Retail Development and Corporate Environmental Disclosure: A Spatial Analysis of Land-Use Change in the Veneto Region (Italy)

Giovanni Felici (), Daniele Codato, Alberto Lanzavecchia, Massimo De Marchi and Maria Cristina Lavagnolo
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Giovanni Felici: Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Padova-Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy
Daniele Codato: Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Padova-Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy
Alberto Lanzavecchia: SPGI, Department of Political Sciences, Law and International Studies, Via Beato Pellegrino, 28-35137 Padova, Italy
Massimo De Marchi: Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Padova-Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy
Maria Cristina Lavagnolo: Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Padova-Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-17

Abstract: Corporate environmental claims often neglect the substantial ecological impact of land-use changes. This case study examines the spatial dimension of retail-driven land-use transformation by analyzing supermarket expansion in the Veneto region (northern Italy), with a focus on a large grocery retailer. We evaluated its corporate environmental claims by assessing land consumption patterns from 1983 to 2024 using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The GIS-based methodology involved geocoding 113 Points of Sale (POS—individual retail outlets), performing photo-interpretation of historical aerial imagery, and classifying land-cover types prior to construction. We applied spatial metrics such as total converted surface area, land-cover class frequency across eight categories (e.g., agricultural, herbaceous, arboreal), and the average linear distance between afforestation sites and POS developed on previously rural land. Our findings reveal that 65.97% of the total land converted for Points of Sale development occurred in rural areas, primarily agricultural and herbaceous lands. These landscapes play a critical role in supporting urban biodiversity and providing essential ecosystem services, which are increasingly threatened by unchecked land conversion. While the corporate sustainability reports and marketing strategies emphasize afforestation efforts under their “We Love Nature” initiative, our spatial analysis uncovers no evidence of actual land-use conversion. Additionally, reforestation activities are located an average of 40.75 km from converted sites, undermining their role as effective compensatory measures. These findings raise concerns about selective disclosure and greenwashing, driving the need for more comprehensive and transparent corporate sustainability reporting. The study argues for stronger policy frameworks to incentivize urban regeneration over greenfield development and calls for the integration of land-use data into corporate sustainability disclosures. By combining geospatial methods with content analysis, the research offers new insights into the intersection of land use, business practices, and environmental sustainability in climate-vulnerable regions.

Keywords: biodiversity; land-use change; greenwashing; sustainability; retail expansion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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