Federation House Commitment (FHC) - Reducing water use within the Food & Drink Industry
Progress report 2010.
'Progress made has been really impressive – a 5.6% reduction in water use since 2007.'
The Federation House Commitment (FHC) is an initiative jointly developed by the
Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and Envirowise, providing companies with a
systematic approach for improving water efficiency. The Commitment was launched
in
January 2008 as part of the FDF's Five-Fold Environmental Ambition[1].
Following Defra's Delivery Landscape Review in 2009, work previously carried out
by other resource efficiency delivery bodies, including Envirowise, has been
integrated into the role of WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme). As a
result,
WRAP is now responsible for delivering the FHC, working closely with the FDF.
WRAP has appointed Hyder Consulting to manage the Commitment and to provide
technical expertise on water efficiency within the food
and drink sector.
In this report:
The FHC is open to all companies in the food and drink manufacturing sector and
is helping the industry to become a leader nationally in improving water
efficiency. The aim is to help reduce stress on the nation's water supplies and
contribute to an industry-wide target to reduce water use (excluding that
embedded in
products) by 20% by 2020 against a 2007 baseline. This target was set as part
of
the joint industry and Defra's Food Industry Sustainability
Strategy (FISS).
Under the FHC, food and drink companies pledge to review their individual
on-site water use and take action to reduce it.
The key elements of the Commitment are:
- development of a 2007 baseline of water use for individual signatories and for
the Commitment as a whole;
- assessment of water use at each participating company's manufacturing sites;
- the development of site-specific action plans to reduce water use;
- implementation of action plans; and
- annual reporting to WRAP on water and cost savings.
The FHC has now been running for two years, turning the commitments made by
member companies into real, tangible water savings across the food and drink
sector.
This is the second FHC Annual Progress Report[2]. It shares the collective progress its members are making and highlights some
of the measures individual companies have adopted to reduce their water use at
UK
manufacturing sites.
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1. FDF's Five-Fold Environmental Ambition
was launched in October 2007 and is a
commitment on behalf of member companies
to make a significant contribution to improving
the environment by targeting those areas
where they could make the biggest
difference.
2. The first Progress Report is available at
www.fhc2020.co.uk
More Information
Last reviewed: 08 Sep 2010