Sustainable Logistics and Operations Management - Tesco Case Study

This essay explores sustainable logistics and operations management in the context of Tesco, a multinational general merchandise and grocery retailer. It covers the impact of logistics and operations on the environment, Tesco's sustainability initiatives, and the need for change in operations management policies. The essay also discusses the process of adaptation and the legislation and management practices that help eliminate the environmental impact of operations and logistics.

Sustainable logistics
and operations
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Sustainable logistics my be defined as the sequel of measures that are needed to be adopted in
order to reduce the impact of environmental that are caused by logistics sector (Langley, Novack,
Gibson and Coyle, 2020). There are various companies that are trying to align with the view of
environmental preservation in order to get close to the sustainability. On the other hand,
operations management may be referred as the administration of business practices that are
needed to create the broad level of efficiency in an organisation. In order to maximise the
profitability of the company, it is the process by which company converts the raw material and
labour into finished goods. This essay is based on Tesco, a multinational general merchandise
and grocery retailer, headquartered in Welwyn, England. This essay will cover the awareness
of sustainability issues in business along with the changes in logistics and operations. In addition
to that, it will also cover one of the sustainability issue and the need for change in the operations
management policies. Moreover, it will cover the process of adaption and the legislations and
management practices that helps in eliminating the environmental impact of operations an
logistics.
TASK
Logistics is one of the most important area for the better functioning of all size of
companies. In this area, it generates various aggression to the environment. As now a days,
global warming is increasing that affects the environment (Waters, 2019). There are many
companies that are trying to reduce the adverse impact of their process on environment. It is
needed to aware the public about how logistics and operations leads to change in climate.
Climate change is considered as the most impactful and urgent contemporary issue that is faced
by the world. Due to the emission of carbon di oxide gas, it adversely impacts the climate.
Scientists have predicted that it can lead to increase in 10 degree Fahrenheit which could end the
century. Many companies are adopting new formulated environmental policies that helps in
minimising the impact on environment.
Various companies have already changed and many are moving towards suitability
business goals. Apart from profit making, they are much aware about the importance of keeping
the environment clean and optimally use of natural resources. The companies are creating new
models with the view of cleaning the environment. Technology plays an important role in every

business industry as it facilitates the work done in a faster way. In addition to that it also helps in
reducing the impact on environmental climate change.
There are various sustainability issues that Tesco is facing but the major issue is climate
change. It is actively focusing on reducing the deforestation and it had committed a partnership
with its packaging manufacturers in which it collects soft plastics from the customers at the
stores of Tesco. It had rapidly increased the scale of collection of soft plastic and it has been
measured that about 850 tonnes of soft plastic is collected by the company and the partners are
working on various new recycling solution. By the logistics and operations management, it
impacts on the climate but some measures are taken by the company in order to reduce the
impact of these elements on climate change.
It had created a cradle to Tesco footprint analysis for the operations of United Kingdom
in order to understand the main source of emission that are coming and the formulation of
strategy to reduce its impact. The company wants to reduce the carbon by 60% from the
operations of company by 2035. In order to accomplish this target, the climate strategy of
company is focusing to improve the operations and work collaboratively with their partners
(Barnes, 2018). It has been analysed that in 2020, the com0pany have achieved a milestone of
10% reduction in emission of carbon. The Green house protocol helps in measuring the carbon
emission. A very effective step is taken by the company as it is taking action against the
transportation, heating and refrigeration. It is trying to transform the operations and process
towards the low carbon emission technology.
In addition to this, it want to install the aerofoil refrigeration technology and using
electric vehicles that emits low carbon (Brown, Bessant and Jia, 2018.). Emission of carbon is
one of the major reason that is responsible of climate change. The pollutants of carbon mixes in
the air and made it polluted. The other very important step that the company is opting is use of
renewable energy source by the solar panels and turbines. As the stores of company consumes
more electricity that incurs huge cost. Planting of solar panels can help company in two ways,
first it save the electricity bills along with reducing the dependence on power grids. The
company have signed the largest Power Purchase Agreement. For delivering the products
company is using the electric vehicles that emits low carbon. This shows that company is
strongly trying to reduce the impact to climate change that are occurred because of logistics and
operations management.

It is much needed to bring changes in their policies as it strongly impact the environment
and results in climate change. Due to the emission of carbon gases it becomes threat for the
environment. Many companies are not only complying with these regulations but they are
working a step further as they are adopting sustainable programs of development. In order to
eliminate the risk of environment these are needed to be implemented. Tesco is proactively
adopting this strategy in order to solve the environmental problems. They are focusing and
adopts the risk management approach so that it can prevent the hazards of environment. If they
are not properly treated, they are threat to nature.
As Tesco is had already adopted the sola panels that are helpful in saving electricity.
Along with that, the level of petroleum resources in rapidly declining so in order to preserve
them, company is using electric delivery vans that helps in reducing carbon pollutants. By opting
the right logistic and operations management, company can reduce its cost too by minimising the
waste and prevention of pollution. The company is using the new strategy that helps in long term
economic, environmental along with social benefits and needs of customer ( Anand and Gray,
2017).
The strategies are formulated by the top management of the company band it is needed to
be drafted wisely as they are the blueprints and roadmaps for the success of any company. As
companies are much aware about the importance of environmental resources and how they
contribute in their business operations. They are altering their services so that they can minimise
the impact of their operations in the environment. The first step in the adaption for the change is
identify the need of change, In case of Tesco, it becomes more conscious to minimise its impact
on environment. The next process is determining the impact of these changes in company.
It includes various analysis along with its pros and cons. The next process is to build
effective support to change. There are various methods that promote in the building support. The
company needs to establish the change management that makes the implementation smoother.
The company should opt for those individuals who have relevant skills and knowledge that
contribute s in implementing change.
The next process is to prepare the change management plan. It is the main process in
which many companies lacks due to wrongly formulation of change plan. So it is needed create
an effective plan that helps in successful making change (Kumar, Mookerjee and Shubham,
2018). It must include the goals that are required to achieves in terms of sustainability. The

management assign various activities to individual based on their skills and knowledge. It will
also include the scope of change. In the next process, it will assess the obstacles that come in the
way of making implementation. It will also measure how strongly it can influence the process of
implementation.
The final step is evaluation of change as it involves the monitoring its impacts in order to
measure the effectiveness. The company can compare its pre and post processes and see the
insights that shows the difference between them. If the outcomes are positive in nature then
company should try to implement similar changes in order to boost the operations of company.
Green Product design – Tesco is designing the green products that are friendly with
environment. They material that the company is using are easy degradable or can be recycle.
This helps in preventing the environment from various risk. It has also changed its packaging of
some products which contains plastic. Rather than using plastic, it uses jute bag for carrying the
items. This may result in keeping the environment neat and clean. It has started collecting the
soft plastic from the customers at different stores (Sarkis and Zhu, 2018).
This helps in recycling of plastic and it can be used in other way. Along with using soft
plastics, the company is adopting recyclable and reusable packing. The company had
categorised this issue in three parts. The first is red as it defines the one that cannot be recycled
or bad for the environment. The company had completely banned those plastic bags that are not
good for environment. The green one are the most suitable material and can be friendly to
environment. The company is completely stopped the use of plastic bags that are hazardous to
nature.
Sustainability Warehousing – It may be described as the facility that provides low
environmental impact and there are various techniques and methods that are used to minimise the
waste production and energy consumption. The warehouse of Tesco are less with solar panels
that helps in saving the electricity and reduce the dependency on power grids. As the company is
having larger variety of products and it is needed to have sufficient place so that it can place it
products. This helps in cost cutting of its expenses as it takes huge amount that are incurred in
electricity.
The natural resources are extinct and they are needed to be saved and Tesco is taking a
major step that prevents the environment. Along with that, the transportation that is used to move
goods from the warehouse to store, company uses electric vehicles that helps in reducing the

pollution. The material are used by the company is cost effective and the plastic bags are totally
banned so that it can keep its environment clean. The company have setup refrigeration that
consumes less energy.
Ethical procurement – The company is performing its business ethically as it does not
use any banned substance that can affect the environment. As the government of UK had already
banned plastic in some cities as it the main challenge that the companies are dealing with. Rather
than giving plastic bags to customers, Tesco is giving jute bags instead of plastic bags. Plastic
bags are very harmful for the environment as they are non degradable and on burning they emits
poisonous gas. All the activities are carried out in the company in an ethical way and ensures that
it does not harm environment.
In the implementation of this changes, company incurs huge cost and it is a time
consuming and expensive method too. As the company had setup their solar panels and in case
of rainy season it becomes difficult to manage such issues of electricity (Hong, Zhang and Ding,
2018.). So it is one of the major disadvantage of planting solar panels in opting this strategy in
logistics an operations management. As the supply chain of jute is very limited in UK, so it
becomes difficult to meet the demad of customers. For some products like oil, meat and other
liquid products that can be carried in polybags only. So in some part, company should allow the
use of plastic bags so that customer can carry its products. The cost involved in this process is
cheaper than the plastic as the jute is cost effective method to reduce cost along with preventing
the environment.
The 2021 United Nations climate change conference which is also referred to as 26 was
the COP 26 United Nations climate change conference held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow
Scotland United Kingdom. It is considered a major event as it brings together global leaders from
different countries so that agreement can be made on taking action for solving the climate crisis.
In the most recent climate change In Glasgow the world leaders decided on taking active steps to
ensure that the climate crisis is handled end vulnerable populations are protected from the
disasters caused by rise in climate change (Laybourn-Langton and Smith, 2022).
The four goals which were developed in order to fight climate change at the latest
conference are mitigation adaptation finance an collaboration. Out of these four goals the last
two goals which are financed in collaboration can help businesses across industries improve their
sustainability and handle concerns related to the climate change crisis. These two goals can be

used for applying relevant legislation and management practices which support elimination of
environmental impacts of logistics and operations in business enterprise.
The element that was taken by COP 26 is collaboration and finance. It has been stated
that for the growth of a company it is needed to have sufficient finance that can be helpful in
promoting development. Finance is the core of any business and in order to operate various
activities, finance is the most crucial element that can help in boosting growth. Without having
finance, company cannot operate its functions effectively. The goal related to finance focuses on
developing financial capabilities in different countries and raising at least 100 billion in climate
finance per year (Lim, Balsari and Hung, 2022). In context of business this is an important goal
because finance is the lifeblood of an organization an helped the company achieve goals related
to profit maximization as well as other responsibilities such as sustainability.
Tesco needs to utilize this goal but improving logistical sustainability by ensuring that
apart of financial resources at the company is committed towards improving sustainability across
the supply chain and supporting application of innovative business processes which reduce
environmental harm of the company. There are various legislations that helps in preventing the
damage to environment such as control of pollution act 1974, that is passed to recover the issues
of environmental issues such as noise, water and land. Environmental protection act 1974 is an
environmental law that is imposed in UK in order to control the waste management and
emissions of harmful gases in environment (Langley, Novack, Gibson and Coyle, 2020).
Both the Environmental Protection act of 1974 and control of pollution act 1974 can be used by
Tesco as the legal foundation for attaining financial objective. This is because these laws will
help the company ensure that various practices are implemented which reduce unnecessary
wastage and pollution caused by the company. In return Tesco will be able to reduce costs
significantly and use the saved financial resources in order to invest in areas which further
improve sustainability such as developing innovative products to have beneficial environmental
impact beyond the company.
In addition to this following these laws is effective for Tesco in achieving logistical and
Operational sustainability as the money saved from wastage and pollution reduction can be used
by the retail giant for improving supply chain transparency and supporting suppliers in
improving sustainability at individual level. In this way Tesco will be able to improve logistical

sustainability across different international markets and improve the overall Environmental
Conservation caused by its international supply chain.
Tesco can also utilize these legislations to ensure that various financial resources are
being effectively utilized in different functional areas and contribution of the company towards
the climate change crisis is minimum in terms of optimal usage of finance. In this way following
the goal of financial mobilization developed during the recent climate change conference of
United Nations will help Tesco reduce their overall contribution in climate change and ensure
that the company is making positive strides reaching net 0 emissions.
The steps which can help Tesco in following the finance mobilization goal climate
change conference held in Glasgow United Kingdom include adopting sustainable financial
management practices. Sustainable financial management practices helped businesses make
investing decisions while considering environmental social and government factors of the
decision so that financial issues and making all the supports increase in sustainability.
Sustainable financial management will help Tesco utilize various financial resources in a
manner which helps the company not only effectively react to the climate change crisis but also
utilize financial resources of the company for supporting other social and environmental
concerns such as biodiversity and equality at the company. In addition to this the company will
also be able to plan for the future and set up control on finance and accounting processes so that
the movement of financial resources across the supply chain promote sustainability instead of
wastage our financial resources.
Tesco needs to utilize big data capabilities in artificial intelligence of the company in
order to Predict future financial needs across the supply chain along with sustainability risks.
This data can help the company effectively utilize financial resources in different points of the
supply chain so that sustainability can be improved in a way which does not have negative
consequences in terms of financial capability of the company and responsiveness of the job
lighting so that both consumers and investors of the company are satisfied. By adopting
sustainable financial management practices for mobilizing finance and following sustainability
goals of climate change conference Tesco will be able to tackle climate change crisis while also
providing benefits to various stakeholders including the community shareholders and consumers.
The second element is collaboration. It has been analysed that if the company's resources
are used in a effective way then it can contribute to the success of the organisation. The element

of collaboration in context of the sustainability goals developed at the climate change conference
of Glasgow United Kingdom focuses on working together with other parties to deliver on the
promises of creating a sustainable future. this goal is centred around facing the challenges of
climate change by working together by following the rules needed to implement the Paris
agreement as defined in the Paris rule book and turning the ambitions into actions by
accelerating collaboration between governments businesses and civil society.
In context of climate change collaboration and coordination between various parties
across business sectors and industries is important because it can improve the speed and
responsiveness of a business in tackling climate change challenges. Specifically multinational
organizations with large supply chains and international operations need to focus more on
collaborating and coordinating with government authorities civil society institutions and non
profit organizations for delivering on various sustainability goals add domestic and international
level.
This is because coordination and collaboration with other parties from different industries
can help and international organizations look into climate change challenges with different
perspectives so that unique solutions can be formed which not only protect the companies
interests but also help the company take effective action against environmental harm and climate
change crisis.
Tesco has been able to achieve its global success because of collaboration and
coordination between different departments and international outlets. Collaboration and
coordination also helps a business effectively utilize its resources to achieve higher profitability
and accomplished business objectives in a timely manner. It is important that Tesco looks at
relevant legal as well as management practices which can help the company improve
coordination and collaboration on an international level in order to deal with climate change
challenges.
An important legislation which can be applied by Tesco in order to follow the goal of
collaboration and coordination is the trade union and labour relations consolidation act of 1992.
This piece of legislation focuses on consolidating the enactments related to collective labour
relations trade unions employee association industry relations an industrial action. The trade
union and labour relations act defines and governs the rules of trade unions including relation to
collective bargaining and industrial action. This act can be used by Tesco to ensure that effective

collaboration is being completed with different trade unions across the supply chain so that
sustainability of the international business operations is enhanced.
Tesco can utilize this law for improving sustainability and tackling climate change by
promoting sustainable practices from the bottom of the supply chain. This legislation can help
business improve industrial relations with not only employees but also external parties and
increase brand image as an employer in the industry so that coordination and collaboration
between different parties across the supply chain improves for attaining common goals related to
profitability and sustainability. The management practices which can be utilized by Tesco for
improving collaboration and coordination across the supply chain and eliminating the challenges
of climate change in context of operations and logistics is corporate social responsibility.
Tesco needs to invest in corporate social responsibility initiatives which helped the
company face challenges off climate change crisis by collaborating and coordinating with
significant members of its supply chains. This includes suppliers and third party logistics so that
UN COP 26 sustainability goals can be achieved and improvement in logistics sustainability are
made continuously. In addition to this adopting ethical corporate governance practices such as
transparency in sustainability initiatives can also help the firm ensure that effective steps are
being taken do not only manage the climate change prices but also provide benefits to various
stakeholders of the company.

CONCLUSION
From the above project essay it was concluded that logistics and operations managements
are the two most crucial elements of any business. Apart from making profit, companies also
think about keeping the environment neat and clean. The companies should opt the technology
that reduces the emissions of gases and must increase the use of electric vehicles so that it can
reduce the pollution in environment. The logistics should be monitored and government should
ensure that its operations must not strongly affect the environment. There are several legislations
passed by UK government in order to minimise the risk of pollution. As alteration in the
strategies is a time consuming and costly method but it is needed to be done so that natural
resources can be managed. It is concluded that different legislations such as the Environmental
Protection act of 1974 and trade union and labour relations act of 1992 can help businesses
achieve the sustainability goals formed at COP 26. In addition to this management practices
such as sustainable financial management and corporate social responsibility can also aid
businesses in improving international supply chain sustainability and tackling climate change
crisis in context of logistics and operations.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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logistics perspective. Cengage Learning.
Waters, D., 2019. Supply chain management: An introduction to logistics. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Barnes, D., 2018. Operations Management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Brown, S., Bessant, J. and Jia, F., 2018. Strategic operations management. Routledge.
Anand, G. and Gray, J.V., 2017. Strategy and organization research in operations
management. Journal of Operations Management, 53, pp.1-8.
Kumar, S., Mookerjee, V. and Shubham, A., 2018. Research in operations management and
information systems interface. Production and Operations Management, 27(11),
pp.1893-1905.
Sarkis, J. and Zhu, Q., 2018. Environmental sustainability and production: taking the road less
travelled. International Journal of Production Research, 56(1-2), pp.743-759.
Hong, J., Zhang, Y. and Ding, M., 2018. Sustainable supply chain management practices, supply
chain dynamic capabilities, and enterprise performance. Journal of cleaner
production, 172, pp.3508-3519.
Langley, C.J., Novack, R.A., Gibson, B. and Coyle, J.J., 2020. Supply chain management: a
logistics perspective. Cengage Learning.
Laybourn-Langton, L. and Smith, R., 2022. COP26 and health: Some progress, but too slow and
not enough. The Pan-American Journal of Ophthalmology, 4(1). p.4.
Lim, A. M., Balsari, S. and Hung, K. K., 2022. COP 26, climate change, and emergency
medicine: What must we do?. Hong Kong Journal of Emergency Medicine, 29(2).
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