John Lewis, M&S or Aldi: which Christmas advert brand is the most sustainable?

Every November, Britain's biggest brands compete for the most talked-about Christmas advert. We looked at what the ten companies behind them are doing about climate change and the environment the rest of the year, and gave each one a score out of 100.

The short answer: Marks & Spencer comes top with 46/100. The ten average 37. For comparison, 60 is where we say a company is leading, and only a handful of the 1,000-plus companies we've scored get there. So the Christmas advertisers are partway: most have made real cuts in their own shops and lorries, and much less progress on the goods they sell.

What we did

SINK is an independent sustainability score. We score every company out of 100 using the same ten questions:

• how much it emits, and whether that's falling
• how clean its energy is
• what targets it has set
• its effect on nature, water and waste
• how openly it reports
• its record on controversies

The evidence comes from each company's own reports and filings, and from independent sources such as regulators, campaign groups and the press. Every source is linked on the company's page, so you can check our work. Scores are free. Nobody can pay to change a score, speed it up or hide it.

The ten brands: John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Aldi, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Boots, Lidl and Disney.

Who is doing well, and why

Marks & Spencer leads the ten, at 46/100 today. Its own emissions are down 33% since 2016/17, a figure checked by Deloitte, and it has science-based targets to cut them 55% by 2030 and its supply-chain emissions 42%. What would lift it further: its own emissions didn't fall in 2024/25, so getting them moving again.

Sainsbury's is next, at 43/100 today. It has cut the emissions from its own operations by 53% since 2018 and runs on 100% renewable electricity. It also publishes a figure for its supply chain: 27.6 million tonnes of CO2e in 2024/25.

John Lewis scores 39/100 today. Its own emissions are about 40% below 2020/21, assured by KPMG, its electricity is renewable, and most of its heavy lorries run on biomethane.

The average across all ten is 37 today. None has reached 60 yet.

The shops

Seven of the ten are retailers:

Most of them have made real cuts in their own operations: renewable electricity, cleaner lorries, less waste. But for a shop, those operations are a small part of the footprint. For Tesco and John Lewis, around 98% comes from the things they sell: growing the food, making the clothes and gifts, and the energy those products use at home.

That's where the scores are decided, and where the next points are:

• John Lewis publishes no current total for the emissions of the goods it buys and sells, so our size deduction for an incomplete footprint applies. A current, full figure would raise its score.
• Boots (33/100 today) says its footprint was 1.14 million tonnes in 2025, down from 1.22 million in 2022, and that this includes the products it sells. It publishes no breakdown, so we treat the figure as partial and the same deduction applies. A breakdown by category would change that.
• Tesco (38/100 today) has only some supply-chain categories independently checked. A full, assured figure would help.

Coca-Cola, Amazon and Disney

These three are global companies, so the score is for the whole group, not just its UK business.

• Disney scores 38/100 today. It has science-based targets for 2030, but its supply-chain emissions rose from 10.6 million tonnes in 2022 to 12.4 million in 2024, and four more cruise ships are planned. Falling supply-chain emissions would raise its score most.
• Coca-Cola scores 33/100 today. It reports only part of its supply-chain emissions, leaving out packaging and ingredients, and in December 2024 it replaced its validated target to cut emissions 25% with a goal that has no absolute figure. A full supply-chain figure and an absolute target would raise its score. In Britain, the drinks are made and sold by its bottler, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, which we score separately: 48/100 today.
• Amazon scores 27/100 today. Its total emissions rose 16% in 2025, to 80.85 million tonnes, and the Science Based Targets initiative removed its commitment in 2023. Emissions that fall in absolute terms, and a validated target, would raise its score.

A couple of notes

• Lidl's score is for the Lidl group, based in Germany. Aldi's is for Aldi UK.
• Scores can go down as well as up. When companies publish new reports, we score them again.

The full table

Today's scores, highest first. Every company links to its page, with the reasoning and every source.

Christmas adverts: ten brands behind Britain's best-known Christmas adverts. Published 14 November 2026; scores are live. Figures quoted are the companies' own. Coca-Cola, Amazon, Disney and Lidl are scored at group level; Aldi is Aldi UK.