CHESHUNT, England — Tesco, the European retailing giant and parent company of El Segundo, Calif.-based Fresh & Easy stores, last week became the first U.K. retailer to display a “carbon footprint” label on its private-brand milk. Carbon footprint is a term that refers to the total greenhouse gases generated during all phases of the production and transporting of a finished consumer good. Tesco community and government director David North told The Guardian newspaper that the company's goal with the labels was to help its customers “understand climate change, the carbon footprints of products and what steps they can take to help.” The company plans to place carbon footprint labels on about 500 products by the end of 2009. Tesco began carbon-footprint labeling in a 2008 pilot test of 20 products.
