In the UK, the Guardian reports that Tesco has decided not to follow through on its commitment to label all 70,000 of its products with information on their carbon footprint, “blaming the amount of work involved and other supermarkets for failing to follow its lead.”
The story notes that Tesco says that the lack of commitment from other grocers meant that project never got critical mass, and that it simply took too much time and effort to make the calculations for each of its SKUs.
The story notes that Tesco says that the lack of commitment from other grocers meant that project never got critical mass, and that it simply took too much time and effort to make the calculations for each of its SKUs.
- KC's View:
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The best line in the story is when the Guardian notes that since Tesco had only committed to do the labeling on 125 products a year, it was going to take centuries for it to achieve its stated objective anyway.
I’m sure that the whole carbon footprint things took more time and money than expected. But I’m also sort of amused by the complaint that other retailers didn’t follow. If you really believe that something is worth doing, you do it even though nobody else does ... in fact, that’s when such an effort becomes a differential advantage.
It seems appropriate here to remind Tesco of the line from A League of Their Own: “It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.”
