Managing the carbon footprint of companies and addressing their respective decarbonisation plans is a challenging endeavour. The aim of this study is to help companies' better understand the issues around decarbonisation and environmental performance by suggesting a holistic management process they could embark on. This process comprises two crucial steps which are: a) sustainability reporting and b) low-carbon roadmaps. These steps are covered and further developed based on a detailed study of the UK food retail sector. This sector is relevant due to its economical and environmental importance, but most importantly it has a significant record of available environmental reports in the public domain and a large potential to influence consumers, policy makers, and multiple supply chains. Sustainability reporting is assessed by analysing environmental KPIs disclosed in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports and then these are compared against industry standards. This analysis highlights a general lack of consistency and transparency in CSR reporting of UK food retailers. Consequently, a low carbon roadmap based on relevant KPIs and on the 'backasting' framework is presented as a case study in order to showcase how a hypothetical UK food retailer can employ a low carbon roadmap to meet strategic targets. The case study demonstrates that ambitious environmental targets are achievable if robust corporate action plans are followed and steered adequately to meet long term targets. Furthermore, the case study also indicates capital might be misallocated in favour of highly visible environmental stores and on-site energy generation technologies with expensive carbon abatement potential whilst in theory more could be done by applying cost-effective energy efficiency measures which have the potential to deliver substantial carbon savings. Highlights: General lack of consistency and transparency in CSR reporting of UK food retailer  In average, no real improvement of transparency in CSR reporting since 2005  Energy saving measures have a greater potential compared to on-site generation  A learning process from the lighthouse store results is required  Ambitious environmental targets are achievable