We want the products we sell and the ingredients that go into them to be produced sustainably.

We do this by:

• Applying our ‘Nature’s Choice’ environmental standards to all farms growing produce for Tesco
• Encouraging more customers to choose organic and sourcing more organic products from the UK
• Applying robust policies to cover specific issues such as animal welfare, timber and seafood
• Working with suppliers to improve efficiency in distribution so products travel fewer miles
• Reducing packaging wherever possible

 

Nature's Choice rollout plan

Rollout targeted by volume of supply, product and country risk

View a larger version of this diagram in this window

Nature’s Choice Our unique integrated farm management scheme, ensures our fruit, vegetables and salads are produced to high safety and environmental standards. The scheme is governed by a committee made up of suppliers, an independent academic, an auditor and Tesco managers. In 2005/06, 90% of our suppliers met the scheme’s requirements – we aim to increase this to 100% by 2007.

Over 7,600 farms are registered and are working towards Nature’s Choice requirements. The standards are independently verified. To date 3,400 independent audits have been undertaken in 60 countries.

Nature’s Choice environmental standards:

• Rational use of plant protection products, fertilisers and manures
• Pollution prevention
• Protection of human health
• Responsible use of energy, water and other natural resources
• Recycling and reuse of resources
• Wildlife and landscape conservation and enhancement

Key to Nature’s Choice is our work with suppliers and independent agricultural experts to review the use of pesticides. To date we have examined 10,000 pesticide uses on over 90 crops worldwide. We have stopped 260 uses and 1,000 uses have extra controls in place. The controls and exclusions then lead to a specific plant protection product list for each product.

Wildlife Choice Our three-year biodiversity project, Wildlife Choice, came to a successful conclusion in 2005. The £100,000 project measured the impact of the biodiversity and landscape requirements of Nature’s Choice and tested techniques for increasing biodiversity on seven Nature’s Choice farms.

The scheme has developed improved techniques for producing wild bird cover in the winter, which have since become part of government recommendations. Findings and advice are available on the new Wildlife Choice website, and we hope that other farmers will be able to use this information both to strengthen their biodiversity protection practices and gain funding under the Higher Level Scheme, part of the Common Agricultural Policy.

www.wildlifechoice.com

“Wildlife Choice has tested practical ways for farmers to encourage biodiversity. The participating farms are now in a good position to achieve DEFRA’s Entry Level and ultimately Higher Level agri-environment schemes and reach new standards within the Nature’s Choice audit.”

Dr Nick Sotherton
Game ConservancyTrust
Director of Research

www.wildlifechoice.com

Organic food We have been active in building the market for organics. Our customers buy more organic food from Tesco than from any other retailer and sales have grown by 43% since 2003. One in four customers put at least one organic item into their trolley and we promote our organic range through over one million Clubcard mailings a year.

In 2005/06, customer research showed that many customers were still unaware of the organic produce available in store, so we tested placing organic products next to conventional products in 19 of our stores, rather than in a separate area. Organic produce was made visible through tray liners and point of sale material and we used leaflets to explain to our customers what we had done and why. The change enabled all customers to see the full range. These trial stores saw far higher sales of organic produce and we are now rolling this out to all our stores. We will continue to listen and respond to customer expectations for organic products and in 2006/07 plan to include ‘local’ organic ranges in stores. We are committed to sourcing organic meat and produce from the UK – we want 100% of the organic meat and milkwe sell to be British. We are working with our suppliers and the wider industry to encourage moves to organic production to increase the availability of British organic products. For example, St Albans-based supplier, Glinwell, moved from standard salad production to become our largest supplier of organic produce.

Animal welfare We demand high standards of animal welfare and have livestock codes of practice which cover all aspects of animal husbandry, animal welfare requirements, environmental impact and food safety factors. All our UK meat, poultry, eggs and farmed fish suppliers must be members of an independently audited and certified farm assurance scheme. We also ensure overseas suppliers to UK stores comply with standards equivalent to the UK.

We employ a dedicated team of agricultural specialists to ensure that farmed animals are reared for Tesco in a humane and compassionate manner. We also use a number of specialist consultants, including a consultant veterinarian with a certificate in animal welfare, to develop our Codes of Practice. We ensure that our standards are met by using our internal team of agricultural experts and independent auditors who carry out thirdparty inspections.

Over the past six years we have committed more than £1 million to support research and initiatives in this area such as the Oxford University’s Food and Animal Initiative (FAI). This initiative aims to research and develop sustainable farm systems that provide benefits to animal welfare, the environment and human health, within a commercial framework, and to share their knowledge with farmers and the general public.

Animal testing We do not support testing on animals for cosmetic or household purposes and therefore do not carry out such tests on our own-brand products or the ingredients in them. Nor does anyone carry out testing for cosmetic or household purposes on our behalf. The EU has set a provisional timetable for banning all animal testing for the purposes of developing new cosmetics. We want to help make this timetable a reality, and are therefore playing our part in funding alternatives to animal testing. As a fivestar donor, Tesco contributes £10,000 a year to the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experimentation (FRAME), which seeks to end animal testing.

Seafood Tesco is committed to the principle of sustainability in our seafood sourcing. We recognise that we can only continue to meet customer demands for this healthy food choice if we play our part in protecting the long-term future of wild fish populations and work with the sea fishing industry and NGOs towards greater sustainability.

Our website includes detailed information on our policy and species we sell:

www.tesco.com/fish

Our fresh fish sourcing policy is based on four key principles:

• To avoid stocking wild fish from over-fished or vulnerable stocks Our first choice is to source seafood from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries and we actively encourage well-managed fisheries to seek certification. To ensure we are stocking species which are not being over-exploited we regularly review scientific, government and NGO information including the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) Fishonline website which grades species according to their inherent vulnerability, stock status, management and methods of capture.
• In 2005/06, four of the species we sold (dogfish/huss, skate/ray, monkfish and halibut) were rated as ‘Fish to Avoid’ by the MCS. We are currentlyworking with our suppliers, the industry and NGOs to find sustainable options for sourcing these species. In March 2006, we launched sustainable organic cod.
• To support sustainable sourcing initiatives We support the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and sell more MSC certified products than any other supermarket. In 2005/06 all fresh fish counters were MSC certified which enabled us to improve our customer offer. In June 2006 we will be providing £34,000 funding for the MSC Environmental Benefits Workshop which will bring together scientific experts to evaluate the environmental achievements of the MSC and lay the foundations for a long-term monitoring and evaluation framework to track progress in improving the state of the world’s fisheries.

www.fishonline.org

In 2005/06 we took part in research on seafood sourcing conducted by the Marine Conservation Society, Greenpeace, Forum for the Future, Seafood Choices Alliance and the Packard Foundation. We regularly meet the MSC and MCS to ensure we are doing all we can to support sustainable sourcing initiatives.

• To work with suppliers and the industry to improve sustainability of fisheries and fishing methods To improve sustainability of fisheries and fishing methods we specify catching methods that minimise harm to other species, minimum landing sizes in excess of current legal minimums to avoid catching juvenile fish, and establish timings for catch which avoid spawning cycles. For example, we replace fresh plaice with previously frozen plaice during the plaice spawning cycle and only sell mature cod and haddock with minimum fish fillet sizes that correspond to the mature fish sizes.
• To promote sustainable fish species By increasing the range of sustainable seafood we stock, providing clear origin labelling, training our staff in sustainability issues and promoting MSC in store, we can encourage customers to make informed choices about the fish they buy. We regularly review species on the MCS ‘Fish to Eat’ list with a view to stocking more sustainable species and diversifying customer tastes. In 2005/06 we introduced mahi mahi, seabream and red mullet to our customers. In 2006/07, we will be introducing organic farmed cod and MSC-certified cod.

We have trained 900 fish counter staff in sustainability issues as part of our ‘Pride in our Counters’ training in 2005.

We believe that aquaculture can make a contribution to protecting wild fish stocks if it is sensitivelymanaged and have demonstrated our commitment to sustainable fish farming by developing farmed fish codes of practice that cover environmental, animal health and welfare food safety issues. All fish farms supplying Tesco are independently audited in line with the inspections we carry out for all other farmed animals.

www.msc.org

www.mcsuk.org

Genetically modified foods Our policy on Genetically Modified (GM) foods is driven by the view of our customers. They continue to tell us that they are not yet convinced of the benefits of GM. We do not therefore have any own-brand GM foods on our shelves.

Use of GM feed is prohibited in organic products, which means that all of our organic meats are fed on non-GM feed.

The farming community has told us that to extend the range of meat we sell from animals fed on non- GM would put immense pressure on them. We will keep an open mind as the technology develops, listening and responding to our customers. We remain committed to clear labelling to enable customers to make an informed choice. All branded products containing GM ingredients are labelled as such.

Palm Oil We sell a wide range of products, both own-brand and branded, many of which have palm oil as an ingredient. We do not buy palm oil directly. Almost all of the palm oil used by the manufacturers of our own-brand products is bought through three of the world’s largest palm oil traders, all of whom are members or affiliate members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). We are committed to sustainable sourcing and fully support the aims of the RSPO. We will also seek to identify the source of the small amount of palm oil which does not come from the three major suppliers, to ensure that it too meets the necessary sustainability criteria.

Timber We want to make sure that the timber we buy is from legal, sustainable sources. We will never knowingly purchase timber from illegal sources. All sources of timber for our garden furniture are either Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved or members of the Tropical Forest Trust (TFT) committed to achieving the FSC standard through the SGS certification support programme. All suppliers of these products are asked what species of wood they use and where it comes from. Every six months an external consultant collates supplier information and conducts a risk assessment to determine which need auditing and further checks. All our paperwork relating to these products is also audited by a third party.

www.fsc-uk.info

We invested over £11 million in reducing organic prices in 2005/06.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neos Estate, South Africa, has supplied Tesco with grapefruits for over five years. The farm is Nature’s Choice certified and has worked hard to reduce its impact on the environment by using power from its own hydro-electric power plant, rehabilitating wetland and setting up an indigenous tree nursery to grow and plant native trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are committed to sourcing organic meat and produce from the UK. In 2005/06, 71% of our organic beef was sourced in the UK, an increase of 19% from 2004/05

 

 

 

 

 

Harry Irwin supplies us with the majority of our free-range and organic broiler chickens. His business has doubled in the last three years and we have plans in place to help him grow over the next five years to help us respond to growing demand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All fish farms supplying Tesco are independently audited

 

We have received grade A rating in the Greenpeace Garden Furniture Guide for the second year running.