Tesco has announced a commitment to using 100 percent renewable electricity by the year 2030.



In a blog post on Monday, the U.K. supermarket chain's head of climate change and sustainable agriculture, Kené Umeasiegbu, wrote that Tesco's customers and colleagues expected the business to "play its part in caring for the planet."

Tesco has been stepping up its sustainability efforts in recent years. Since 2007, more than £700 million ($905 billion) has been invested in energy and refrigeration efficiency, with its electricity bill falling by £200 million annually.

Tesco said that since the historic Paris Agreement was reached at the end of 2015, it had been working with external partners to set new "science-based targets" to help it become a zero-carbon business.

Under the Paris Agreement, world leaders have agreed to make sure global warming stays "well below" 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Tesco said that in addition to its aim to source 100 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030, it had set the interim goal of 65 percent renewable electricity by 2020. Stores in the U.K. and Ireland will get 100 percent renewable electricity this year, it added.

In the global market, Tesco has invested £8 million in on site solar generation at sites in Thailand. It has also joined RE100, an initiative made up of some of the planet's biggest businesses, all committed to renewable power.

Tesco follows a long line of major businesses looking to boost their environmental credentials.



Last week Whitbread, the U.K.'s biggest hospitality company, said that since the beginning of April all its brands had been sourcing their purchased electricity in the U.K. from renewables.

Earlier this year, brewing powerhouse Anheuser-Busch InBev committed to securing all of its purchased electricity from renewable sources by 2025.