Rolling out carbon labelling

You asked us to find ways to make it easy to identify the carbon footprint of your shopping. So in 2008, we joined forces with the Carbon Trust to test a new label on some of our products.

Almost half of our daily carbon footprint comes from products we buy and services we use. We hope that our new labels will allow you to easily understand the footprint of individual products and help you to reduce your own carbon footprint.

What the labels show

The labels are designed to show how many grams of carbon or equivalent greenhouse gases were emitted as a result of growing, manufacturing, transporting and storing a product. They also consider the impact of preparing or using a product and then disposing of any waste.

For some products they also tell you how the carbon footprint compares with other similar products, so you can tell which has the smallest carbon footprint.

Some labels also give you tips about how to reduce a product's footprint when you cook it, use it or dispose of it. There are now 120 products that are labelled, so look out for some of the following next time you're shopping:

• Potatoes
• Orange juice
• Washing detergent
• Light bulbs
• Milk
• Kitchen and toilet roll

Here’s how we did it...

We made comparisons

For each product, we compared carbon footprints for a variety of different types. For instance, chilled fresh juice against cartons of juice made from concentrate.

We looked at packaging

We found that Tesco concentrated non-biological liquid washing detergent has a smaller carbon footprint than our non-biological washing powder or tablets, as it uses less packaging and can be transported more easily.

We found out the life cycle of products

It turned out that 99 per cent of a light bulb's carbon footprint is created after it has been installed. Although energy-saving light bulbs use more energy in their manufacture, they have a much lower carbon footprint than conventional bulbs.

Download our findings below.

The Carbon Trust

The Carbon Trust verified all the data we collected. It is also working with other retailers and manufacturers to help them measure, reduce and label their products and services. Find out more about the Carbon Trust here.