Tesco (TSCO.L) the world’s third-largest food retailer launched its much-publicized carbon labeling system today for 20 products, including potatoes, orange juice, dish detergent and light bulbs.
The goal of the project, which is supported by Britain’s government-funded Carbon Trust, is to measure the greenhouse gas emissions associated with each product from "seed to store." In doing so, Tesco hopes to mobilize a concerned public to put pressure on companies to improve the climate changing effects of their products.
However, determining the carbon footprint of a bag of potato chips has proven to be much more complicated than testing its caloric or fat content. As a result the company had to invest in significant research just to gather the necessary information for a small pilot program of 20 products.
"Let’s see what the response to this is and in the meantime we’ll measure the emissions of more products," said David North, Tesco’s community and government director.
None of the 20 products were air-freighted, because determining the contribution of aviation to global warming is proving to be especially complicated, Tesco said.
Likewise there is still great disagreement over the carbon cost of biofuels, which is only one of the tricky debates that would have to be settled, before an industry- or company-wide labeling system could be put into place.
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