Tesco 2007 Annual Report Download - page 17

15
OPERATING AND
FINANCIAL REVIEW
Community, environment and corporate responsibility
People tell us they want us to use our size and reach to be a
force for good in society. To help us meet this challenge we
decided in 2006 to introduce a new Community Plan. This
is part of our Steering Wheel, setting out objectives that
the business will deliver. It will ensure we provide the right
resources, energy and focus to meet the expectations of
our customers and other stakeholders in this area.
We have made significant progress this year on the Community
Plan and on our key objectives of being a good neighbour in
the communities we serve and being fair, responsible and
honest, particularly on the environment. This has been
recognised through our continued inclusion in FTSE4Good
and Dow Jones Sustainability indices.
Environment
• We have committed to reduce the amount of packaging
on both branded and Tesco own label products by 25%
by 2010. We will also label all our packaging according to
whether it can be re-used, recycled or composted – and
if it cannot, we will label that too. The first labelled products
will be on our shelves by 2008.
• In the UK, Tesco has achieved an absolute reduction in
energy use in our buildings, despite growing sales by 9%
and sales area by over 7%. We have achieved this by
making energy reduction a top priority throughout our
business – from the boardroom through to our staff
working in our stores.
• We are beginning the search for a universally accepted
and commonly understood measure of the carbon
footprint of our products covering their lifecycle from
manufacture through to use. This will enable us to label all
our products so that customers can compare their carbon
footprint as easily as they can currently compare prices or
nutritional profiles.
• Our Green Clubcard scheme – rewarding customers with
extra Clubcard points for environmentally friendly behaviour
– is helping us to meet our target of reducing carrier bags
by 25% by 2008. Over 400m bags have already been saved
since the scheme launched in August 2006.
• We are also encouraging customers to make a difference
by making green products more affordable. For example,
we have halved the price of energy-efficient light bulbs
making them even more cost-effective than traditional light
bulbs over their life-span.
• The rapid growth in sales of organic food is testimony to
the fact that people will make greener choices if we give
them the right information, opportunity and incentive. The
competitive pricing of organic products means that, for
many, they are no longer luxury items. We now sell them
alongside the standard ranges, on the same shelves,
instead of in a separate section. We have improved the
range and this has helped to generate 40% year-on-year
growth in sales.
Health
• We are well on our way to our target of encouraging two
million people to be physically active in events organised
or sponsored by Tesco in the build up to the London 2012
Olympics. For example, over 240,000 people took part in
the Tesco Great School Run, setting a Guinness World
Record in the process, and 750,000 women took part in
the Cancer Research Race for Life in 2006/07, which has
been supported by Tesco for the last five years.
• We are the first supermarket to complete front of pack
nutritional labelling on all of our 6,600 eligible own-brand
products.
Community and Charities
• We were pleased to be one of the first retailers to enter
into Local Employment Partnerships, a new Government
initiative announced in the recent Budget, whereby we will
increase the prospects for unemployed people to get an
interesting job and an opportunity to get on. This builds
on our groundbreaking Tesco Regeneration Partnerships
which have revitalised the prospects and opportunities
for almost 4,000 people including long term unemployed,
single parents, disabled and redundant workers, through
our unique job guarantee for everyone who completes
our training.
• Our Community Conference in partnership with the British
Red Cross and the Work Foundation brought together
voluntary groups, charities, businesses and Government
to explore the role of business in local communities.
• We have raised £3.4m for our 2006 Charity of the Year,
Whizz Kidz, which provides disabled children with their own
customised mobility equipment. This is more than double
our original £1.5m target, and is the highest amount raised
in any Charity of the Year partnership to date.
• Our 2007 Charity of the Year is the British Red Cross.
As well as aiming to raise £2m, we are also working with
them to develop a volunteering scheme for our staff,
giving them paid time off to make a positive contribution
to local communities.
• We are helping schools through our Computers for Schools,
and Sports for Schools and Clubs schemes. We have now
given away over £108m in computer equipment since
Computers for Schools launched in 1992, and in 2006/07
gave away over £7.5m worth of equipment and lessons
through Schools for Sports and Clubs.