Tesco links executive bonuses to hitting sustainability targets

The grocer has brought forward its target to halve food waste to 2025 – five years earlier than the previous goal – and said it would be linking 25% of executive pay to achieving targets around gender and ethnicity representation, carbon reduction and food waste reduction through its performance share plan.

Tesco said it had already reduced food waste by 45% against a 2016/17 baseline. 

To hit the 50% target, Tesco said it would invest further in its food surplus redistribution scheme through partnerships with FareShare and Olio; expand its supplier partnership programme; divert more surplus food to suppliers to use as animal feed; and develop “innovative new solutions”. 

The grocer has also been allowing staff to take food approaching its expiry date home for free. 

Chief executive Ken Murphy said: “While I’m proud of our progress in making sure good food doesn’t go to waste, we know there’s still more work to do. By accelerating our target to halve food waste in our operations by 2025 and aligning executive pay performance targets to this goal, we hope to drive further transformative change.

“However, the work we and our suppliers do won’t tackle the issue alone. We have long called for the government to introduce mandatory food waste reporting to help measure and judge if real action is happening. Action must be taken across the whole industry.”