Food and Drink Federation Members Cut CO2 Emissions 17% Since 1990

December 1, 2008

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Food and Drink Federation members have slashed their CO2 emissions by 17 percent since 1990, the equivalent of reducing an average of 58,000 tons of CO2 per year, or taking 22,000 cars of UK roads each year.

The UK federation says the results show that its members are on target to meet their commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent over the next two years, compared with 1990 levels.

The group also announced that its members have prevented over half a million tones of food waste from being created; recycled or recovered 82 percent of the food and packaging waste created in factories; and launched the Federation House Commitment, under which 237 food and drink manufacturing sites across the U.K. are working to improve water efficiency.

In food-related news, Branston Ltd., which supplies over 400,000 tons of fresh potatoes every year in the U.K. recently received the Carbon Trust Standard for reducing its carbon emissions by 6 percent over the last three years.

The company says it’s the first food producers in the country to receive the Carbon Trust Standard. In order to maintain the standard, the company says it will be audited every two years to ensure it has met its targets.

As part of achieving the Carbon Trust Standard and ISO 14001 accreditation, the company designed and implemented an environmental policy — such as building cold store, introducing high-speed doors in areas of the factory where heat loss is above average, and upgrading water treatment facilities — across its sites in Lincolnshire, Perthshire and Somerset. The company has also worked with Tesco to measure the carbon footprint of potato production and to introduce clear carbon footprint labeling on the supermarket’s potato product packaging.

In January, a group of 21 companies, led by the Food and Drink Federation, agreed to cut their water use by 20 percent by 2020.

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