Tesco 2009 Annual Report Download - page 28

Tesco PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2009
26 REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS
Actively supporting our local communities
We play a positive role in our local communities and work hard to be
a good neighbour.
We now have Community Champions in 65 stores and five depots in the
UK, each working with local schools, charities and services to support
the causes that matter most to our customers, where they live. The
Champions have a strong positive impact on our customers. In recent
research over 60% of customers who are aware of these activities tell
us they believe their community has benefited and they feel more
favourable to Tesco as a result. We are already rolling out Community
Champions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, China and Malaysia.
Our staff broke all records for our Charity of the Year, raising over
£6 million for Marie Curie Cancer Care to fund an additional
300,000 hours of nursing care for over 5,000 terminally ill patients
and their families.
Our new Tesco for Schools and Clubs scheme is now running in our UK
stores. With a catalogue spanning five different areas of the curriculum,
customers can collect vouchers for anything their local school needs,
whether that is a laptop, a new set of skipping ropes or a composting
bin. We have had successful schools programmes in Ireland for 11 years
now, in Poland for eight, and this year is the first year of ‘Shop for
Schools’ in the US.
In recent months, we have also moved some £11 million worth of
business back to UK suppliers, supporting domestic orderbooks and
production, and safeguarding employment.
Caring for the environment
We opened our greenest store yet at Cheetham Hill in Manchester, with
a carbon footprint 70% below that of a typical store in 2006. This is the
latest step in our quest for a zero-carbon store, with environmental
stores opening in all countries.
We have significantly increased the level of capital investment in
energy-saving projects across the business – in new refrigeration, store
lobbies, and lighting – delivering significant reductions in consumption
and helping us to absorb rising utility costs. Energy consumption in
Tesco fell 8% last year despite business growth.
Green Clubcard points have encouraged our customers to recycle,
with recycling rates doubling where we have our automated recycling
machines and over 9.5 million Clubcard customers now reusing their
bags in the UK. Our customers are now using 50% fewer plastic bags
than they did in May 2006, saving three billion bags since we introduced
our green Clubcard points in August 2006. This July, Tesco Malaysia
became the first country outside the UK to launch green Clubcard
points to help customers use fewer carrier bags, issuing over 14,000
points in the first week of the reward scheme.
We were the first retailer in the world to carbon label products, with
100 products labelled in the UK already, and many more in the pipeline.
Ireland is following suit with 14 products, and South Korea is starting
carbon labelling this year.
Our leadership on climate change has been recognised through a
number of awards internationally, including the prestigious Business
in the Community Leadership in the Environment Award, and the
Sustainable Management Award in South Korea.
Giving customers healthy choices
We have met our target of getting two million people active three
years early, with 750,000 women running Race for Life, half a million
children signed up to the FA Skills programme and 750,000 taking part
in the Tesco Great School Run. Our Getting Active with Tesco Lotus
programme has inspired 2.4 million people in Thailand to take part in
activities such as aerobics, and we have charitable running and walking
initiatives in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Malaysia as well as our
soccer camps in the UK and China.
Buying and selling our products responsibly
We have continued to evolve our Nurture scheme which was first
launched in 1992. The independently accredited quality standard
assures our customers that Tesco fruit and vegetables are grown
in an environmentally and ethically responsible way. We now work
with 15,000 growers in 70 countries across the world.
Good jobs and careers
As part of our promise to our people to provide ‘an opportunity to get
on’, during the year 65% of senior managers were appointed internally.
We also appointed 3,741 new managers for stores and 149 for depots
in the UK alone – with 86% coming from within Tesco.
Community continued
2.4m
people in Thailand took part in activities including aerobics
as part of our Getting Active with Tesco Lotus programme.