Tesco and RSPB team up for trees

The giant supermarket has teamed up with the RSPB to help save the rainforest. The campaign, Together for Trees, aims to raise money and awareness to help protect the world’s vulnerable rainforests and halt deforestation.

Together for Trees hopes to raise £1m in its first year to help support on the ground conservation work to stop the problem.

David North, Tesco UK corporate affairs director, said it was “proud” to be working with the RSPB. He stated Tesco’s aim to do business in a more sustainable way, but pointed also out that, “As a leading retailer we also have a great opportunity to engage our customers to help protect our environment.

“We know that, despite their busy lives, our customers show real consideration when it comes to the environment.”

Tesco customers will be able to help by donating money or their clubcard vouchers or green clubcard points. Customers earn these points for living greener lifestyles by re-using their bags when they shop or recycling electrical items via Tesco.

The supermarket is also giving £75,000 from the sale of its new range of Together for Trees reusable bags and all funds raised through the Welsh carrier bag levy now go to RSPB Cymru.

Martin Harper, RSPB conservation director, said that Tesco is “an ideal partner to help us tackle this worldwide problem”.

Harper explained why the partnership is going ahead:

“Rainforests are amazing places and saving them has never been more urgent – huge areas continue to disappear at an alarming rate”, he said.

“Current efforts to try and prevent the loss of these special places are not enough. We all need to step up to do more to save the rainforests. That means Governments, NGOs and businesses must work together to end their destruction.”

The money raised from the campaign will go towards the RSPB’s rainforest global projects. It will support conservation work, such as planting new trees in areas that that have been damaged, as well as providing research teams on the ground with equipment. Local communities who are dependent on the forests will also feel the benefit through advice on how to live sustainably. The RSPB will also advise Tesco on how to improve the impact of its supply chain.

There are already some ethical shopping initiatives in place that give a helping hand to rainforests, for example, products that have the Rainforest Alliance’s little green frog logo, which gives assurance that the goods have been produced sustainably.

Although it may seem like Tesco and the RSPB have created an unlikely alliance, Harper has a message that we could all use, “It is only by working together that we will come up with new solutions to save the world’s rainforests.”

You can also get involved while shopping by looking for products certified as being more sustainable and supporting brands that give something back. Blue & Green Tomorrow recommends shopping at the Ethical Superstore, which has many of these products all in one place.

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Photo: Ben Britten