Tesco recognised as an environmental leader

Tesco was recognised as an Example of Excellence in the Barclays Environmental Leadership category at the Business in the Community Awards for Excellence in July 2008.

This prestigious award is given to companies with strong green leadership and good environmental strategy, and is one of several 'Big Ticks' in different categories.

It recognises the work we've done in recent years to build a greener business - and to help customers go green too.

In 2006, as part of our Community Plan, Tesco announced a string of long-term targets aimed at minimising our environmental impact, and we're well on our way to achieving these.

The most ambitious target is to halve the carbon footprint of our 2006 estate by 2020. We have also pledged to:

• Build new stores which have, on average, half the carbon footprint of those built in 2006 between now and 2020
• Reduce packaging on all products by 25% by 2010
• Restrict air freighted products to 1% of everything we sell
• Halve emissions from our distribution chain by 2012 per case of goods delivered
• Recycle 80% of store waste by 2010
• Double the amount of customer recycling wherever an automated unit is installed

The Environmental Leadership Award is just one of several green accolades given to Tesco recently, coming hot on the heels of the Motor Transport Award for Low Carbon and Efficiency - an acknowledgment of our pioneering work to reduce the carbon footprint of our distribution network.