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Environmental Policy

Tesco has stated in its CSR Review, "We work with our customers, staff and suppliers to make sustainable choices and reduce our impact on the environment." Tesco's priorities on its environment policies are: Reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions;Reducing, reusing and recyclingwaste;Making productsmore sustainable. In 2005/2006, Tesco was the leading food and drug retailer in the Carbon Disclosure Project Leadership Index.

Tesco's strategy is to be the 'best' supermarket for energy use. For example, by investing over £4 million in energy efficient lighting and infrared lighting sensors, Tesco saved over 40 million kWh and over 17,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. Tesco’s staff was made accountable for energy savings. In April 2006, Tesco established a £100 million fund to develop sustainable environmental technology. Tesco stated that by 2010, it will cut its energy use per square feet by one-half as against 2,000 baseline. The company invested £20 million in 2006, in a range of energy-saving schemes to cut energy consumption by 135 million kWh per year, saving £8.1 million in energy costs and saving 58,000 tonnes of CO2.17 Tesco endeavoured to reduce water consumption also considerably through certain measures. In 2005/06, Tesco invested £500,000 in installing taps which automatically switch off and over £800,000 in installing rainwater recovery systems. The water consumption reduced from 1.7 m3/ m2 of sales space in 2001 to 1.2 m3/ m2 sales space in 2007

Tesco reported that it no longer uses ChloroFluoroCarbons (CFC) and replaced all its refrigerators running on HydroChloroFluoroCarbons (HCFC) with hydro fluorocarbons (HFC) spending £18 million. To reduce the overall environmental impact, Tesco is evaluating alternatives such as CO₂ for larger fridges, freezers and air conditioning in its stores. The company participates in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).As part of the ETS, Tesco is committed to an absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over a 5-year period (2000-2005) at a control group of 118 stores.

Since the beginning of 2003, Tesco integrated its green travel plans for staff as a part of its new store and store extension development proposals. Tesco reduced the number of employees coming to work individually in their cars, through initiatives like walking buddies and car sharing. Tesco guaranteed the employees, who took part in the sharing schemes, a ride home in the event of emergencies. Since June 2005, Tesco introduced 'Liftshare' in which staff can share lifts by registering at a dedicated website and commute between Tesco's main offices to help cut emissions and congestion.

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17]"Retail Ethics and Green Retailing 2007: More than plastic bags?", Centre for Retail Research, 2007

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