TESCO's Corporate Social Responsibility

   Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something that companies are obliged to do to fill out the check list required by society--- this is what I have believed. After I joined the breakfast meeting with Andrew Hill, Climate Change Manager at Tesco this week, I realised that companies could not continue their business if they don’t take CSR seriously.

   Why does TESCO do climate change? “Our business has been successful. We want sustainable growth. We want to be there in 2020”, Andrew explains the background clearly. In order to tackle the issues, TESCO has to take the responsibility of supply chains and customers who emit 10-100 times as much carbon as the company. While working with supplier and customers, the company aims to reduce CO2 by one third by 2020 and become zero carbon footprint by 2050. So far, TESCO has saved ₤150 million a year for energy efficiency in the buildings.

   As the CSR Report declares that “We aim to build long-term relationships with suppliers, so getting regular feedback from them is a high priority”, TESCO created “Knowledge Hub”, an electronic platform where the company and the suppliers share information about carbon reduction. Now it has got more than 400 members from different countries. “It helped move suppliers’ relationship more into collaboration”, Andrew added.
   In contrast, it still seems hard to connect customers with sustainability which has become a cliché when we talk about CSR or environmental issues, although the London Olympics really likes the jargon. TESCO carbon footprinted over 1,000 and labelled over 500 everyday products in the UK, but how many customers understand the complicated logic? Carbon is produced in agriculture and transportation as well as packaging. Some process may produce more carbon than it looks.
   So, how do you get the message across? It is complex, nuance, based on detailed science. The PR consultants from PRCA who gathered at Burson-Marsteller’s London office, formed a group of 5-6 and had a mini discussion. My idea is profiling different types of customer families based on their life style and values, so that the newspapers and TVs can feature the story of the family to show what the kind of activities could give an impact on earth.
   The questions suggested here can never be answered because what people expect for CSR and what companies have to do for CSR will change year after year. However, there should be better solutions one of which I hopefully can suggest in my master dissertation.