Morrisons has pledged to be net zero by 2035 – bringing forward its previous ambition by five years.

The move follows a similar announcement by Sainsbury’s this week, in the wake of Metro.co.uk telling supermarkets that it is ‘Time to Shelve’ damaging environmental practices on Monday.

Morrisons says it will become the first supermarket to own and operate its own solar panel ‘farm’ – a near-125 acre site which will be one of the biggest in the UK.

Like Sainsbury’s, the chain had previously stated that its target was to reach net zero by 2040, when asked by Metro.co.uk ahead of the campaign launch three days ago.

But on Thursday it announced that it is moving that target forward by five years, in a move that will pile pressure on other supermarkets to follow suit, ahead of the UK hosting the Cop26 summit in Glasgow next week.

Time to Shelve called on supermarkets to be more environmentally friendly, as part of our Just1Change series.

Morrisons compared well with most of its rivals in our investigation and won praise from Greenpeace for its work on plastics.

However, the environmental group’s UK head of food and forests, Anna Jones, added: ‘Morrisons are lagging behind (Co-op) with little detail on how it will achieve net zero meat supplies by 2030.’

And the head of policy at food and environment NGO Feedback told us: ‘Morrisons have more opportunities to control food waste in their supply chain, due to owning several of their production sites and having direct relationships with farmers – so it’s a shame not to hear how they’re using these opportunities.’

But as part of its new announcement, Morrisons has now given additional detail about how it plans to reach net zero in little more than 13 years.

The target, which brings the company in line with the landmark Paris agreements, mean that any greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere will be offset by other initiatives to store or remove carbon.

It is unclear exactly how much Morrisons will offset – but environmentalists will be pleased to hear that it plans to not ‘rely heavily’ on offsetting.

CEO David Potts explained: ‘As a supermarket we depend on a healthy planet to produce the goods we sell to customers.

‘We’ve committed to removing carbon emissions, rather than setting a carbon neutral target that would depend heavily on offsetting.’  

The store is aiming to be directly supplied by ‘net zero’ carbon British farms; reduce energy usage and take it from renewable sources; use low carbon vehicles and offer electric vehicle charging; reduce food waste and food miles and ensure zero deforestation in its supply chains.

It also plans to help its suppliers audit and reduce their CO2 emissions. 

However, it previously declined to commit to cutting ties with toxic suppliers when asked to do so by Metro.co.uk.

The chain said it had previously pledged to cut operational carbon emissions by a third by 2025 – but is already at 32%, having saved almost 300,000 tonnes of CO2 since 2017.

It expects its solar farm to be the size of more than 70 football pitches by 2025, when it will use 230,000 panels with a lifespan of 25 years.

The panels – said to generate double the power of many normal domestic alternatives – will supply 20% of the energy to Morrisons stores, with the chain estimating that they will reduce CO2 emissions by 21,000 tonnes a year.

Hugh Jones, the managing director of the Carbon Trust – which worked with Morrisons to measures its emissions – said: ‘By aligning its goals with a 1.5°C future, Morrisons is ensuring it builds resilience firmly into its business model and will be positioned to thrive as the global economy moves to zero emissions.’

M&S and Co-op have pledged to get to net zero by 2040.

Environmental experts have repeatedly called for urgent action to tackle the climate crisis with the UN issuing a ‘code red warning to humanity’ earlier this year.

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