Brand Review, Tesco
Tesco - is not Litegreen
When it comes to supermarkets, our first piece of advice is always do what you can to shop locally and put some money and character back into your community.
Tesco is both much loved and much maligned.
Are they consumer champions or an arrogant giant, trampling suppliers, communities, competitors, even regulators underfoot; leaving nothing but faceless clone towns in their path?
Well who knows, maybe both, but this is not a question for us to answer. After all it is hard enough deciding if they are Litegreen.
On the plus side, according to the Ethical Consumer Research Association (ECRA) they receive a good rating for their Environmental Report and are also members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) (the ETI commits members to an agreed Code of Conduct).
While this is generally a great sign, ECRA also recognise that despite these clear policies Tesco pick up such a string of criticisms that they still achieve one of our overall worst scores.
Similarly in the National Consumer Council report 'Greening Supermarkets' they receive a D rating (firms are ranked A to E) which is classed as 'Room for Improvement'.
Clearly not Litegreen then. But wait a second. We are more interested in the present than the past. Has anything changed?
And yes it has. The supermarkets have undergone a revolution in the last few months. They've spotted the increasing concern about climate change and Workers Rights and now want to do battle over who can be the 'greenest'.
In a speech in January 2007, Sir Terry Leahy (Tesco CEO) announced Tesco's intention to 'be a leader in helping to create a low-carbon economy'.
There are all sorts of initiatives underway the most impressive of which is to include a carbon footprint for every product they sell. CO2 emissions are perhaps the biggest threat currently facing the planet so this is an incredibly positive move.
So in our final conclusion the verdict is still no, they do not receive a rating. We are pleased and excited by Sir Terry's words, but we will need to see more action before we could consider them Litegreen. They have started the journey but some of their competitors are further down the line.
So the verdict may be no but perhaps Tesco say it best themselves:
'Every little helps'
Find out more about the Litegreen rating criteria click here.
