Response from Tesco regarding fuel

I have received a response from Tesco about what percentage of their fuel is made up of palm oil. In the same e-mail I also told them I was switching all my on-line shopping to Sainsbury's but they haven't replied about that.

Using this as a base, I can now write to other fuel suppliers to see if they can be any more precise about how much palm oil is in their petrol/diesel. This might be one area that I can't avoid palm oil. I don't drive anywhere myself but I do get a lift to my market stall every Saturday in a diesel car and of course, all the delivery vehicles bringing items to me for my business, my groceries, on-line shopping etc. all use fuel so I can't absolve myself of responsibility in this area. There may be one supplier that's better than the others so I'll see if I can find out which ... Anyway, here's what Tesco say about their fuel

Thank you for your patience

I received the following response this morning regarding the usage of Palm Oil in our bio fuels regrettably, they've not given me a percentage figure.

In 2005 we decided to sell biofuels as we believed that they could help customers reduce their carbon footprint and decrease our use of fossil fuels. Since then, EU legislation has made 5% biofuel obligatory in regular fuels.

We do use some palm oil in the production of our biofuels. However, we are continually seeking to reduce the amount of palm oil we use by supplementing it with other vegetable oils, such as waste tallow.

All major fuel companies are also members of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and are committed to sustainably sourcing palm oil used in biofuels.
Greenergy (www.greenergy.com), which supplies almost 50% of our fuel requirements, has been praised for its work in developing biofuel sustainability criteria and audit programmes.

I appreciate that this will not have been the answer you hoped for and I'm sorry that I can't get you a more detailed response. I do hope this information will be of some help to you.

Holding response from Tesco

I wrote another e-mail to Tesco last week letting them know that I am switching all my on-line purchases to Sainsbury's and also enquiring why they hadn't yet responded about what the 5% bio fuel component of their diesel and petrol is made from. Here is their reply:

I'm very sorry that I've not yet received a reply to your query. Please let me assure you that I've not forgotten about this and I have escalated the matter again on your behalf. As soon as I receive I will be in contact again and I do appreciate your patience on this matter.

Palm oil in fuel

I've been very slow in updating the palm oil blog lately. To tell you the truth, I'm in despair over it. There is an EU requirement that all fuel supplied in this country contains 5% bio fuel, ie palm oil or other vegetable oils.

Anything I do to reduce the amount of palm oil I eat and use in cosmetics/soap/household products pales into insignificance if palm oil is used in 5% of all the fuel used in the whole of Europe.

UK consumers have shown how much they don't care about palm oil destroying the rainforest by allowing Cadbury to continue to put palm oil in chocolate in this country whereas in New Zealand and Australia, their consumers have got Cadbury to turn tail and run when they proposed putting palm oil in chocolate over there. Why doesn't consumer power work in the UK - because there aren't enough people writing letters and e-mails of complaint.

I've dedicated so much time and effort to this but I'm finding it hard to get the motivation together to write any more letters and e-mails which all achieve nothing if no-one else joins in. I was hoping I could use my research to make a website to inform people how to live without palm oil but it seems pretty much an impossible task now.