ClickAJob News

Tesco has agreed to map the carbon footprint of some of its products in a bid to measure the impact the weekly shop has on climate change.

The supermarket giant is to measure the carbon footprint of 30 of its own-brand products, ranging from orange juice to light bulbs.

Britain's biggest retailer has joined up with the Carbon Trust, a government-backed agency committed to fostering the development of a low-carbon economy, to launch the initiative.

Commenting on the move, Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay said: "This project will provide Tesco with a detailed understanding of the impacts of the selected products and how they can drive carbon emissions out of their supply chains."

Mr Delay added that the move would be "crucial" in testing the applicability of a draft standard the Carbon Trust is currently helping the government to develop, in order to measure embodied greenhouse gas emissions from all products and services.

Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy added that the company wanted to help its customers "deliver a revolution in green consumption".

"This work with the Carbon Trust will bring us a step closer to providing the type of information customers need to make greener choices based on good science," he explained.

The government has also welcomed the experiment, with climate change minister Joan Ruddock stressing that measuring the carbon footprints of products made, bought and sold in Britain is a "complicated process".

"As businesses increasingly look for ways to reduce their effect on the environment there is a growing need for a reliable, consistent way to measure these impacts," she said.

The move comes as retailers become increasingly keen to illustrate their green credentials.

Yesterday Sainsbury's, one of Tesco's key rivals, revealed that it intends to make its entire range of own-brand tea 100 per cent fairtrade over the next three years, a move which it claims will make the company the UK's biggest fairtrade tea retailer.