Tesco announces plans to cut carbon but criticised for approach to biofuels
Thu 18 January 2007
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The retail market leader Tesco has announced a range of plans to cut carbon emissions and encourage its customers to 'buy green'.
Tesco's move, which came shortly after a similar announcement by rivals Marks and Spencer (see separate story), plans to develop a carbon footprint labelling measure for all products sold in store, and will also cut the cost of many energy-efficient goods.
The group plans to cut carbon emissions from its stores worldwide by over 50% by 2020, and also aims to restrict air transport to less than 1% of the firm's products.
Tesco said it plans to double the proportion of biofuels it sells at Tesco-branded petrol stations and also to increase the use of biodiesel in its transport fleet.
Last May, Tesco launched a ten point 'community plan' which was heralded as a leading example of corporate social responsibility and which included significant carbon and sustainability reporting components.
Meanwhile, campaign group Biofuelwatch has launched a campaign to draw attention to the sale of biofuel supplied by Greenergy to Tesco. Biofuelwatch claims the fuel contains product that has been grown in areas of former rainforest which has been destroyed to make way for soy and palm oil plantations.
The group says: "People want to buy biofuels because they want to help the environment and reduce climate change emissions."
In its criticism of Tesco's approach to biofuel, Biofuelwatch are demanding that:
• Tesco stops selling biofuels unless the company can guarantee that those do not contain feedstocks from countries where growing the crops is linked to deforestation, environmental degradation or human rights abuses.
• The biofuels sold make real and verifiable reductions in carbon emissions and environmental impact.
Biofuelwatch is campaigning for regulation to ensure that only sustainably-sourced biofuels can be sold in the European Union.
Tesco is a major shareholder in Greenergy.
Related Documents
BBC news link - Tesco story
Biofuelwatch website
Marks and Spencer story link
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