Environment

Tesco has vowed to work in tandem with suppliers to achieve its packaging reduction targets.

The UK’s largest retailer committed last month to reducing the amount of packaging on branded and own-label products by 25% by 2010, and a spokesman said it was “in dialogue with our suppliers, and it’s something they’re already working on”.

The retailer, which made record pre-tax profits of £2.65bn for the year to 24 February, will also start labelling its packaging in 2008 according to whether it can be recycled, reused or composted or, indeed, if it cannot.

The spokesman said that although Tesco was only beginning the search for a “universally accepted and commonly understood” measure of the carbon footprint, it was important to cover the whole lifecycle of a product, including transportation.

“The policy to reduce packaging by 25% by weight needs to include all aspects,” he said. “Otherwise it’s meaningless.”