Partnerships

We co-chair the Sustainability Pillar of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF). The CGF is a global network bringing together CEOs and senior management of over 650 retailers, manufacturers and service providers from over 70 countries. The Sustainability Steering Committee identifies projects where we can work together collaboratively to improve the sustainability profile of the retail industry.

Find out more about the sustainability pillar of the CGF

We are an active member of REAP. In 2008 the EU Commission called for the establishment of a Retail Forum to help achieve more sustainable consumption and production in Europe. The retail sector went a step further and developed REAP to:

• Identify opportunities and barriers to sustainable consumption and production;
• Share best practices;
• Identify key challenges ahead; and
• Report on progress of actions.

Find out more about REAP

Tesco is an active member of IGD, the food industry's research organisation and hub of best practice. As well as being a corporate member, contributing to the funding of IGD's charitable activities Tesco sit on eleven IGD industry groups, including sustainability, nutrition and supply chain.

Find out more about the IGD's charitable activities

We are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which unites stakeholders from the seven sectors of the palm oil industry to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.

We co-sponsor the European Retail representative on the RSPO executive board.

The representative has a formal contract with the group and deals with all RSPO matters on our behalf and has to get a working majority from the group for any Executive Board votes.

As part of our commitment to Sustainable Palm Oil, we have promised from 2012, we will only accept UK products using palm oil that is fully traceable – so that by 2015 all the palm oil in our UK own-brand products will come from sustainable sources.

We work with WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) in its work to help businesses to reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way.  We are specifically a signatory to its industry-wide Courtauld 2 commitment to reduce packaging and waste by 2012, against a baseline of 2009.  As part of this we have committed to:

• reduce the weight, increase recycling rates and increase the recycled content of grocery packaging, lowering its carbon impact by 10%;
• reduce UK household food and drink waste by 4%; and
• reduce product and packaging waste in the supply chain by 5%.

Together, Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer Scotland were our Tesco Charity of the Year for 2011.

We raised £7.5 million to support people suffering from dementia, smashing our £5 million target and making it our biggest-ever UK partnerhsip.

Tesco and the have been working together to help people affected by disasters and emergencies for over ten years.

This year we donated a total of £100,000 to the Japan earthquake and Tsunami, the East African food crisis and the earthquake in Turkey.

Tesco have worked with The Football Association since 2007 to get kids in England active through The FA Tesco Skills Programme.

Delivered by The Football Association and funded by Tesco and Sport England, the programme employs over 100 specialist youth coaches who provide free coaching to 5 to 11 year old boys and girls in Primary Schools, at dedicated after-school ‘Skills Centre’ clubs and out in the community.

The revolutionary style of coaching ensures that this programme is about more than just football and the children also improve their social skills, decision making and confidence.

We have provided three million places on FA Tesco Skills courses so far.

Find out more about the FA Tesco Skills Programme

Tesco Bank's four year partnership with the Scottish FA aims to use the power of football to get primary school children active, not only at school but to establish long lasting activity week in week out.

Over the four years the programme with involve over 72,000 youngsters, boys and girls of all levels and abilities in 1,600 primary schools, across Scotland’s 32 local authorities, with 500,000 hours of activity.

The programme builds confidence whilst teaching children about nutrition, sportsmanship and the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

We began supporting Mary’s Meals, an international charity providing meals for schoolchildren, through the Tesco Charity Trust in 2009. Tesco’s support provides meals for over 4,000 schoolchildren in India, Kenya, Malawi and Thailand every year.

Inspired by this initial support, our International Sourcing Office in Bangalore decided to take their own project forward, and has been working with Mary’s Meals to provide food and primary education to children without access to government schools.

We now provide all the funding for a centre run by Mary’s Meals in Bangalore, which caters for around 40 children each day. Our involvement has lead to improved sanitation and drainage facilities at the centre, as well as clean drinking water, stationery, clothing and utensils.

Last year, we asked all of the schools involved in Tesco for Schools & Clubs to donate their unwanted vouchers to Mary’s Meals, raising over £2,700.

Find out more about Mary's meals

Tesco are proud to have supported Race for Life for eleven years. Since Race for Life began an incredible 6 million participants across the UK have raised over £450 million to fund the work of over 4,000 researchers, doctors and nurses dedicated to helping more people beat cancer.

This year our UK Charity of the Year is Cancer Research UK. We are aiming to raise £10 million to be spent on research and awareness to improve early diagnosis and detection of the disease, help more people survive cancer and keep more families together.

Find out more about Cancer Research UK's Race for Life