Tesco is one of the largest retailers in the world, employing 400,000 people. It has placed community responsibility and commitment to environmental sustainability at the centre of its business plan.
Tesco has pledged to invest £500 million on low-carbon technologies over the next five years and use its unique relationship with over 30 million customers to make sustainability a significant driver of consumption.
In its operations, Tesco has set long-term, stretching targets to:
- Halve the carbon footprint of its existing operations by 2020
- Build new stores between now and 2020 that have, on average, half the carbon footprint of stores built last year
- Restrict air transport to less than 1 per cent of products
- Halve the amount of CO2 produced per case of good delivered over the next 5 years
To raise its customers’ awareness of climate change, Tesco intends to:
- Label products so customers can easily understand the carbon footprint of items they buy
- Make it easy and affordable to be green through price promotions and incentives
- Create a research body to examine ways to overcome barriers which prevent people going green
Tesco has transformed its own business model, making the reduction of its carbon footprint a central business driver. A steering group has been established to ensure delivery, which sets objectives and reviews progress, reporting to the board.
Tesco is also working with a number of suppliers, including Unilever and PepsiCo, to find ways to reduce emissions throughout the supply chain.
