'Greenwash' suspicion at supermarket moves

To Cornish shoppers, it will look like ordinary curly kale, but for the next two months it will be among the most eco-friendly vegetable produce in Britain.

Alongside cabbages, potatoes, broccoli and strawberries grown in Cornwall, the kale will be appearing on the shelves of Asda stores in the county and neighbouring Devon without first having made a 450km round trip to a distribution depot in Bristol.

The initiative - part of a trial which the Walmart-owned chain says will save 9600km in road journeys a month - is the latest in a slew of projects announced by the main supermarkets to improve their environmental credentials.

From methane-powered trucks to "sun tubes" reflecting natural daylight into stores, the big four - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - have opened a new "green" front in the battle for dominance of Britain's £90 billion ($270 billion) supermarket sector.

Richard Clarke, of food retail magazine The Grocer, said: "The environment is the single most important issue that is occupying the minds of the big supermarkets now. We have all read about how much they are responsible for a lot of the waste we produce and they know the way they are perceived by consumers is everything.

"But the hard reality is they are not just doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

"If they can reduce their escalating energy bills or fuel costs by green measures then that is simply good business sense."

Environmentalists claim that the supermarket schemes often amount to a "greenwash" designed to assuage the guilt of consumers.


GREEN FRONT

* Farmers are directly supplying products to supermarkets.

* Methane-powered trucks are transporting goods.

* Sun tubes reflect natural daylight into stores.

* Bags are degradable.

* In the pipeline: wind turbines, solar panels and biomass boilers as well as "zero waste".

- INDEPENDENT