No let up in supermarkets' drive to go green

London, Tuesday June 19 2007

Being eco-friendly is such a big concern for consumers these days that almost all new supermarket initiatives seem to be environmentally based. In the last three weeks, for example, everything from coconuts to carrier bags has been given the green treatment.

Tesco has been among those shouting loudest. It announced that its online service Tesco.com will now offer a plastic-bag free delivery in response to customer concerns about the number of bags used for home shopping.

Customers who select the “delivery without bags” option will have their products delivered in stackable green trays instead of the old plastic bags. To encourage this option, the supermarket is also offering Green Clubcard points to customers who choose it.

“Home delivery without bags is a win with our customers and with the environment,” said Laura Wade-Gery, CEO of Tesco.com. “This is just the latest step in the work we are doing to minimise our impact on the environment and help our customers do the same.”

Indeed Tesco has committed itself to saving one billion carrier bags per year through a range of similar schemes. However, charging for the use of plastic bags - a technique that has brought dramatic success in other countries - is not an option currently being considered, according to the Tesco press office.

But Tesco is championing very loudly its commitment to `localchoice' milk with a huge advertising campaign featuring Martin Clunes and Fay Ripley.

The 'localchoice' campaign is part of a £25 million annual investment Tesco announced last month to boost the British Dairy industry. It has raised the price 'localchoice' farmers receive to around 23 pence per litre, which it claims is the best price currently being paid for local milk by any supermarket.

“Many of our customers have told us they want us to make it easier for them to buy food which is genuinely local to their area,” said Kari Daniels, Chilled Food Category Director for Tesco. “This latest advertising campaign reinforces our commitment to 'localchoice' and spreads the word to more customers that they now have the chance to support, through their own buying decisions, the farming they want to sustain into the future.”

Not to be outdone, Sainsbury's is concentrating on upping its range of Fairtrade products. Already the UK's leading Fairtrade retailer, Sainsbury's recently announced that it will only stock Fairtrade coconuts. According to a statement, the supermarket sold 320,000 coconuts last year meaning that it will be the biggest retailer of Fairtrade coconuts in the UK following the switch.

Bananas are next on the agenda and will be100% Fairtrade by July 2007.

The supermarket estimates that the coconut switch alone will generate a social premium of around £20,000 which will be returned to the growers in St Lucia and their communities.

"This conversion to 100% only strengthens our commitment to Fairtrade,” said Sainsbury's Coconut buyer, Lee Turner. “We have been selling coconuts for decades and saw a real increase in sales after introducing Fairtrade coconuts back in June 2002, so it made sense to move completely to 100% Fairtrade."

Morrisons, meanwhile, have been focusing on recycling and a new “Recyclopedia” labeling scheme that aims to increase awareness of what can be recycled and where.

The label, which will eventually feature on all Morrisons' own-brand products, will have three different categories of symbol marking products that are 100% recyclable, partly recyclable or not recyclable. It will also contain information on finding out where the product can be recycled.

“Recycling is one of the simplest and most effective things we can do to protect the environment,” said Amanda Barry Hirst from Recycle Now. “We welcome initiatives like Recyclopedia as a good way to raise public awareness and help people to recycle more.”