Tesco and WWF are collaborating to measure the environment impact of some of the UK’s most popular foods.
The Tesco and WWF Sustainable Basket Metric will track the environmental impact of a sample of some of the most regularly purchased foods against key sustainability criteria, including climate change, deforestation and food and packaging waste.
The organisations will run a first full assessment against the metric in early 2020 and publish the results. They will also then be able to confirm a date by which they believe the target of halving the impact of the average UK shopping basket can be reached, with 2030 a potential ambition.
The products included in the basket have been selected due to their popularity with customers and the different impacts each product has on the environment. The basket includes household staples such as bread, milk, meat, fish, and fruit and vegetables.
Tanya Steele, CEO of WWF UK, said: “Food production is at the core of many of the environmental crises facing our planet – it’s the leading cause of tropical deforestation and is responsible for 24% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
“The launch of the Sustainable Basket Metric will enable Tesco to fully understand the end-to-end sustainability impact of some of the most popular foods, and we’re proud to have worked with them to create it.
“We want other retailers to take a similar approach and come together to ensure a more sustainable approach to food production.”
