Sustainability Overview
WWF Partnership
In 2018, we began an industry-leading partnership with WWF – with a shared aim to halve the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket.
Our Approach
With food production at the centre of many environmental issues, we came together with a shared ambition: to make it easier for customers to access an affordable, healthy and sustainable diet. Through the partnership we aim to halve the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket.
We’re focusing on three key areas:
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1. Helping customers to eat more sustainably.
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2. Restoring nature in food production.
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3. Eliminating waste.
1. Helping customers to eat more sustainably.
• We want to make it easier for people to make healthy choices from sustainable sources. Our research shows us that customers want this too – 80% say supermarkets should offer more responsibly sourced food. We are working to transform products across our entire range to make sustainable diets easier to follow and afford.
• By finding ways to feed the world more sustainably and affordably, using fewer resources, we can improve the health of our planet and people.
• That means driving improvements at every point in our food system. From what we eat, to the way it is sourced and made, the way it’s packaged, the way it’s transported and the way it’s sold.
2. Restoring nature in food production.
• We believe it’s possible to produce all the food we need within a thriving farming sector that protects the natural resources it depends on.
• As a business we’ve committed to leading the industry in addressing the sustainability challenges and environmental impacts in our supply chains, and to help protect our natural resources.
• Restoring nature in food production means taking action to protect and sustain these natural environments for the long-term. We’re working closely with WWF to meet some of the commitments we’ve made, and have prioritised the areas we have an impact through our operations or sourcing of ingredients or raw materials – farmlands, forests, marine, freshwater and climate.
3. Eliminating waste.
• Nearly a third of food produced never even makes it to the table, and UK households throw away on average approximately £800 of perfectly good food every year. Meanwhile, packaging plays an important role in protecting products and reducing food waste, but it shouldn’t come at an unaffordable cost to the planet.
• In partnership, we’ve published a highly impactful report Driven to Waste: Global Food Loss on Farms that highlights the scale and impact of waste which occurs before leaving the farm.
• Our partnership has committed to taking a lead in bringing these issues to the attention of key stakeholders including industry members, NGOs and governments – to help eliminate both these sources of waste.
Sustainable basket metric
• To reach our partnership goal of halving the environmental impact of the average shopping basket, we needed to better understand and track the entire ‘food value chain’, from food production (farming, fishing and manufacturing) and food delivery (transportation, packaging and stores), right through to food consumption (food waste and dietary choice).
• To do this, in 2019, we launched a pioneering industry measure of the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket, based on key foods and ingredients.
In November 2021 at COP 26, WWF relaunched the WWF Basket together with UK retailers with an ambitious aim to halve the environmental impact of UK baskets by 2030.
Alongside others in the industry, we pledged to reduce our impact across climate, deforestation and nature by 2030 in the WWF ‘Retailers Commitment for Nature’
“Our food system is the biggest cause of biodiversity loss globally and is responsible for more than a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. If we're going to tackle the climate crisis and restore our natural world then all of us – businesses, customers, policymakers – have to work together to transform the way we produce and consume food, here in the UK and around the world. Tesco shares this vision and, as one of the world's biggest food retailers, they have the scale and ambition to drive real change. Since 2018 we've been working in partnership with Tesco on a wide-ranging programme aimed at halving the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket. Our work to date has included encouraging agricultural innovation to help UK farmers work better with nature; advocating for change within the food industry to make global supply chains greener; and helping customers to make healthier, more sustainable choices. We're proud to be working alongside Tesco in this crucial decade for the climate and nature.”
