Retailing giant Tesco has, according to the Harvard Business Review’s John Quelch, ”taken the lead in promoting its  [corporate responsibility] Sustainable Consumption Initiative, now being copied by Wal-Mart.”

In an article highlighting that CR programmes are not just surviving, but thriving, in a recession Quelch says that  Tesco “plans to require carbon footprint information to be placed on the label of every product sold in its stores.” He ties this back to the trend that shoes a growng segment of consumers worldwide considers CR evaluations important in selecting among brands across a wide range of categories.

Terry Leahy, Tesco’s CEO, wants to make it easy for consumers to incorporate environmental impact criteria in their purchasing. As he says: “To achieve a mass movement in green consumption is to empower everyone, not just the enlightened or the affluent.” Corporations cannot change the world on their own. They need to empower their customers to help change the world for themselves.”

For all of Tesco’s major suppliers, this must be a hell of an ask.  They are effectively demanding CR measurements and focus back up their supply chain. For those suppliers, these demands can surely only only be met by using actionable using data driven from IT systems. Certainly to accurately measure carbon footprint across product lines going foward will require IT support. This resonates with my earlier post this month that revealed CIO’s challenges for 2010 and beyond, that many CIOs are heavily focused on interrogating data to support decision-making. If you can help Tesco’s suppliers out with this challenge right now, you’re well placed.