Tesco Announces 25 Million Pounds Investment in Sustainable Consumption 

13/09/07 Britain's leading supermarket Tesco has teamed up with The University of Manchester in a £25 million investment that will bring together the world's leading experts to tackle climate change and help deliver a revolution in green consumption.

Hailed by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has put climate change at the heart of UK foreign policy, and welcomed by the Government’s former Chief Scientific Adviser Lord Bob May, the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), will help both consumers and retailers create a sustainable, greener future.

The Institute will promote fresh thinking and explore vital areas of research such as how customers can be empowered and incentivised to buy green products and services, how business can adapt to meet customer needs and how we can train the next generation of environmental leaders and experts. Its research and conclusions will be shared freely.

Projects already under way include research into low carbon lifestyles and the role of new technologies in delivering them, and outcomes could range from making paper from chicken feathers and fuelling delivery vans with plastic milk bottles!

Tesco Chief Executive Sir Terry Leahy said the Institute – one of the key elements of Tesco’s climate change strategy announced in January – was further proof of the company's long-term commitment to making a positive contribution to tackling environmental issues.

"At Tesco, we know our customers are concerned about climate change and expect us to be taking the lead in helping create a greener future. We have already taken a number of significant steps in this direction, for example by announcing our plans to introduce carbon labelling on all our products.

"Making a real difference to global problems will take time, but our support for this partnership with one of the country's top universities marks another major milestone on the road to a low-carbon future."

Drawing on expertise from all four of the University's faculties, Manchester will lead and co-ordinate a wide range of focused research programmes. The SCI will also become a focal point for the next generation of researchers, policymakers and advisers in the area of sustainable consumption through an extensive postgraduate training programme.

Said Professor Alan Gilbert, President of the University of Manchester: "We're delighted that Tesco has chosen Manchester for this vitally important new institute. The partnership will be built on a shared understanding that we need to bring together the best thinking from all sectors to address these critical global concerns."

While new research findings are expected within the first year of the launch of the SCI, the partnership is a long-term commitment and includes funds to endow a continuing Professorship in Sustainable Consumption.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "The Sustainable Consumption Institute is an excellent example of the important role that business can play in tackling climate change. It will create imaginative solutions to help us reduce our carbon footprint. This kind of innovation is essential if we are to meet this challenge."

And Lord Bob May, former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government and past President of the Royal Society, added: "As human numbers continue to increase, casting an evermore unsustainable ecological footprint, it is hugely important that business and industry engages with the problem. I am therefore very pleased to see Tesco taking a lead in establishing this Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester, and happy to be associated with it through its International Scientific Advisory Board."