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As a leading food retailer, Tesco is one of the largest private-sector employers in Ireland, employing more than 13,000 people. At Tesco, we believe that ‘every little help’ makes a big difference
Our Little Helps Plan is a core part of the Tesco business and focuses on four key areas: People, Product, Places and Planet. These four pillars encompass the most important social and environmental issues, and essentially guide us in making the right decisions for our colleagues and customers, as well as in supporting the communities we serve.
Our People
Our people are our most important asset and at Tesco everyone is welcome. We’re proud to empower our colleagues to be themselves at work. This year we continue to sponsor Dublin Pride and Cork Pride festivals, and we are continuing to champion diversity and inclusion in our workplace. We’re very proud to have retained the Great Place to Work accreditation, based on feedback from our colleagues, for the third consecutive year.
Our Products
At Tesco, we have no time for waste and believe that no good food should go to waste. Since 2014, we have redistributed over 11 million meals through our Tesco Surplus Food Donations programme in partnership with FoodCloud, donating to more than 350 charitable organisations, including after-school clubs, youth groups, senior citizen support services and many more.
As the only retailer to publish independently assured food waste data in Ireland, we have also partnered with 12 of our large Irish fresh suppliers to tackle the issue of food waste at their manufacturing sites and to adopt the UN’s SDG goal 12.3. These Irish food suppliers, including Country Crest, Keelings and Manor Farm, have committed to publicly target, measure and act, and publish details of their food waste later this year.
Our Planet
Our target is to ensure we never use more packaging than is needed, and what we do use is from sustainable sources and goes on to be reused or recycled. We continue to work to our ambitions to remove non-recyclable packaging from the business, aiming for all our packaging to be fully recyclable and all our paper and board to be 100% sustainable by 2025.
In Association with
We have made progress by removing plastic-wrapped tinned multipacks in stores, removing 1.5 million pieces of non-recyclable plastic each year. With changes made to our store waste processes, we have reduced our carbon emissions by 1,200 tonnes annually. In partnership with Green Generation, Tesco is the first Irish retailer to to purchase renewable gas created at the anaerobic digestion plant in Nurney, Co. Kildare from our surplus food, powering six of our stores.
Our Places
Thanks to the generosity of our colleagues and customers, we celebrated raising €5 million in five years in partnership with Temple Street. Funds raised have helped the hospital to buy over 270 pieces of vital medical equipment for patients, including ultrasound scanners and respiratory equipment.
With the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve worked hard to adapt our operations to ensure the safety of colleagues and customers is paramount, in line with public health advice. To help those most in need, we offer exclusive access to stores nationwide for over 65s, family carers and those who are extremely medically vulnerable, up to 9am, Monday to Friday. Also, we continue to support our healthcare workers and emergency services personnel by providing them with priority access at all other times.
We have continued to proudly support our communities, donating €150,000 split between three national charities: Alone, Family Carers Ireland and Age Action. Through the Tesco Community Fund, we’ve supported over 450 local causes, with donations of over €240,000 assisting communities most affected by the pandemic.
Photo: Kari Daniels, CEO of Tesco Ireland, and Denise Fitzgerald, CEO of Temple Street, pictured with Temple Street patients Ethan (3), Jacob (6) and their sister Alannah Byrne (8)
