Tesco has reaffirmed its commitment to addressing water pollution and risk in the food industry. It unveiled a comprehensive Nature Programme to foster a shift towards a nature-positive food system.
The Nature Programme, a successor to the Tesco WWF Partnership that formally concluded earlier this month, focuses on five key action areas. These include safeguarding nature in vital sourcing landscapes domestically and internationally, upscaling innovative measures supporting biodiversity, executing a nature plan within its estate and operations, maintaining leadership in researching challenges related to nature and the food system, and actively participating in cross-sector engagement.
Building upon the groundwork laid by the Tesco WWF Partnership, Tesco pledged to work collaboratively with WWF and fellow retailers within WWF's Retailers' Commitment for Nature Group. Simultaneously, the company committed to developing initiatives collaborating with suppliers and farmers.
Tesco affirmed its dedication to water stewardship efforts in crucial UK and global sourcing areas. This commitment involved substantial multi-year support for WRAP's Courtauld 2030 Water Roadmap, aspiring to source 50 percent of the UK's fresh food and drink sustainably by 2030. The heightened support aimed to fund on-the-ground collective action projects, addressing water risk in areas most impacted by UK food and drink production.
Additionally, Tesco urged key suppliers in the River Wye catchment, a region vital for food production grappling with water pollution, to align with the Courtauld 2030 Water Roadmap. The company encouraged them to swiftly embrace third-party environmental certification schemes and join WRAP's Water Roadmap and the Wye & Usk Collective Action Project.
The Nature Programme sought to advance Tesco's initiatives in implementing cutting-edge innovations across its supply chains to reduce emissions and protect nature. This included promoting biodiversity monitoring technologies and supporting farmers' adoption of low-carbon fertilisers.
Tesco had previously completed the LEAF Marque certification rollout across its UK fruit and veg supply chains earlier in the year. Through the Nature Programme, the company aimed to enhance habitats for biodiversity by incorporating nature corridors, riverbank planting, and hedgerows, building on the work of its LEAF Marque-certified produce growers.
Ashwin Prasad, Tesco's chief commercial officer, emphasised the need for transformative change in the UK's food system to combat significant declines in nature and biodiversity. The Nature Programme, he asserted, aimed to leverage the passion of suppliers, growers, and producers to create a food system ensuring biodiversity protection and a sustainable supply of affordable, healthy food.
In collaboration with Natcap, Tesco had undertaken a comprehensive mapping of metrics to understand nature-related impacts and pressures in its supply chains. This effort resulted in a framework for nature monitoring at a supply chain level, supporting the implementation of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) reporting framework.
In addition to biodiversity protection in its supply chains, Tesco committed to embedding a strategy for protecting nature across its estate, with detailed plans to be disclosed in the upcoming year. The initiatives outlined in the Nature Programme were positioned to contribute to Tesco's ambitious net-zero targets, recently validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).
