Tesco Green Club

chezmck

Hi All
I dont know if any of you have received the Tesco email regards their Green club.
I try and limit my supermarket shopping to the minimum as feel they have an awful lot to answer for with regards the environment. ( long rant coming on so Ill stop here:mad:)
Is this Tesco seeing a new market (the Green Pound) to part us with more pennies or are they trying to make a difference and meeting consumer demands?
Thoughts please as I think I still veer towards it being a cynical, evil ploy in their plan for world domination.:rotfl:

Ken68

The usual GreenWash, Chez.....http://www.tesco.com/greenerliving/
The only surefire way to be green is grow your own veg, and eat in season.

Ben84

I think green wash too. The evidence, or lack of, for their commitment to environmental issues is easily seen in store. Isles of non-recycled loo paper and tissues, much of which comes from poorly regulated sources or is even known to be from clear cuts. Just about everything still has palm oil in, even though it's the major cause of rainforest deforestation. Non-exotic products imported from the other side of the world, items like butter than can be easily sourced here in the UK. The reasons why their products harm the environment more than they need to is pretty long, and yet genuinely lower impact alternatives are widely available.

After reading their site, I can't help thinking that I don't want Tesco to tell me how to save water at home, I want them to stop selling loo paper made from clear cut forests, or any other positive change *they* could make. Some retailers are blatantly internalising the whole environmental issue in to "your personal impact/footprint" while doing little themselves. It's a way to distract us while we're buying their green products from the customer in the next check out who is filling their disposable plastic bags with butter from New Zealand and loo paper that used to be ancient forests while collecting club card points for air miles.

foxgloves

I totally agree with Ben84. Tesco is about as green as a....well, frankly not very green thing. Supermarket chains are after the green pound & they won't be getting mine. Any green initiatives would be completely wiped out by all the other unethical stuff they are selling. Supermarkets could potentially be hugely influential in effecting change, but it won't happen because they are only interested in profit & the majority of shoppers are probably pretty apathtic & indifferent to making changes that they perceive might affect their lifestyle. The cynical advertising slogan 'Every little helps.....' does need that extra word on the end to get to the truth of it.......'Every little helps Tesco'. They can say what they like, but at the end of the day their bottom line isn't a sustainable future, it's profits for their shareholders. I do agree with Ben84 that I can't see why ANY non-recycled loopaper is even produced any longer. It's not the uncomfortable greying sandpaper it used to be when it first appeared. There is no need for anything OTHER than recycled products that are being used for one er...obvious purpose then being chucked away. I would support any supermarket that actually took a stance on this. The big loo paper producers would be hit by that & would be forced to examine their approach. If Tesco was really bothered about green credentials, they would be making such a stance. They would trot out the 'customer choice' line.....which is double-speak for their profits. What a rant.......feeling ready to face the day now!

Ken68

My ideal supermarket wouldn't sell any cigarettes either, or high cholesterol stuff or over -processed foods or endangered fish or battery chickens or air miles fruit/veg or ten varieties of bread when just two or three would do. No sugared up food either, or fats.
Except strong cheese and Cumberland Sausage and ...er...whisky, after all you gotta drink.

chezmck

Thanks everyone for the comments, I was starting to feel a bit irrational about the ammount of distaste (to put it politely) that I feel towards the giants that have more than contributed to the state were in now. Whilst Im not exactly Ethan Greenhart I am starting to become more indignant by the day with Mr T etc telling me how to become greener.
Point 1 on their advise list should be 'stop funding massive supermarkets profits with their immoral, ought to be illegal, environment trashing products!'
Cant see them telling us that though.:rotfl:

Fire_Fox

Ken68 wrote: »

My ideal supermarket wouldn't sell any cigarettes either, or high cholesterol stuff or over -processed foods or endangered fish or battery chickens or air miles fruit/veg or ten varieties of bread when just two or three would do. No sugared up food either, or fats.
Except strong cheese and Cumberland Sausage and ...er...whisky, after all you gotta drink.

:rotfl:

Why is so much of the Value stuff rubbish? White rice, white bread, white pasta, white flour, white noodles ... surely it's cheaper NOT to refine these products? Tesco must be selling sufficient that shelf life is not a major issue ...

foxgloves

Am back for a bit more of a rant......Firefox, I agree. And why are BOGOFs mostly very processed foods? I can't recall ever seeing wholewheat pasta or brown rice or dried fruit or wholemeal bread flour or that kind of stuff on BOGOF.

Ben84

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Why is so much of the Value stuff rubbish? White rice, white bread, white pasta, white flour, white noodles ... surely it's cheaper NOT to refine these products? Tesco must be selling sufficient that shelf life is not a major issue ...

When I did home economics it was never mentioned that many of the popular ingredients we used were highly refined, and I don't think wholemeal was ever mentioned in any form. I also recall fake colour in those little bottles being a good way to liven up iced cakes for children, and that hydrogenated margarine was the best thing ever because it had less calories.

Anyway, I wonder how many other people have had the same terrible home economics lessons, and if perhaps that these processed products are simply what many people expect and want because alternatives are unfamiliar? Wholemeal products, with perhaps bread as an exception, are not that popular it seems.

ceridwen

The more I think about supermarkets - the more it strikes me that its not just a matter of the "rubbish" products that comprise much of what they sell - its also the fact that they encourage those huge monoculture farms (also not a good thing).

I personally am moving towards deliberately buying as much of my food as I can from the smallest-scale outlets I can - genuine healthfood shops/farmers markets/etc. Any fruit/veg I cant buy at those places or grow myself - then I'll get it from a greengrocer, rather than a supermarket.

cepheus

Found this funny

Tesco's 'flights for lights' promotion – every little hurts

Supermarket's offer of air miles in exchange for low-energy light bulbs is like giving away a pack of Benson and Hedges with every Nicorette patch