Glasgow will become the first Scottish city to deliver Tesco home shopping in fully electric vehicles, cementing their legacy as the host city for COP26.
From this week, thousands of households across Glasgow will have their shopping delivered by one of 17 new all-electric Tesco delivery vehicles.
The move is part of Tesco’s efforts to become net zero in its own operations by 2035 and will see Glasgow become the first city in Scotland to transition to Tesco electric delivery vehicles.
The news come as this year's COP26 comes to a close, and the supermarket is keen to help secure a COP26 legacy for the Scottish city.
Tesco has claimed that, with the new electric vehicles, over 3,700 deliveries per week covering nearly 8,000 miles in and around Glasgow will be made without any emissions along the way.
The supermarket then aims to be offering a fully electric home delivery service across all of the UK by 2028.
In addition to the electric delivery vans, Tesco are also looking to support customers making the their own switch by providing EV charging points, as part of its roll-out of the UK’s largest retail network of electric vehicle charging points.
By the end of this year, the supermarket has claimed that they will have 2,400 charging points across 600 stores, including 72 in Scotland.
Tesco is also helping create new renewable energy infrastructure by investing in five new wind farms in Scotland and four new solar farms across the UK.
As part of their pledge to reduce their carbon emissions caused by food distribution, they are also committing more heavily to rail freight, a method of transport it has used since 2008.
By the end of this year a new rail service will run direct from Spain to Scotland as the business expands its use of rail freight from 65,000 containers to around 90,000.
Jason Tarry, Tesco UK and ROI CEO said: “In this critical decade for climate action, businesses must play a key role in driving transformational change.
As part of our efforts to secure a COP26 legacy for Glasgow, I’m delighted that Glasgow will be the first Scottish city to transition to an all-electric Tesco home delivery fleet.
We’re also increasing our use of rail distribution to take more emissions off our roads and helping boost UK’s renewable energy capacity by investing in renewable energy infrastructure, including nine new wind and solar farms across Scotland and throughout the UK.”
Minister for Transport Graeme Dey also commented on Tesco's all electric move by saying: “Government, individuals and businesses all have a role to play when it comes to taking climate action.
This is a welcome step from Tesco, looking to secure a lasting legacy from COP26, and good news for customers in Glasgow, where over 3,700 deliveries a week will now be completed using zero emission vehicles – helping to protect our climate and improve air quality.
This is just the beginning of action taken by Tesco and it is encouraging that the company is expanding the use of rail freight for the movement of fresh produce, investing in renewable energy infrastructure and decarbonising its entire home delivery fleet by 2028.”
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