For its first year as part of The Climate Group’s Together campaign, Tesco committed to selling 10 million energy saving light bulbs – five times the amount of the preceding year.

Tesco at a glance

Tesco, a UK based supermarket chain, is the nation’s first and the world’s fourth largest retailer.

Employees:	Over 440,000 (2007)
Carbon footprint:	4,050,096 metric tonnes CO2e (2006/07) [Scope 1 and Scope 2]
Revenue:	£47.3 billion (2007/08)

The challenge

Sell 10 million light bulbs

As part of The °Climate Group’s Together campaign, Tesco committed to selling 10 million compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL s) in the first year of the campaign (2007-08).

Consumer research

Tesco’s commitment was prompted by its consumer research, which indicated that consumers are increasingly motivated by environmental factors when making purchasing decisions.

Brand image

Additionally, Tesco was motivated by the opportunity to improve its brand image and increase store traffic as a result of its CFL commitment and participation in the Together campaign.

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The solution

Advertising and marketing

Tesco implemented several different advertising and marketing promotions to move the company towards its CFL sales goal. As a start, Tesco permanently halved the price of all energy saving light bulbs. In addition, Tesco implemented several limited time promotional offers including selling thousands of bulbs for one pence as well as buy-one-get-one-free and buy-two-get-one-free offers. Tesco also increased its stock of bulbs and offered CFL equivalents for nearly all traditional bulbs, completely reconfigured the display of CFLs in their stores to receive as much prominence as traditional bulbs, and increased in store communication about the cost savings and environmental benefits of the light bulbs.

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The result

More than 10 million light bulbs sold

Though Tesco fell just shy of its 10 million CFL bulb sales goal (9.7 million) in its first year of the Together campaign, the company surpassed the 10 million mark in the weeks following the campaign’s first anniversary. By selling more than 10 million CFL bulbs, Tesco has helped its customers reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 110,000 tonnes.

More environmental actions

The success of Tesco’s CFL campaign has encouraged the company to look into new ways to boost sales of CFL bulbs as well as new environmentally friendly product solutions. Tesco are now working on a carbon labelling scheme for its own brand products – from light bulbs to TVs. These labels provide consumers with information on the quantity of grammes of CO₂ equivalent put into the atmosphere from the products manufacture and distribution.

Lessons learnt

By selling more than 10 million CFL bulbs, Tesco has helped its customers reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 110,000 tonnes.

By participating in the Together Campaign, Tesco improved its brand image and increased store traffic.

The success of Tesco’s CFL campaign has encouraged the company to launch other environmental initiatives through the Together Campaign such as energy labels on all of its small electronics.