Tesco for a sustainable future

We opened our first Hungarian hypermarket 25 years ago. Tesco is more than just a retailer, playing an important role in managing sustainability issues as well. Since we serve more than 2 million customers in nearly 200 Hungarian stores every week, we can do the most for reducing the burden on the environment on the path that leads from farm to fork.

Fighting food waste

According to a joint survey by Tesco and WWF, every year 2.5 billion tonnes of food end up in the bin at a global level – this is 40 percent of all the food produced. Tesco has made a commitment not to waste any edible food in its Central European operations.

Tesco sells Perfectly Imperfect produce: fruits and vegetables which don’t meet aesthetic specifications but are of good quality. We have been running a food surplus donation programme for years, collecting unsold but still edible food in more than 180 stores at the end of each day, giving the groceries to people in need through charity organisations.

We have saved 28,000 tonnes of food since 2016-2017 and reduced food waste by 68 percent, by this meeting the 12.3 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the United Nations – this aims to halve food waste by 2030.

Packaging

Packaging is vital in protecting our products and cutting down on food waste. We do our best to operate sustainably and only use packaging where it is absolutely necessary.

Tesco’s packaging strategy is based on the 4R principle: remove, reduce, reuse and recycle. As part of this we will halve the weight of packaging material by 2025, introduced reusable crates for transporting fresh produce, etc. By 2050 Tesco’s operation will be fully carbon neutral. Learn more at tescomagyarorszag.hu.

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