Supermarket chain Pick n Pay has vowed to create 20 jobs every day through a new 20, 20, 20 by 2020 programme that would also see the firm simultaneously cut energy use and reduce waste.

The newly launched “war on waste” campaign would target food waste, energy inefficiency and the waste of talent owing to high unemployment.

Chairperson Gareth Ackerman and CEO Richard Brasher jointly outlined plans to reduce energy use per square metre by 20% and cut food waste heading to landfills by 20% by 2020, while creating thousands of jobs over the next five years.

With as much as a third of all food produced for human consumption wasted, the company planned to develop new solutions to use food waste more productively, deepen the group’s relationship with FoodBank and ensure it sent 20% less food waste to landfill.

In addition to cutting its energy use per square metre, Pick n Pay aimed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 25% per square metre over the same period.

“We see waste in other areas too. At a time when over half of 15- to 24-year-olds in South Africa are unemployed, we are wasting our talent,” Ackerman commented.

Pick n Pay aimed to create around 5 000 new jobs each year for young people as the group expanded its customer services nationwide.

The initiative would build on the gains the supermarket chain had already made in recent years.

Pick n Pay was currently contributing three-million meals for hungry people each year, saving nearly 1 000 t/y of food waste, through its partnership with FoodBank SA.

The retailer had cut energy consumption per square metre by over 30% since 2008, saving over R60-million a year, and created more than 3 000 new jobs over the past year.