Retail plays a major part in West Oxford’s (and Oxford city’s) carbon footprint – both directly in the energy use associated with running stores and the vehicle miles associated with customers coming to and from the shops; and also indirectly in the supply chains, packaging, and logistics required to create products and transport them to Oxford.

We are developing the LCWO Retailer Sustainability Scorecard to

  • Help accelerate carbon emission reduction by local businesses in a way that creates practical benefit for staff, environment and the community;
  • Get West Oxford businesses to think about and consult residents about their impact on local community – whether carbon emissions, flooding, traffic/congestion, air pollution, biodiversity, beauty;
  • Help customers and residents to understand the environmental sustainability performance of the large companies operating in West Oxford. By flagging where businesses could do better, customers can choose to change where they shop, or engage with businesses to request improvements.

Phase 1 complete: Scorecard design and scoring corporate indicators

Over the last year, we have completed Phase 1 of the project.


Step 1: Scorecard design complete

The scorecard was designed using a methodology informed by Oxfam’s tried-and-tested business scorecards.

For LCWO, sustainability is as much about local actions as corporate commitments, so our scorecard ranks businesses on a selection of 40 local issues such as sustainable transport, energy efficiency, litter, and biodiversity, alongside 17 corporate indicators, covering company-level initiatives such as carbon reduction commitments. We want our Scorecard to be a way of positively engaging with businesses in West Oxford to help accelerate the path to zero carbon in ways that create practical benefits for staff, environment and the community.

The corporate indicators are summarised to the right; see the full list of indicators, including notes on how a score is being calculated for each here.


Step 2: Corporate scoring complete

Over the winter, we have completed the scoring for all the businesses for first half of the scorecard, ranking them according to the 17 corporate indicators e.g. .  It has been possible to do this entirely using desk-based research, so its completion was unaffected by Covid-19 and lockdowns.  Businesses will be approached for feedback prior to the publication of the leaderboard.

Who’s involved?

The scorecard is being developed by LCWO, in partnership with Oxfordshire Greentech, with input from Phil Bloomer, Executive Director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre


The corporate indicators cover:

  1. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and Energy
  2. Circular Economy
  3. Supply chain
  4. Customers and community
  5. Other indicators

Click here for the full list.


Phase 2 under way

The next stage of the project began in May, with collection of data to enable us to score the businesses according to our local indicators.  Unlike the corporate indicators, this scoring cannot be completed using desk-based research, and instead requires in-situ research.  Once complete, the businesses will be invited to comment on the combined corporate and local indicator scores before publication.

Update 30 June 2021: We have now sent a letter to each retailer (paper and email), detailing their corporate score and ranking, with the invitation to discuss the score and feed back.  We have also enclosed the local indicator survey to enable us to calculate the local score, and offered to meet with them to discuss and work through the scoring of this part, or for them to simply complete the form and return to us.

Businesses can download the local indicator survey (in excel format) here:

The local indicators cover:

  1. Renewable energy
  2. Energy efficiency
  3. Low carbon transport
  4. Circular economy
  5. Water
  6. Diversity
  7. Livelihoods
  8. Engaging people and behaviour change

Click here for the full list.