Monday, January 22, 2007

Tesco's carbon rating

Some good news from UK's retail giant Tesco (from the Financial Times):

Tesco will become the first supermarket chain to assign a "carbon rating" to everything it sells in the latest attempt by a retailer to cash in on consumers' concerns about the environment.

The fifth-largest retail chain said on Thursday it would work with Oxford University's environmental change institute to create an index to measure the carbon required to produce, transport and consume every product it sells...

...Labels showing energy content could encourage shoppers to opt for lower carbon goods. This could boost local suppliers to Tesco stores and encourage manufacturers to cut carbon emissions in order to attract shoppers to their brands...

...The retailer said it would spend up to £500m during the next five years in reducing energy use. It has already put £100m into a sustainable technology fund. Its capital expenditure budget is about £3bn a year.

Sustainable consumption has become a hot topic for retailers over the past year as they look to win over the growing legions of shoppers who are expressing concerns about the environment.

This is great news to see the trends going this way, and making it easier for us to make better-informed "votes" at the cash register. Hopefully this will also make the choice between "local or organic" easier - while work towards the time when everything will be both.

Check out the full story: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/133d5be4-a718-11db-83e4-0000779e2340.html

Stay going.

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