The majority of the cotton co-operative uses come from India. They called Eco Nectar which represents 549 small scale cotton farmers. The group have spent their Fair trade premium to date on community development projects such as purchasing cooking utensils, constructing water tanks to provide clean drinking water, planting fruit trees and medical camps which distribute free medicines. This indicates that customer knows that the organisation is trading fairly in the market, this is important since customers are more aware about where product comes from and how it’s made. This indicates that the co-operative are meeting their standards this is because the co-operative want to show that they care about the environment, and being fair to their suppliers in different countries.
Environmental
Tesco plc have set demanding targets to reduce their carbon emissions – in their own operations, in the products they sell and by helping their customers to do the same. Tesco plc is making steady progress to deliver against these targets and have report their progress in corporate reports and through the CDP. Tesco plc efforts are to reduce environmental impact, as it needs to go wider than their carbon footprint. They also need to cover other resources they rely on, ensuring they use them as efficiently as possible. This indicates that Tesco plc is meeting their standards beyond the clear environmental benefits. This is because Tesco plc is to reduce environmental impact by covering other resources and they rely on and ensuring they are using them ‘efficiently’.
The co-operatives goal is to reduce the gross greenhouse gas emissions from their operations by 50% by 2020.The co-operative partner with Climate Care; climate care is an organisation dedicated to combating climate change; by delivering carbon offset projects in the developing world. These projects absorb (e.g. through planting trees) or avoid (e.g. through being more efficient with energy) equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide to the emissions that they are offsetting. The co-operative have been supporting offset projects through Climate Care since 2000, and in this time they have offset almost 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide through projects in developing countries in Africa and Asia. This indicates that the co-operative are meeting their standards within their organisation by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from their operations with climate care by developing ways to decrease gas emission within the co-operative.
Offsets are purchased by a number of the co-operative businesses to make them carbon neutral for their operational (i.e. consumption of electricity, gas and fuel) and business travel (i.e. rails and air journeys) greenhouse gas emissions. The Co-operative Funeral care became the first carbon neutral funeral director in 2011, and The Co-operative Pharmacy became carbon neutral in 2012.In addition, for every eco-insurance policy sold by The Co-operative insurance half a tonne carbon dioxide is offset.
Corporate social responsibilities
Local community- in the 21st year of the ‘Tesco for Schools’ and Clubs voucher scheme, Tesco have donated over £185 million worth of equipment to local schools in different community. This year a group of young people won a competition to join a youth board and advised us on how to improve our stores for children.
- Community Donation Cards-Each store has a community donation card with budget to donate raffle prizes and refreshments to local community groups.
- Local Charity Collections-We allow local and national charities to hold collections in our stores. From January to November, these are booked in by LIME for Superstores and Extras. Metro stores manage their own charity calendar. Collections in December are arranged at store level.
- Community Champions-Many of our stores have a dedicated Community Champion to coordinate community and charity activity on behalf of their store. All guidelines for supporting local communities at your store are available in the Tesco Operating Manual.
The Co-operative is committed to developing a dynamic and active co-operative schools movement in the UK. The co-operative are working with a range of organisation across the UK to make their vision a reality.
The Schools Co-operative Society are creating a strong independent voice and mutual support for all co-operative schools. The co-operative are work with other co-operative education organisations throughout the UK to develop co-operative schools. In England they are trying to work with the Co-operative College to help develop co-operative models of education. In Scotland they fund and support the Co-operative Education Trust, Scotland to provide schools with opportunities to explore and understand the world of co-operatives. The Co-operative works with a network of schools in Northern Ireland who are working to embed co-operative values into their schools. This comes to show that the co-operative are meeting their standards as they cooperating to with local school in the UK.
Regeneration- The wasteful spending of the youth market is shirking and the portion of 15-29 years old is forecasted to decline to 17%. However the number of children aged 16 and under is projected to increase by 12% to 13 million by 2035 benefiting the infant and children’s sector. This could influence Tesco plc strategy in future to change because the number of children age 16 and under is predicted to increase by 12% to 13 million by 2035. Tesco plc and the co-operative are enhancing their products to help them later in the future as the increase of younger people aged under 16 is projected to increase by 12% by 2035 as this can make changes to social life’s, as there are more kids being born and which also means that more families are being increased, this will make Tesco plc and the co-operative to also take account of the projected increase of under 16 to hand. This is because Tesco plc will need to change the aspects of the stores meeting the diversity of the demands within society, to make it suitable for these groups.
Urban renewal- Online shopping is becoming more widespread amongst the older population. For example shopping facilities that assist mobility and convenience will continue to grow as well will delivery services. This may impact to Tesco plc and the co-operative as they should consider revisiting their store layout. David mcCorquodale, head of retail, KPMG recommend that “retailers should look at their space allocation and product apportionment and packaging” this indicates that Tesco plc and the co-operative are meeting their standards by allocating more space to faster moving items to prevent out-of-stock and Determine the total cost for their material apportioned to individual within Tesco plc and the co-operatives as they are considering this by refurbishing their stores layout and look due to the urban renewal.
Meeting local ethnic cultural and spiritual needs- Migration has become the most important driver in the demographic graph changes in the UK. Growing ethnic diversification is leading to further internationalization of demand and rise in ethnic communities, particularly in urban areas. However, change is not being felt uniformly and differs by region. This forces Tesco plc and co-operative to consider regional demographics when allocating products. This means that migration is very important to target for Tesco plc and co-operative to change their strategy in future since it is the most important driver of the demographic change in the UK, for example they can increase more worldwide food ranges from Asia and European such as polish food, Slovakian foods etc. this indicates that the increase of migration can massively change the demands of products in supermarkets , meeting these demands from consumers will encourage local ethnic cultural and spiritual needs within Tesco plc and co-operative.
Working conditions- The co-operatives and Tesco plc have a Human Rights and Trade Policy, which sets out the exceptional circumstances in which they will curtail trade with a particular state or settlement. In line with our co-operative and Tesco’s democratic principles, their Human Rights and Trade Policy was developed following a call from our members.
The Policy reflects our values of openness and honesty, and sets out our commitment to a consistent approach to human rights and trade issues. Trade is a force for good, but in exceptional circumstances the benefits of trade may be undermined. Withdrawing trade is not a decision we take lightly, as we fully recognise that it may deprive people of an income when they are already suffering under oppression.
They will only withdraw trade from a state or region if at least one of the following conditions is met:
- Where the democratic representatives of a country call for a withdrawal of trade
- Where there is international consensus that the status of a designated region or state is illegal
- Where there is strong evidence that trade is a contributory factor to a conflict.
Informed choice-Tesco plc and the co-operative offer clear information on their product so that customers get an indication of what’s inside the product. This is improved in the both stores as they give clear information about the product.
Special ranges- Tesco plc and the co-operative offer special ranges of food products for different types of consumer; For example consumers that want product that are low calories, product that don’t have dairy in it. This indicates that Tesco plc and the co-operative are meeting the demands of providing special ranges for those types of consumers that want it.
Responding to current trends- Tesco plc and the co-operative are responding to new trends in the market. For Example, Tesco plc and the co-operative respond to trends by adapting to societies new demands by refurbishing their store by making the stores more modern, is providing more exotic foods from different countries, having more worldwide foods in their store.
In conclusion, the two retailers have met their social ethical, environmental and corporate social responsibilities in the market. The two retailers have done this by meeting the demands of their consumer, always making improvements within their stores and adapting to the markets.