Isra-Mart srl: Food and drinks firms remain on track to meet ambitious carbon targets

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The UK's leading food and drinks manufacturers, including Coca-Cola, Mars and United Biscuits, are on track to meet ambitious green goals, despite increasing production in recent years, according to a major new report.

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) yesterday issued an annual update of its members' progress towards a series of voluntary targets for reducing environmental impacts, including carbon emissions, water use and waste.

FDF members have reduced CO2 emissions by 25 per cent this year compared with 1990, the report said, adding that they are on track to meet a target to cut emissions by 35 per cent against the same baseline by 2020.

The report also showed that firms had reduced water use, excluding that embedded in products, by 5.3 per cent, edging them towards a 2020 goal of reducing water use by 20 per cent.

In addition, the report revealed that manufacturers this year began tackling the wider environmental impact of their supply chain, adopting goals to reduce water use and management, protect biodiversity, and develop more sustainable sourcing guidelines.

As part of that drive, FDF yesterday launched a campaign encouraging food and drinks companies to save water. Dubbed 'every last drop' it offers guidelines for manufacturing businesses to effectively manage water use across the supply chain.

Minister of state for agriculture and food Jim Paice hailed the industry's progress, but warned there was "no scope for complacency" in curbing the environmental impact of food and drink supply chains.

"There is a huge challenge ahead of us to balance the competing pressure and demands on the global food system," he said.

"This challenge applies to the whole of the food supply chain, so I am particularly pleased to see that the Five-fold Environmental Ambition is encouraging collaboration and engagement with food producers on sustainability objectives."

Nick Bunker, president of Kraft Foods UK & Ireland, and chairman of FDF's sustainability steering group, said the progress was particularly admirable given that overall production has increased.

Output in the food and drink industry increased by 3.5 per cent between September 2010 and 2011, according to the Office of National Statistics.

"In [CO2 emissions] and other areas, we have also improved performance while increasing output to meet higher demand, successfully decoupling environmental impacts from economic growth, which is key to meeting the sustainability challenges of the future and to our own and global food security," he said.