Environment
Progress 2007
Managing our impacts
Waste in our operations
We want to reduce the amount of waste created in our operations. One of our main sources of waste is distribution packaging removed at our stores. Packaging is required to protect products - a damaged or unusable product is highly wasteful. We look for opportunities to reduce the amount of waste we produce wherever possible, for example by working with our suppliers to reduce distribution packaging and encouraging those that use one-way packaging to clearly label recycled and readily recyclable materials.
Our reusable transit trays - green trays - help us save packaging used for transporting and displaying products and are also used by some suppliers in many of the countries in which we operate. In the UK, green trays made 222 million trips in 2007, saving over 130,000 tonnes of cardboard.
We are committed to reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill and have plans in all the countries in which we operate to reflect this. In Ireland we plan to be the first retailer to recycle 100% of store waste by 2010. The move will see in excess of 24,000 tonnes of waste recycled each year.
In the UK in 2007, our stores created 487,000 tonnes of waste. This figure represents a reduction of 9% compared with the previous year, when the amount of total store waste was 535,000 tonnes. In 2007 we recycled 342,000 tonnes or 70% of this waste, mostly cardboard and plastic. The remaining waste was compacted on site and sent to landfill. This was below our target to recycle 75%. We will improve our processes and continue to trial technology to ensure that we meet our longer-term target to recycle 80% of our waste by 2009.
It is important that we find ways of diverting waste from landfill that are sustainable. Tesco is the largest recycler of cardboard in the UK. In a closed-loop system, this cardboard is recycled in the UK and finds its way back into our stores as product packaging within 14 days.
Disposing of food waste is a key challenge and we are looking for innovative solutions to tackle this. We donated surplus fresh food from 35 stores to homeless shelters in partnership with FareShare, a charity that works with food retailers to minimise food waste and feed disadvantaged people. We are also continuing to investigate the diversion of food waste into producing energy, but progress on making this a reality has been slower than we would have liked.
Biofuels
We decided to sell biofuels in 2005 in the belief that they could help customers reduce their carbon footprint and decrease our dependency on oil as a source for transport fuel.
Since then it has become clear that the impacts of biofuels are complex and any environmental benefits depend on how the biofuels are made. Our aim is to do the right thing for the environment and communities based on sound science. We recognise that the full impact of biofuels is not 100% clear. We are continuing to keep the science under review and to take note of expert opinion such as the Royal Society report on the future of biofuels.
This is particularly important because from April 2008, along with other petrol retailers, we are obliged by the government through the Road Transport Fuel Obligation to provide 2.5% biofuels in our petrol. We want to make sure that this well-meaning legislation helps customers reduce their carbon footprint by ensuring that our biofuels are sourced sustainably.
To help further understanding of the true impact of biofuels, we have asked the independent Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), based at the University of Manchester, to investigate. All SCI research will be made public.
Palm oil for food products
We are active members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and nearly all palm oil in our own-brand products comes from RSPO members. We expect certified RSPO oil to become available at the end of 2008 and we are working on incorporating this into our products at that time.
Seafood
We are playing our part in seeking to maintain a viable and long-term future for wild fish and shellfish populations. We seek to buy all our seafood from responsibly managed fisheries. We use the United Nations' Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries as our sourcing reference.
Understanding seafood sustainability requires an assessment of complex factors. Tesco is the first UK retailer to have appointed a dedicated expert for seafood sustainability as an integral part of the commercial teams.
Beginning with the World Seafood Congress in Dublin in September 2007, and in a series of conferences worldwide with NGOs, we set out our view on defining seafood sustainability in a holistic way. We are the first supermarket in the world to do this. We believe the factors affecting seafood sustainability to be: stock depletion and impact on ecosystems; aquaculture; climate change; packaging and socio economic issues.
Genetically modified (GM) foods
We do not sell any own-brand GM foods in the UK, and use of GM feed is prohibited in organic products. Where we do sell non-Tesco brand products with GM ingredients, they are clearly labelled. Some own-brand products in other countries do contain GM products, and these are also clearly labelled so that customers can make an informed choice.
Timber
Tesco is committed to purchasing timber and timber products only from legal, sustainable sources. We use external certification to help verify this and to give our customers the opportunity to make informed choices. All sources of timber for our garden furniture range continue to be either Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved or sourced from members of the Tropical Forest Trust, who are committed to achieving the FSC standard through the certification support programmes of ethical auditors. In 2007, we were also able to confirm that our own-label toilet tissue, kitchen towel and face tissues are FSC certified.