our building envelope and other energy efficiency initiatives.

Rendering of a 350,000-square-foot distribution center in Calgary, Alberta

Supporting renewable energy development in Canada

As one of Canada’s largest retailers, we recognize the part we can play in supporting renewable energy development in Canada. This will be done, in part, by supporting electrification and partnering with organizations that support the growth of renewable energy generation. Our plans include developing a strategy and target for incorporating renewable energy into our ongoing consumption. In the meantime, with continued reliance on grid electricity, we look to governments to meet increased electricity demands in a clean and renewable manner as the economy transitions to a lower-carbon future.

Making it easier for customers to reduce their own GHG emissions

As a retailer, we know that we play a crucial role in supporting and enabling our customers to reduce their environmental impact. We offer sustainable alternatives to help customers make eco-conscious decisions, and we are determined to expand our assortment of these products. This includes products such as solar panel kits, electric bicycles, composters, LED lighting and more. Our Canadian Tire online store has been redesigned to help customers navigate our sustainable alternatives across various product categories and in support of different sustainable initiatives. To learn more, click here.

Electric vehicle charging station at Agincourt Canadian Tire Store,
Scarborough, Ontario

1 A “net zero ready” building is designed to maximize energy efficiency and incorporate renewable energy generation post-construction (if needed) to offset GHG emissions.

Unless otherwise indicated, information in this ESG Report is provided for the 2022 fiscal year. For further information on our approach to ESG reporting, including our Glossary, which sets out definitions of capitalized terms and acronyms that are not otherwise defined on this page, and our forward-looking information disclaimer, please click here.