Tesco unveils CSR results

Tesco has revealed it donated £57 million to charitable causes around the world representing 1.9 per cent of pre-tax profits, according to its annual corporate responsibility report.

The new report, which sets out Tesco's policies on social, environmental and ethical issues and performance across the Tesco group, also revealed that it created more than 4,000 jobs in the UK and 24,000 worldwide for long-term unemployed people, through its jobs guarantee programme.

The UK’s number-one retailer also set out targets for 2009, including pledging to double the number of people on its Apprenticeship in Retail programme; continuing to run Managing Disability with Confidence courses in 2009-10; communicating its refreshed Values programme to every member of staff in every country (except the US, where Values has only just launched); and creating 26,000 jobs across all its markets.

Tesco also continued to show efforts in tackling climate change though carbon labelling and opening its first new format environmental store in Cheetham Hill, which has a 70 per cent lower carbon footprint than an equivalent store built in 2006, and will be a model for future stores.

Tesco ceo Sir Terry Leahy said in the report’s introduction: “I believe now more than ever is the time to show leadership, supporting our customers and our staff as they face challenging economic circumstances, and tackling the issues that matter to communities and society and by running our business responsibly and efficiently and reducing carbon emissions and costs - making progress on the environment and helping our customers save money."

The retailer said it had assessed risk at all its suppliers' sites and increased the number of high-risk sites audited to 87 per cent (up from 73 per cent last year), but there is still work to do to meet its target of auditing 100 per cent of high-risk sites.

It has also announced that it is fast closing in on its target of sending no waste to landfill from any of its stores, after confirming that 800 further stores from across Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and London have now cut the amount of waste that goes to landfill to zero.

The company said that the expansion of its zero waste initiative, which has resulted in around 1,700 of its 2,306 UK stores now sending no waste to landfill, means it is on track to divert 95 per cent of the waste it produces from landfill by the end of 2010.