Tesco has become the latest high profile name to join the growing list of major corporations pledging to source 100 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030 as part of the global RE100 initiative.
The supermarket giant quietly joined the RE100 programme earlier this month, with a listing on the group’s website confirming that it plans to source 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 with at least half the total coming from onsite generation and power purchase agreements with direct suppliers.
In addition, the supermarket has set an interim target to source 65 per cent of its power needs from renewable electricity by 2020.
The firm joins more than 90 companies, including a host of high profile names such as IKEA, Gatwick Airport and Philips, as part of the RE100 campaign.
The news came as it also emerged that Tesco has become one of 44 global companies to have had its emissions reduction goals approved by the Science-Based Targets (SBT) initiative, which encourages businesses to adopt emissions targets in line with that required to keep global temperature increases below 2C of warming.
Under its SBT plan, Tesco has committed to reducing its scope 1 and scope 2 operational and energy-related greenhouse gases by 60 per cent by 2025 against a baseline of 2015. It has also pledged to reduce its scope 3 supply chain emissions by 17 per cent by 2030.
More than 250 companies around the world have now signed up or had their targets approved under the SBT initiative, including Coca-Cola, Enel, Kellog Company.
The latest moves from Tesco follow a series of environmental pledges from the retail giant. Over the past year, Tesco has also pledged to phase out plastic microbeads from its products, and launched a new food waste hotline to help reduce waste in its supply chain.
Tesco was considering a request for comment at the time of going to press.
Source: businessgreen.com
