Tesco ditches eco labels

22 February 2012

Supermarket giant Tesco has announced that it will no longer place the Carbon Trust’s carbon reduction label on its products. Tesco has decided to discontinue the program after finding it too time-consuming and expensive to justify. Tesco is one of the world’s largest retail chains, with a reported 5,380 stores across the UK, Europe, Asia and the US, with over 490,000 employees.

Tesco has reported its frustration that other leading supermarkets did not follow in the adoption of the eco labels, meaning that the labels struggled to gain critical mass. Tesco had 500 products labelled in store and 1,100 products researched.

PepsiCo, who also uses carbon labelling on its Walkers brand, reported that it too had been disappointed in the uptake of the scheme, but said that it would continue carbon labelling. Other retailers have defended their decision to ditch carbon footprint labelling, stating that it is impractical for mass use.  

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