Championing sustainable living

From the welfare of animals to creating biodiversity on our farms, we aim to ensure that our products come from the most sustainable and ecofriendly sources.

It takes just a few simple steps to start a sustainable living revolution and that’s exactly what we’ve done!

Here’s how we’re doing it:

Investing in the future

Research

We've invested £25 million in the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester, which researches new ways to help everyone cut their carbon footprint. Every discovery will be freely shared so everyone can benefit. The Institute will also be training the next generation of environmental experts.

Green technology

Our £100 million Sustainable Technology Fund is finding more practical ways to use renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and to help develop the green technologies of the future. For example, we’re investing in a technology that could turn food waste into power. We’re also working with the Carbon Trust and Brunel University to develop trigeneration combined heat and power technology (which captures and reuses heat) for our stores and distribution centres that could save over 10,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Animal welfare is a top priority

Our livestock codes of practice ensure high standards of animal welfare. So all our UK meat, milk, poultry, eggs and farmed fish suppliers must be members of an independently audited and certified farm assurance scheme.

We make sure our standards are met by using a team of agricultural experts and independent inspectors to check on the animals' living conditions.

More information can be found at www.tescofarming.com

Sustainable fisheries

We work to ensure that the wild and farmed seafood we sell comes from fisheries that are managed responsibly.

We're working with industry and fishery organisations that support the principles of sustainable fishery development. We have Codes of Practice for farmed fish, which cover feed, welfare, environment and other critical issues. These are independently audited.

We provide information to our customers and have recently added additional sourcing information on our fresh range including catching methods. 

Going organic

Organic farming restricts the use of artificial chemical fertilisers and pesticides, instead relying on developing a healthy, fertile soil and growing a mixture of crops.

100 per cent of the organic milk we sell is British and we'd like all our organic meat to be British too. So we're constantly working with our suppliers and the wider industry to increase the availability of British organic products.

Becoming an organic farm takes time: firstly your land must go through a two-year period of conversion. After that time an inspector from an organic certification body can certify your land, which must be approved before it can be used for organic production. The standards governing organic farming place strong emphasis on protecting the environment.

Using Genetically Modified foods

Our policy on Genetically Modified (GM) foods is based on what you, our customers, have told us you want. And our research shows that UK customers don’t want GM foods in our stores. So naturally we don’t have any own-brand GM foods on our shelves and all of our organic animals are reared using non-GM feed.

Beyond the stores

Nurture

Our responsibility to the environment doesn't start and finish in our stores – we take a much wider view than that. All of the 15,000 growers who supply Tesco in the UK, from 70 countries around the world, are now part of NURTURE.

Nurture is an independently accredited, quality standard that assures our customers that Tesco fruit and vegetables are grown in an environmental and responsible way. Our approach with Nurture provides us with the opportunity to pioneer standards around reducing energy usage, recycling and other natural resources.

Naturally greener

Nearly everybody wants to do the right thing when it comes to looking after the environment, but sometimes it can be tough to know what's best. That's why we developed Naturally – a range of household products made from plant-based materials that are kinder to the planet.

The Naturally range is also free from synthetic colours and is not tested on animals at any stage.

See the Naturally range at Tesco.com.
Please note: you need to log in to Tesco.com to see the Naturally products page.

Timber

We want to make sure that the timber we buy is from legal and sustainable sources. All of the timber we use for our garden furniture is either Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved or from members of the Tropical Forest Trust (TFT), and our suppliers are assessed every six months by an external consultant.

Paper

The Tesco direct catalogue is produced on FSC certified paper, which originates from well-managed forests and therefore does not contribute to deforestation.

We sell more own label tissue than any other UK retailer. So in 2007/08 we changed all of our tissue products (toilet tissue, facial tissue and kitchen towel) to meet FSC mixed sources or FSC 100 per cent recycled standards.

Our Greener Living range includes facial tissue, kitchen towel and toilet tissue, all of which are certified FSC 100 per cent recycled.

You and sustainable living

We’re continually looking for ways to help you to be a little greener. These include clearly labelling sustainable and energy-efficient products, so you can make greener choices, and saying 'thank you' with green Clubcard points every time you reuse bags or recycle your mobile phone or inkjet cartridges with us.