Tesco measures carbon footprint of own products

Tesco and the Carbon Trust have launched an initiative to measure the carbon footprint of 30 of the supermarket giant’s own-branded products as part of a project to assess and develop a carbon labelling standard.

The items will fall into five categories – tomatoes, potatoes, orange juice, light bulbs and washing detergent – and will be assessed using a draft standard being developed by the Carbon Trust, BSI British Standards and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Joan Ruddock (pictured), climate change minister, says: “Measuring the carbon footprint of the products we make, buy and sell 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.”

The project will provide information on how the standard, called the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050, can be applied in a cost-effective, simple way.