Five years after it promised 'a revolution in green consumption', Tesco has announced that it has dropped its plan to label all its products with their carbon footprint.
The company blamed the volume of work that was involved, as well as other supermarkets' failure to follow suit.
'We expected that other retailers would move quickly to do it as well, giving it critical mass, but that hasn't happened,' Tesco's climate change director, Helen Fleming, told The Grocer.
According to a Tesco spokeswoman, the retailer will still aim to provide carbon information on products.
'We are committed to carbon footprinting and effectively communicating this information to our customers, to help them make greener choices,' she told The Guardian. 'We're proud to have carbon footprinted over 1,100 products, of which over time we have labelled 500 with the Carbon Trust - more than any other UK company by sales volume. We know our customers care about product sustainability but there is a real challenge to effectively explain this often complex message in a meaningful way, so we are currently reviewing a range of options.'
A spokesperson for the Carbon trust said that the labelling body was 'disappointed' with Tesco's decision, while Douglas Parr, policy director for Greenpeace UK, was also critical.
'It's very important that Tesco keeps track of their carbon emissions,' the latter said. 'And making these figures available to their shoppers and the Carbon Trust would offer some independent scrutiny. Removing this could lead some people to question how robust Tesco's measurements are, and I'm sure the supermarket giant would want to avoid any accusations of greenwash.'
No comments yet