Tesco to launch carbon labels

Tesco has today announced that it is just weeks away from debuting carbon labels on some of its products designed to let customers assess the climate change impact of their purchasing decisions.

The labels, which have been developed in conjunction with The Carbon Trust, are expected to feature on varieties of orange juice, potatoes, energy-efficient light bulbs and washing detergent, and will inform shoppers of the amount of CO2 equivalent released into the atmosphere through the products' manufacture and distribution. It will also compare the products' carbon footprint with the average carbon footprint for its category.

Tesco said the aim of the trial was to "help customers become familiar with the new currency of CO2" and provide them with the information they require to make greener shopping choices.

The labels will display more data than the first wave of carbon labels launched last year by The Carbon Trust, which featured on products from Walkers, Boots and Innocent Smoothies and simply displayed the products' carbon footprint in grams and a downward arrow representing a commitment to reducing emissions further.

A spokeswoman for The Carbon Trust said that the new Tesco labels represented the latest step in a long-running project to develop the most effective means of communicating carbon data to customers.

"Since launch we have been gathering feedback from our partners as to how consumers have responded to the label," she said. "This feedback and extensive consumer research has contributed to the label's development and we expect the design to evolve as we strive to establish the clearest and most engaging way to help consumers understand the carbon footprint of the services and products they buy."

The announcement – which comes as Tesco unveiled record annual profits of £2.8bn for last year – is the highlight in a series of green announcements from the retail giant.

The company also said that it is to build the largest privately-funded solar facility in the Czech Republic at its Postrizin distribution centre and is aiming to cut use of single use carrier bags in its stores by 50 per cent on 2006 levels through the use of incentives for customers. It added that its policy of offering customers points on their store reward card for not using plastic carrier bags meant it was on track to save one billion bags over the next year.