Carbon Emissions Labels Coming to Groceries
In a move to further advance their awareness of global climate change, supermarket chain Tesco has announced that it plans to release its own line of household products with labels carrying information about the size of the goods’ carbon footprints.
By reading the labels, consumers will be able to see how much carbon emission was involved in the manufacturing and disposal of products.
Tesco’s new initiative was due largely in part to popular demand from the supermarket’s customers, David North, Tesco’s community and government director, said.
"Customers tell us that it is very important to them," said North.
"What they have said is that they want us to help them tackle climate change."
Overall, 20 products from categories of detergents, orange juice, potatoes and light bulbs will carry the new labels.
The project’s two-year trial was operated by the Carbon Trust.
The Carbon Trust’s scheme, launched in March 2007, is being developed in partnership with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the British Standards Institute.
An audit period of two years is demanded of companies that want to deliver products carrying the carbon reduction label.
Tesco has maintained an awareness of its carbon emissions and climate change.
In January, Tesco announced plans to measure and publish its total direct carbon footprint.
It appointed the Environmental Resources Management Limited (ERM) to map the total direct carbon footprint of every Tesco business.
“Our aim was to establish a clear baseline from which to track progress in reducing our emissions, and enable us to identify those areas of our business we need to prioritize,” the company’s Web site reads.
“The direct carbon footprint for the Tesco Group during the financial year to February 2007 was 4.13m tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)*. Our UK business emitted 2.25m tons of CO2e or 55% of our total direct emissions.”
In response to their appointment of ERM, Tesco also pledged to cut energy used per square foot in its UK stores by 50 percent.
“We are on track to achieve this target two years early by employing a wide range of efficiencies such as switching to low-energy lighting and installing cold-air retrieval systems to take cool air from one part of the store to act as air conditioning in another,” Tesco said.
Euan Murray, general manager for the Trust’s Carbon Footprinting program, said reducing products’ emissions had a huge contribution to make in tackling climate change.
"More than half of the carbon footprint of the average consumer is made up by the emissions to make, use and dispose of all the different things that we buy," he said.
"How consumers prepare them is a key determinant of the overall footprint."
Tesco currently employs more than 3,000 people in 120 offices in 40 countries.
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