Tesco takes aim at supply chain and product emissions with strengthened net zero target
New climate goal will require retailer to slash emissions generated in the production and end use of its products, from agriculture to food waste
The UK’s largest supermarket chain has committed to delivering net zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2050, vowing to target the emissions generated from the sourcing of raw materials, agriculture, and product manufacturing through to the emissions that result from the end use of its products and food waste.
In a statement announcing its strengthened climate target this morning, Tesco said the goal would over time transform the mix of food on its shelves, noting that an increase of plant-based food would be required to meet its new emissions reduction goal.
The new target marks a significant step up in ambition for the retailer, which previously had excluded the products and supply chain emisisons that make up 90 per cent of its carbon footprint from its net zero goal.
The company emphasised that its new goal was in line with the Paris Agreement’s more stretching target of keeping global warming below 1.5C, adding that it now planned to encourage its suppliers to establish net zero goals and science-based emissions targets of their own.
It confirmed it had already written to all its suppliers to ask for their support in the transition to a low carbon economy.
Tesco Group CEO Ken Murphy said that achieving the new target would depend on the supermarket collaborating closely with both its customers and supply chain, conceding that it was not yet entirely clear which solutions it would have to deploy to decarbonise its value chain.
“In this critical year for tackling climate change, it’s right that we set out this ambitious commitment to cut emissions across our entire value chain,” he said. “We don’t yet have all the answers and we’ll need support from our suppliers and wider society to meet our targets, but it’s vital we take action now.”
Tesco today also unveiled new targets to achieve net zero emissions across its global operations by 2035, a goal it said was “in line” with the UK’s climate goals.
Murphy said progress towards the new goals would allow the supermarket chain to understand the areas of its businesses that required the biggest transformation as the net zero transition gathers pace.
“Building on the good progress we’ve made in cutting emissions in our own operations, we’re also setting out a group-wide net zero target of 2035,” Murphy said. “These new commitments will bring an unprecedented level of transparency to our emissions footprint and will allow us to identify and tackle those areas where urgent transformational change is needed.”
Tesco’s new climate ambition was applauded by Tanya Steele, chief executive of WWF, who urged its competitors to follow suit in establishing equally ambitious goals for both their operations and value chains.
“The scale of this welcome commitment from Tesco creates much-needed momentum as we head into COP26 – and throws down the gauntlet to other big companies to match this ambition, and to the government to back their action through legislation to require all businesses to publish credible net zero plans,” she said. “This announcement shows that even our biggest and most complex businesses know that if we’re going to tackle the climate and nature crisis, it can’t be done by offshoring our emissions through imports and supply chains – we need to change every part of the system.”
Tesco said decarbonisation efforts were already underway across its supply chain, noting that 100 of the firm’s largest suppliers have already reduced their manufacturing emissions by 20 per cent.
It confirmed it would set out a “clear plan” for achieving its new plans over the next 12 months, which would focus on how it planned to reduce the climate impacts of “key emissions areas”, such as agriculture.
It noted that it was already planning to trial innovations with suppliers to reduce emissions from agriculture, including the use of low-carbon fertiliser and alternative animal feed such as insect meal.
Another area of focus would be on accelerating operational decarbonisation efforts across emissions-intensive parts of its business, including refrigeration, heating, and transport.
Steele stressed that a detailed and ambitious action plan would be critical to ensure Tesco’s targets translate into action.
“We at WWF don’t underestimate the challenge of translating this into a roadmap to net zero that moves at sufficient pace throughout Tesco’s supply chains,” she said. “But the payoff is worth it – for the people in countries where Tesco does business, for the UK’s net zero ambition, for nature all around the world and for the future generations who won’t forget the promises we make today and will certainly not forgive if they’re not delivered.”
But the news has elicited a less positive response from other environmental groups, with Greenpeace slamming the announcement as “hot air” and “greenwash”.
In a statement, Greenpeace UK head of food forests Anna Jones noted the supermarket chain had failed to set out any plans to cut aboslute emissions in the short term, or to cut ties with companies fuelling deforestation.
“Rather than using its power for change, the UK’s biggest supermarket is knowingly pushing healthy forests and a stable climate further from reach,” she said. “There’s no acknowledgement of the need to radically cut emissions now, having already failed its original target of 2020 for zero deforestation. But it seems to expect praise for promising action over the next 29 years.”
“Boosting plant based sales without a meat reduction strategy is meaningless,” she added. “It disregards the broken system that’s fuelling deforestation and fires across Brazil, and putting corporate profits before Indigenous peoples, whose land and lives are being torn apart to make space for animal feed.”
Jones urged Tesco to end work with “forest destroyers” immediately and publish a plan to reduce industrial meat. “Anything less is just greenwash,” she said.
And Kiran Aziz, senior analyst at Norway’s largest pension fund, KLP, similarly urged Tesco to set out how it planned to curb the impact its suppliers had on deforestation.
“As a responsible shareholder in Tesco, we would like to know what is new in the plans to reduce deforestation risks in the supply chain urgently and why there is not a focus on cutting ties with high-risk meat sellers such as JBS and its subsidiaries,” he said. “For years, JBS has been removed from investors’ portfolios due to deforestation as well as corruption and workers’ rights abuses. We would welcome clarity on this especially in light of this new commitment.”
