A possible change of tack from Tesco??

Dear Mr. Anderson,

I have been forwarded your response on Tesco's use of biofuels from another concerned person who clearly has similar concerns to myself and many others.

Whilst I welcome the more realistic position that you are adopting in this email over your previous correspondence, your comments below indicate that Tesco is still along way from making the changes needed to protect what natural resources we have left on our planet.

You say that "As both a food and petrol retailer we are working very hard to avoid soy and palm oil from deforested areas by working in multistakeholder groups such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil." As I have pointed out in previous emails, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, is wholly comprised of suppliers and retailers of biofuels and palm oil products. It is completely unrealistic and naive to expect that this group will suddenly become a trusted and reliable custodian of our remaining rainforests as it seeks to self certify its own operations. As an organisation, you would do far better to sever any involvement with this group and make the corporate decision not to sell palm oil based biofuels.

You say "Greenergy, our biggest supplier of biofuels, has pioneered an approach to count the carbon savings of biofuels through a scientific methodology." I have read their document that you refer to. It stretches the imagination to breaking point to call this a pioneering scientific methodology, when it is merely proposes to add various abstract CO2 contributions with no guideline on how the data is to be captured. Page 9 of the document does refer to the "emissions associated with manufacture and use of biopetrol sold in reporting," (see variables CO2BP and CO2BD for petrol and diesel respectively). Given that there is no other reference, I would assume that it is under these two variables that the CO2 emissions for burning down the rainforest and the subsequent long term loss of atmospheric CO2 absorption are accounted for. I would therefore be grateful if you could provide the analysis that Greenergy had done to quantify these variables. I trust that you would also be pleased to make public any audit you have done of this analysis.

It is encouraging that you say "To help us and others understand the true impact of biofuels we have asked the independent Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI) based at Manchester University to investigate." I trust that you have read their web site, where they say "If we continue to consume at the current rate, we will do irreparable damage to our ecosystems. Issues include the destruction of virgin rain forests, over-fishing, peak oil and palm oil." Hopefully, they should be able to use thier existing knowledge to quickly convince you that biofuel is the most ridiculous solution to our global warming problem before your organisation inflicts more unnecessary and irreparable damage to our remaining ecosystems, thereby avoiding paralysis by analysis.

Todays reports of world food shortages have highlighted the danger that the world is moving towards and make clear the need for an urgent change in policy. We can no longer afford, nor tolerate, endless greenwashing from our multinationals.

This email will be posted on my blog, http://kevsclimatecolumn.blogspot.com/

Regards,
Kevin Lister,

email from Gary Anderson, Tesco Customer Service Executive

Dear Ms Perkins

Thank you for your further email. Please accept my apologies for the delay in my response.

We understand your concerns about the environmental impacts of biofuels and there has been a great deal written on the subject. When we decided to make biofuels available to customers in 2005, we did so in the belief that they could help customers to reduce their carbon impacts and reduce our dependency on oil as a source for petrol.

Since then it has become clear that the impacts of biofuels are more complex and the environmental benefits are dependent on how the biofuels are made. In particular, soy from countries in South America and palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, two ingredients in many biofuels, have become synonymous with deforestation and the many associated impacts on sustainability, climate change and the rights of indigenous people in those areas. As both a food and petrol retailer we are working very hard to avoid soy and palm oil from deforested areas by working in mutistakeholder groups such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. > > We also recognise that the science is not 100% clear on whether biofuels enables us to tackle climate change and other problems associated with fossil fuels. We continue to review the existing science and we are engaging with NGOs to understand their concerns. For example, the Royal Society recently produced a detailed report on the future of biofuels, which can be accessed at: http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=28914. Our aim is to do the right thing for the environment based on clear and accurate information, which can be difficult when there are conflicting views on issues such as biofuels.

This is particularly important as from April we, along with other petrol retailers, will be obliged by the Government through the Road Transport Fuel Obligation to provide 2.5% biofuels in our petrol. We want to make sure that this well meaning initiative helps customers to reduce their impact on climate change by ensuring that our biofuels are sourced sustainably. Greenergy, our biggest supplier of biofuels, has pioneered an approach to count the carbon savings of biofuels through a scientific methodology. This can be found at: http://www.greenergy.com/carbon_counting/Carbon_Declaration_Methodology.pdf

To help us and others understand the true impact of biofuels we have asked the independent Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI) based at Manchester University to investigate. The SCI was set up earlier this year thanks to a £25m commitment from Tesco over 5 years to provide world class academic research and solutions for practical issues that need to be addressed to help us and our customers tackle climate change. All of the research by the SCI will be made public and we would be happy to send you the findings on biofuels as and when they become available if you would find this useful.

You may also be interested in the broader work we are doing to tackle climate change, from reducing CO2 emissions in our stores and our distribution fleets by 50% to halving the price of energy saving light bulbs to seeking a universal carbon label for all our products. More information can be found at www.tesco.com/greenerliving

Thank you for your interest in this issue.

Kind regards,
Gary Anderson,
Customer Service Executive

Latest correspondence with Tesco, and a challenge

Dear Mr. Anderson,

Further to your email reply below, where you said that you would look into the points raised, I still have had no further response.

I am a college lecturer and many of my students are concerned about the deforestation that they read about in the press. If you are genuinely convinced that your biofuel is so environmentally beneficial, perhaps you would like to come to our college and present your case to our students in an open debate.

Our college has a record that we are proud of in engaging our students on critical issues such as global warming and a debate of this nature would fit well with our ethos.

Kevin

Kevin Lister wrote:
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 21:54:26 +0000 (GMT)From: Kevin Lister Subject:

Re: Tesco, re biofuel - attn: Gary Anderson To: Tesco Customer Service customer.service@tesco.co.uk

Dear Mr. Anderson,

Thank you for the update, we look forward to your reply and any interim updates that you have in the process.

Kevin

Tesco Customer Service wrote:

Dear Mr Lister

Thank you for your further email.

I am currently looking into the points you have raised, and as soon as I have investigated this matter fully I will contact you again.

Thank you for your patience in awaiting my response.

Kind Regards
Gary Anderson
Customer Service Executive

Please Tesco, give me a proper answer and not greenwash

You can join the debate by emailing customer.service@tesco.co.uk and forwarding the presentation to all your concerned friends in your address book.


Dear Gary,

Further to my emails I still have not received any response from yourself or anyone else in Tescos.

In your first email to me your said:

"Scientific analysis has shown that both palm oil and soy from hot climates can lead to much greater CO2 reductions" - Please provide reference to the appropriate analysis so I can validate your claim.

"Greenergy asks suppliers to sign a sustainability commitment as part of their contract. This is monitored and can be audited at any time." Please provide us with copies of these sustainability commitments and the organisations that have audited against these criteria.

I also asked for your comment on the reports from Oxfam and others on the human rights abuses associated with the race for biofuels.

In the previous email to Helen Duke, I asked for a copy of the environmental impact assessment that Tescos would have made on the use of rape seed for biofuel, and quantity of biofuel sold at your pumps. Again I have had no further correspondence.

This weekend I protested outside my local Tesco in Stroud. Many of the people that we spoke to are already concerned and sickened by what is happening to our rain forests in the pursuit of biofuel. So, the bulk of your own customers do not swallow your position of biofuels being a carbon friendly solution to our problems. By continuing your public position, I would argue that you are patronising and alienating your clientele.

So you understand why this is such an issue, I enclose a copy of a NASA photo taken in September 2007 of the fires in the Amazon. So severe where the fires, and so bad have the droughts become due to deforestation, the Amazon now stands on the point of total collapse, and we came to within a hairs breadth last year this predicted total collapse.





I look forward to your reply,

A copy of this email will be posted on by blog http://kevsclimatecolumn.blogspot.com/

Kevin Lister

More Tesco Greenwash - from another Tesco Customer Service Executive

Dear Mr. Anderson,

Thank-you for taking the time to reply to my previous email. You have however totally failed to address any of the points I asked and the points that the presentation raises. This is highly concerning on an issue which is of such importance to the future of the planet and quality of our environment.

You say, "Tesco supports biofuels as a way of helping customers to reduce their impact on climate change." You must be aware, or at least should be, that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that using biofuels provides any global warming benefit. Firstly, huge amounts of energy is needed in their harvest, production and transport and this is all supplied by conventional fossil fuels. Secondly, the massive amount of fertilisation needed to sustain the crops releases huge amounts of NO2 into the atmosphere which is up to 300 times more potent as a green house gas than CO2, as well as it being energy intensive to produce in the first place. Finally and most importantly, our planet is currently unable to absorb our existing CO2 and we desperately need as much functioning forests and fauna to lock up CO2. Simply burning it, which is the end result of biofuel in what ever form it takes, prevents any future hope of reducing current pollution levels to a survivable level.

You say "Greenergy asks suppliers, who are all members of the RSPO, to sign a sustainability commitment as part of their contract. This is monitored and can be audited at any time." I am sure that you would be prepared to make such an important document as this publicly available and provide copy of your internal audit results and also allow other independent groups the opportunity to audit against it. I look forward to a copy of your relevant documents. Secondly, I asked in my previous email how you determine sustainability. You still have not done so. If you are unable to provide a robust statement of sustainability, then the contractual commitments you are placing on your suppliers are worthless.

You say "scientific analysis has shown that both palm oil and soy from hot climates can lead to much greater CO2 reductions than rape produced in the UK and US," I would appreciate if you could give me a reference or copy to this analysis so I can see how it handles the huge CO2 emissions coming from Indonesia and Brazil through deforestation, and which has propelled these two countries to the world's top CO2 emitters, and threatens to push the world into a runaway global warming situation.

You say "Our approach therefore is to ensure as far as possible that these ingredients come from sustainable sources." Can you explain exactly what your approach is to ensure that your products come from sustainable sources? Given that you have failed to answer my previous questions on how you determine sustainability, your comment does not fill me with any confidence; especially when you go on to say that the RSPO and RTRS are merely "developing agreed criteria to ensure that signatories can source palm and soy sustainably without the need for large scale clearance of the tropics by forest fires or any other methods," clearly indicating that at the present time they do not have any agreed criteria of sustainability.

You say, "However, our experience as a food retailer is that while some prices are rising others are steady or even falling." My experience as a consumer is that my shopping bill is going up and up, and this is backed by UN reports and market statistics showing the price of staples such as wheat futures going up and up. While this causes me minor financial problems, in poorer countries such as Afghanistan, it is leading to crisis situations where millions of people are being pushed into starvation.

You say that "The reasons for this are many and complex and include extreme weather conditions leading to failed harvests and poor yields." I would like to think that your experience of failed harvests and poor yields would serve as a wake up call for you to start taking a much more responsible attitude to global warming and not simply rely on greenwashing your way through the problem to enhance your short term profits. You should also consider that given the tightening of food supply due to environmental factors, that we should be building additional resilience into our food supply, not further tightening it.

I look forward to you properly addressing the points that I have made. I also look forward to you addressing the issues that the scientific community have raised in a robust environmental assessment of your decision to pursue biofuels. Finally I expect you to answer the concerns of organisations such as Oxfam and others who have warned of ongoing human rights abuses which are justified by numerous reports from all continents producing biofuel.

A copy of this correspondence will be published on my blog http://kevsclimatecolumn.blogspot.com/ and copied to my MP, David Drew.

Regards,
Kevin Lister

Tesco Customer Service wrote:

Dear Mr Lister,

Thank you for your e-mail and presentation addressed to Sir Terry Leahy, our Chief Executive, about the sale of biofuels at Tesco and our green credentials to which I have been asked to reply.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in my response. As you point out in your presentation, Tesco supports biofuels as a way of helping customers to reduce their impact on climate change.

Over 200 of our petrol forecourts therefore contain a blend of up to 5% biofuels in the petrol and diesel on sale. This will enable us to meet the Government requirements on biofuels set out in the Road Transport Fuel Obligations (RTFO) which comes into force in April.

There have been many reports on biofuels and their potential environmental impacts. We agree with the Royal Society, who point out that: "It is not possible to make simple generalisations about biofuels being good or bad. Each biofuel option needs to be assessed individually on its own merits." For example, scientific analysis has shown that both palm oil and soy from hot climates can lead to much greater CO2 reductions than rape produced in the UK and US. However, if they are not sourced responsibly we agree that they can lead to the kind of impacts described in your slides.

Our approach therefore is to ensure as far as possible that these ingredients come from sustainable sources. Greenergy, our biggest supplier, is a member of both the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the RTRS (Round Table on Sustainable Soy). Both these groups are developing agreed criteria to ensure that signatories can source palm and soy sustainably without the need for large scale clearance of the tropics by forest fires or any other methods.

Until these criteria are up and running, Greenergy asks suppliers, who are all members of the RSPO, to sign a sustainability commitment as part of their contract. This is monitored and can be audited at any time. We believe these steps, which are industry-leading, will help biofuels to make a positive difference on climate change and can help to reduce the dependence on oil for transport. We have never claimed that biofuels are or could be carbon neutral.

We appreciate the concerns about biofuels and high food prices. However, our experience as a food retailer is that while some prices are rising others are steady or even falling. The reasons for this are many and complex and include extreme weather conditions leading to failed harvests and poor yields.

Offering biofuels to customers is just one aspect of our commitment to reducing energy use and tackling climate change. We are helping customers to go green, leading by example in our own business and helping to develop a low carbon economy by sharing information and resourced with others so that they can develop energy saving solutions too.

I hope the above shows that we are very much aware of the concerns that you raise and are acting on them.

Thank you again for your email.
Kind RegardsGary Anderson
Customer Service Executive