Tesco unveiled its new climate change ‘manifesto’ today which has five key areas of focus, including cutting absolute emissions from energy, supporting the UK’s transition to electric transport, tackling food waste, supporting the sustainable production of food, and helping customers eat healthy, sustainable diets.
The move comes ahead of the major COP26 Climate Change Summit due to take place in Glasgow this November.
Setting out Tesco’s priorities at today’s sustainability conference organised by trade publication The Grocer, the group’s CEO Ken Murphy stressed the need for both efficiency improvements and “cutting-edge innovation” if the retailer, and the wider food industry, is to meet its climate change targets.
In 2017, Tesco committed to science-based climate targets on a 1.5-degree trajectory and aims to reach its net-zero climate target in the UK by 2035, fifteen years earlier than originally planned.
Through a combination of efficiency improvements and switch to low-carbon innovation, Tesco delivered a 50% emissions reduction last year on a 2015 baseline, beating its 2020 target of 35%.
Speaking at The Grocer conference, Murphy called on the whole of the food industry to play its part to deliver against the UK’s climate ambitions.
“In this critical decade for tackling climate change, it’s vital we challenge ourselves to be more ambitious in our aims and accelerate progress against them. At Tesco, we’re playing our part by creating a better basket for our customers and the planet,” he said.
“No one business can tackle these challenges alone. We must take collective action as a food industry to drive the transformational changes necessary to meet the UK’s climate commitments.”
As well as continuing its work with WWF to reduce the environmental impact of food, and tackle issues connected to food production, Tesco has vowed to step up its drive to reduce emissions in its own operations. This includes switching to renewable energy across all its operations by 2030, partnering with renewable energy investors to launch new renewable power generation projects, and launch its first fleet of 30 electric home delivery vans, switching to a fully electric delivery fleet by 2028.
