Leading environment organisation says Woolworths risks greenwashing with so-called no-deforestation commitment

Woolworths has today gutted its deforestation free commitment, listing beef as a “low-risk” commodity for deforestation in its 2025 Sustainability Report and continuing to use flawed certification for timber products. 

In 2024, Woolworths listed beef as a primary-linked deforestation commodity, a decision which aligns with current deforestation and land clearing data, naming livestock pasture expansion as a leading driver of deforestation in Australia.

However, Wilderness Society says the supermarket giant is now cherry picking from a flawed and politicised rating system (the European Deforestation Regulation or ‘EUDR’) to conclude that Australian beef is a commodity low-risk for deforestation. This comes just one day after Coles made significant progress in committing to deforestation-free supply chains for their own-brand products, including beef. 

Woolworths is also continuing to rely on the PEFC certification scheme for its timber, pulp and paper products—a flawed scheme that allows wood to be sourced from high conservation value forests in Australia.

Woolworths’ so-called “new no-deforestation goal” comes just weeks after NSW and QLD’s State-wide Land Clearing Studies (SLATS) confirmed agriculture was the number one driver of deforestation in the two states, while forests in NSW are still logged to make pallets used for transporting groceries.

Hannah Schuch, Campaigns Manager for the Wilderness Society Queensland said while Woolworths commitment won’t change a thing for forests which are decimated everyday for supermarket beef and pallets, Woolworths is complicit in Australia’s deforestation crisis. 

“Yesterday, Coles committed to deforestation-free supply chains for their own-brand products, including beef, which they correctly classify as 'high risk.' Twenty four hours later, Woolworths has launched a so-called "new no deforestation" commitment but is exempting the number one driver of deforestation in Australia, beef, claiming it is 'low risk.' This simply doesn't add up.

 ​​“Woolworths has chosen to rely on a flawed classification of beef as ‘low risk’ not because it’s accurate but because it suits them. It’s not in line with international best practice. All the while continuing to rely on dodgy certification for their timber products, which won’t ensure their supply chain is free from pallets made of native forests. 

“Aussie families don’t expect to be eating groceries that could be from bulldozed koala habitat. Yet without robust implementation of genuine corporate deforestation-free commitments, that’s what could be on the shelves.”

“With only four months remaining until companies are expected by the Science Based Targets initiative to achieve no-deforestation supply chains Woolworths needs to ensure its commitment and actions reflect the scale and urgency of Australia’s deforestation crisis.

“Australia is a globally recognised deforestation hotspot, alongside the Amazon, Borneo, the Congo, but as one of the country’s largest beef-buyers and users of timber pallets, Woolworths has a responsibility to do all that it can to stop the bulldozers and the chainsaws,” said Schuch.

The latest land clearing data from Queensland alone showed 332,015 hectares of forest and bushland cleared, 86% of which was to make way for pasture—an area ten times the size of that deforested for palm oil plantations in Indonesia in a single year.