Tesco boss Sir Terry's pledge on green issues

Sir Terry Leahy

Liverpool-born Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy believes that his supermarket chain can help save the world with a green agenda to change the habits of UK consumers.

Speaking at a conference "The Politics of Climate Change: from economic crisis to business revolution" in London he spoke of his green vision for Tesco.

This conference was organised by Policy Network in association with the LSE’s Centre for the Study of Global Governance.

It brought together leaders of the highest rank from the worlds of politics, academia and business, including Tony Blair and Sir Terry Leahy who was educated at St Edward's College RC High School, Liverpool.

The aim of the event was to discuss how the present economic crisis can lead to a business revolution in low-carbon industries and how the state can best play an active, incentivising and facilitating role in this process.

In a keynote speach Sir Terry said: "We need to confront a brutal truth: our approach to tackling climate change is not working.

"On current trends, we’re going to miss all the targets we have set ourselves.

"We’re in this situation because the climate change debate is based on a number of wrong assumptions. One is that climate change can only be solved by big governments and big technology.

"I am not implying that government has no role at all - of course it does. Transport, planning, energy: these are just some areas where government has a key role to play in taking a lead and creating a framework for action.

"Nor am I downplaying the importance of technology, which will make a huge contribution. But we cannot be sure that technology alone will rescue us from climate change. Those technologies that can help us and are developed - such as nuclear power - rely not only on science and economics, but on the public’s attitude.

"Which brings me to people. When this debate focuses on people, too often they are seen as part of the problem. We blame people for consuming and wasting too much, and flying and driving too often.

"Policy thinking on choice editing, taxation or personal carbon allowances is designed more to stop people doing things, rather than encouraging them to start doing things.

"If we want to turn people off the green agenda, the best way is to say we’re going to tax and regulate them to reduce their consumption.

"Taxes, targets, regulations - this is the classical approach of central planners. We don’t seem to remember the lessons that planned economies taught us.

"Economies where the state decrees production and consumption - how much we can have, how much we can do, what is allowed and what isn’t - lead to stagnation, disillusion, chaos and collapse.

"One lesson we learnt from planned economies is that going against the grain of people’s instincts and desires is inefficient and in the end unsustainable.

"This applies to cutting carbon too. In Ireland a carrier bag tax of 15 Euro cents per bag was introduced in 2002.

"It reduced carrier bag usage significantly, but by 2006 single-use carrier bag usage was increasing again. So the tax was increased to 22 Euro cents.

"In Tesco in the UK, we have achieved a 50 per cent and rising reduction in carrier bag usage not through a tax but by a simple incentive - one Clubcard point - worth about a penny - awarded for re-using a bag.

"Reward behaviour and you will find the economic cost is a fraction of the cost of penalising behaviour - and in the end will be better sustained because it goes with the grain of people’s lives.

"A second lesson that planned economies taught us is that regulation and prohibition cannot begin to match the power of human initiative. The scale of emissions reductions we need to achieve - not just in advanced economies but across the world - is many times what can be achieved by this top-down approach.

"I believe that climate change will only be tackled successfully by getting the best out of people, not by controlling or limiting what they can do.

"Every major challenge in the modern world - technological, medical or social - has been achieved by growing, successful market economies: by encouraging and helping people to do new things rather than by stopping people from doing things.

"My principle here is that you can be green and grow. Choosing between green and growth is absurd - especially at the moment, where the choice would be between low growth and no growth.

"Even if we for a moment think we can make that choice, do we really believe that China or India will embrace any policies that inhibit their growth?

"Green growth requires a leap in technology to propel us from a high-carbon economy to a low-carbon economy. But that won’t be enough to cut carbon on the scale required. We need consumers, through their purchasing and their behaviour, to embrace these technologies, and the products and services that flow from them.

"This is not a pipe dream. All our research shows that consumers want to go green - but they need help in making the change. If going green is just about taking things away from consumers, it is not going to work.

"But if you say to someone ‘here is a better life, a low carbon life’, you will get green consumption and green growth. As Arnold Schwarzenegger has said, you have got to make it cool to be green.

"So we must inform, empower and encourage consumers to move to a low-carbon lifestyle. By building demand for low-carbon consumption, consumers will stimulate competition between businesses to produce greener alternatives than current products and services. They will also encourage businesses to lower their own carbon footprints, as consumers reward businesses that are green.

"Think about it. When you are at the checkout, each "bleep" of the barcode sends a signal down the supply chain. Produce more of that product, or in the case of a product you have not chosen: 'change what you produce'.

"Give consumers more information about products’ carbon footprints, and they will buy greener products. And when then happens, the supply chain will turn green.

"So empowered and motivated consumers can be the key to a revolution in green consumption and the technological revolution that must underpin it. Get this right and consumers can have an influence way beyond the 60 per cent or so accounted for by their direct and indirect emissions.

" At Tesco we’re putting this thinking into practice. First, we’re helping consumers make green choices - by giving them more information about products’ carbon footprints, for example.

"We’ve learnt a great deal about how we can reduce emissions and costs and about how we can influence customer behaviour. We have put carbon labels on over 100 products and today we are announcing that we’re now going to label our plastic bags, milk, bread, paper and home insulation service.

"Secondly, we’re cutting emissions ourselves. Our targets for green growth are as tough as any set by the UK government.

"One is to ensure that on average all new stores we build emit half the carbon that an equivalent store emitted in 2006.

"Today I can announce that this year we will build in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, a zero-carbon store - working with the Manchester Sustainable Consumption Institute to create a store that will not have a carbon impact in the way it is run.

"Thirdly, in tackling climate change, collaboration is vital. Business, government and consumers are inter-dependent. Electric cars are an example: Manufacturers must improve the technology and governments must incentivise it if consumers are to embrace it. We too can play our part. So we’re going to begin by making a commitment to trial electric car charging points in some of our London stores.

"This strategy is locked into the core of our business. Our aim is not simply to "green" Tesco, but to spark the creation of something much bigger - a mass movement in green consumption.

"Which brings me back to my core point: consumers are agents of change. Trust them and we can begin to make real progress in the fight against climate change. To do that, we need a fresh approach, based on a simple belief: consumers are a force for good."

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