Climate Change an Opportunity for Retailers: Tesco’s Leahy

MICHAEL GARRY

NEW YORK — Climate change represents one of the key growth drivers for retailers in the coming years, said Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive for U.K.-based Tesco, in a presentation at the National Retail Federation’s 99th Annual Convention & Expo here yesterday.

“The science seems incontrovertible,” he said. “We in the developed world are going to have to live on 80% less carbon. We now have got to shift the whole basis of consumption to low carbon. It won’t be less consumption — people want a better life — but it will be different consumption.”

For retailers, this is a significant business opportunity, Leahy declared. “Those retail businesses who respond first and best to the consumer’s need for low-carbon products and low-carbon living in an affordable way will do the best. This is an opportunity for us all.”

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