Tesco plc

Is Tesco ethical?

Our research highlights several ethical issues for Tesco. It received low scores (40 points or fewer) in our rating system in many of the categories. This includes: agriculture, animal products, climate change, company ethos, cotton sourcing, dairy welfare, hen welfare, packaging, tax, and workers. 

Below we outline of some of the issues in each category. To see the full detailed stories, and Tesco's overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe. 

People

Tesco has comprehensive Code of Business Conduct and Human Rights Requirements policies for suppliers. So why does it score poorly in our workers category (40/100)?

Our research has shown several breaches to its own policies and as a consequence, the company lost points. 

Our own report Produce of Exploitation identified that workers in Spain supplying Tesco with fresh produce faced endemic workers' rights abuses, including underpayment and falsified timesheets, and in some areas forced labour.

Human rights abuses in garment factories were also identified. 130 migrant factory employees accused Tesco of human rights abuses. The accusations were of abuses including: pay less than half Thai minimum wage; 99-hour work weeks and no complaining under threat of blacklisting; unsanitary housing with concrete floors to sleep on and no doors, locks, or even ceilings; confiscation of documents and bank cards; and no sick pay, days off or overtime pay.

Its cotton supply chain is also affected by workers’ rights abuses. Although it has the right policies and sources its cotton through the Better Cotton Initiative, the Guardian reported in May 2021 evidence of widespread forced labour involving migrant women in cotton spinning-mills in southern India.

Environment

A major player in the food sector and supermarkets, Tesco only received 10/100 in our agriculture rating. Although it gained points for selling some organic produce and for having non-GM policy for its own-brand products, it lost more for external criticism.

Illegal deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon are linked to its chicken and pork production. According to an investigation by Mighty Earth, Ecostorm and Repórter Brasil, the feed of these animals include deforestation-risk soya.

Tesco has been linked to intensive chicken production and the devastating pollution of the River Wye (Britain’s fourth largest river which runs along the border or England and Wales). This was initially reported by WWF. However, the Guardian revealed in March 2024 that WWF, which has received more than £6m in donations from the supermarket chain, has shelved the report “to keep Tesco happy”.

Tesco only scored 30/100 for our climate rating. Although it adequately reported on its emissions and had a detailed and apparently credible discussion on how it has been reducing its emissions and plans to reduce them, campaign group Feedback challenged Tesco in June 2023. It accused the supermarket of “relying too heavily on energy-related initiatives and electric transport, without looking closely at product-related emissions” in its supply chain. It called on the company to publish a more robust strategy on how it was planning to deliver its emission reductions. 

The company has initiatives to reduce its packaging, nevertheless it only scored 40/100. It says that “Since 2020 our reduction innovations have saved over 5,900 tonnes of packaging”. It also trialled a 'loop' scheme whereby customers could return packaging to be used again. It stopped the trial in 2022 and it isn’t clear whether it has intentions to repeat it or permanently offer returnable containers.

Tesco is one of the Dirty Dozen plastic polluters

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) released its latest annual brand audit in July 2023 which identified Tesco as 6th in their list of the Dirty Dozen plastic polluters.

Animals

Tesco received 0/100 in every single of our animal related ratings: animal products, hen welfare and dairy welfare.

Although it has some organic options, such as organic chicken or beef, it also sells meat and fish without any kind of certification. It also sells products such as:

• Caged eggs. It has committed to only sell cage free shell eggs by 2025, both own brand and branded eggs but it does not appear to have a policy prohibiting beak trimming or a no-kill male chicks policy to prevent all male chicks being killed when they hatched.
• Non-organic dairy. It lost further marks for external criticism from an undercover investigation which revealed that its main supplier, Muller was found to operate a zero-grazing policy.

For non-edible products, such as wool, leather or down it lacks adequate policies. It doesn’t mention leather or down at all in its Animal Welfare Report and its wool policy is only partial: it prohibits mulesing but does not require the wool to be recycled, organic or RWS certified.

Company ethos, finance, and tax

Tesco scored 0/100 for company ethos because:

• It had no positive company policies (such as being a  co-op, a not-for-profit or a charity)
• Its CEO, Ken Murphy received £4.44m in 2022/23. 
• It was part of the lobby group called Eurocommerce. The problem with this lobby group is that it exerts undue corporate influence on policy-makers in favour of market solutions that are potentially detrimental to the environment and human rights. 

For tax conduct, it also received our lowest rating, for the likely use of tax avoidance. It has several subsidiaries in jurisdictions on Ethical Consumer's tax havens list, including Guernsey. Furthermore, its ultimate holding company, Tesco Holdings B.V., is incorporated in The Netherlands, another country in our tax haven list.

The above text was written in July 2024, and was based on research conducted in December 2023.