20 Sep 2017

Tesco announces ground-breaking partnerships with suppliers to tackle UN Sustainable Development Goal on food waste.

Speaking at a meeting of Champions 12.3 in New York today, Dave Lewis, CEO, Tesco announced partnership agreements with 24 of its largest food suppliers who will adopt the Sustainable Development Goal to halve food waste by 2030[1]. The suppliers, who represent over £17bn worth of Tesco sales, will publish food waste data for their own operations within 12 months, and have committed to take the steps needed to reduce food waste in their supply chain as well as innovating to make it easier for consumers to reduce waste in their homes.

In addition, Tesco announced its businesses in the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary have published their food waste data, following four years of publication in the UK. The move builds on Tesco's commitment to transparency on food waste data to use that information to help reduce food waste in its operations.

Leading food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart welcomed the news outlining Tesco as 'the world-leading supermarket' on reporting food waste:

'We have been challenging Tesco and other supermarkets on transparent reporting of food waste for years now. This commitment to ensure that supply chain waste is measured and reported makes Tesco the world-leading supermarket on transparent food waste reporting, and represents a significant step towards meeting the global goal to halve food waste by 2030. It's time for other businesses to follow suit, and for Tesco, along with the rest of the world's supermarkets, to demonstrate, if they can, that their businesses are not inherently wasteful.'

In his speech, Mr Lewis said:

'Great progress has been made, but the reality is that we need many more companies, countries or cities committing to halve food waste by 2030, measuring and publishing their data and acting on that insight to tackle food waste. I am delighted that many of our major suppliers have taken this important step so we can work in partnership to reduce food waste'

The suppliers involved in the agreement are: Yeo Valley; Gomez; Branston; Greencore; Icelandic Seachill; AMT; DPS; Kepak Meat Division; G's; Allied Bakeries; Moy Park; Richard Hochfeld; Ornua; Cranswick; Samworths; 2SFG; Hilton; Espersen; Greenyard Frozen; Müller Milk & Ingredients; Kerry Foods; Bakkavor; Froneri; Noble.

The supplier agreement is the first struck between a major retailer and its food suppliers. It follows agreements over the last 12 months at The Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) and Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) with branded suppliers to align efforts around Champions 12.3 goals.

Notes to editors

Champions 12.3

Tesco's CEO, Dave Lewis, chairs a coalition of leaders from government, businesses, international organisations, research institutions, and civil society called Champions 12.3. This group is dedicated to accelerating progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Target 12.3 by 2030.

Target 12.3 is to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and reduce food losses along production and supply chains by 2030.

Champions 12.3 offers three recommendations for leaders to meet Target 12.3 by 2030:

  • Target: Targets set ambition, and ambition motivates action. Every country, major city and company involved in the food supply chain should set food loss and waste reduction targets consistent with Target 12.3 in order to ensure sufficient attention and focus.
  • Measure: What gets measured gets managed. The report recommends governments and companies quantify and report on food loss and waste and monitor progress over time through 2030.
  • Act: Impact only occurs if people act. Governments and companies should accelerate and scale up adoption of policies, incentives, investment and practices that reduce food loss and waste.

In March 2017 Champions 12.3 released a report showing the business case for taking action on food waste. Based on analysis covering 1,200 business sites across 700 companies in 17 countries - representing the manufacturing, retail, hospitality and food service industries - the report shows that almost every time a business made an investment in curbing food waste, there was a positive return on that investment. For every $1 invested in reducing food waste, half the business sites had at least a $14 return.

The new SDG Target 12.3 on Food Loss and Waste: 2017 Progress report highlights progress to date and includes a roadmap of required actions by companies, countries and cities if the world to halve food waste by 2030.

For more information, visit www.Champions123.org

[1] 23 of Tesco's largest suppliers will adopt the 2030 target for their global operations and one for their UK operations.

For more information about our food waste click here.

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