Ambition 2025

The FDF’s Ambition 2025 progress report has been published.  Please find the accompanying Press Release on the FDF website here.

The report showcases the progress made by the food and drink industry in all our target areas – from food waste to transport to natural capital – to create a more sustainable food supply chain. The key highlight is that FDF members have lowered CO₂ emissions by 58% since 1990. Our members have also cut water consumption by 39.4%, successfully contributing to an industry-wide target to reduce water use by 20%.

In all these areas, food and drink companies continue to deliver progress, working across supply chains through industry initiatives, including Courtauld 2030, UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap and the UK Plastics Pact.

We are delighted to announce the expert panel of speakers joining us to discuss the topic of "Net Zero versus reality?" at our upcoming Food and Drink Federation Conference taking place at The National Gallery on 22 March 2022.

Climate change is the biggest global threat to our sector but is there a trade-off between achieving the net zero ambition and financial performance? This panel looks at the sector’s challenges and in particular how our diet impacts on that ambition. Can we have a healthy balance AND sustainable diet?

Key speakers:

• Emma Piercy, FDF Head of Climate Change & Energy Policy Regulation, Science & Sustainability (CHAIR)
• Patrick Holden, Founder and Chief Executive, Sustainable Food Trust
• Gerald Mason, Senior Vice President, Tate & Lyle Sugars
• Lee Sheppard, Director of Corporate Affairs and Policy, apetito
• Sarah Wynn, Managing Director, Climate & Sustainability, ADAS
• Clarke Energy

Other topics we will cover include:

1. Exciting and inspiring UK Food and Drink consumers
2. UK Food and Drink: The cornerstone of British manufacturing
3. Maximising your export potential

Find out more and register your place.

On 24 November, WRAP, in partnership with WWF, The Rivers Trust and many other supporting organisations, launched the Roadmap towards Water Security for the Food & Drink Supply to protect vital water resources for the benefit of nature, local communities and the food and drink sector.

The Water Roadmap will be delivered by a coalition of water stewardship expert bodies, on-the-ground delivery agencies and UK food and drink organisations. The Water Roadmap builds on the success of the Courtauld Commitment Water Ambition to deliver even more ambitious changes across the food system in support of the new Courtauld Commitment 2030  target and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The new Water Roadmap directly addresses the climate risk and food security issues surrounding water stewardship whilst highlighting the need for urgent adaptation and action.

It includes:

• The actions organisations need to take individually and collectively, to help deliver this vision - progressing through the five stages of the WWF water stewardship ladder.
• The milestones that we need UK food and drink businesses to reach along this shared journey
• The delivery and governance framework - including the steps to develop and deliver water stewardship projects.
• The reporting framework– ensuring accountability, providing assurance that the right level of progress is being made and that intended outcomes are being achieved.

A total of 65 supporters, including 50 leading food & drink organisations such as Asda, Co-op, Coca Cola GB, M&S, Nestle UK & Ireland, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, are already supporting the Water Roadmap, and WRAP is calling for more to join this growing movement of companies, who are committed to taking action on water.  

Does your company have a leading environmental initiative?

The FDF Environmental Leadership awards category is for companies that can meet either of the criteria below:

• Embedding sustainability throughout a product from development right through to customer use and disposal
• Ground-breaking initiatives to reduce your company's impact on the planet

Enter before the closing date of 28 February 2022, for your chance to win. It’s completely free to enter!

View the full criteria

Find out more about the FDF Awards

Our Head of Climate Change & Energy Policy, Emma Piercy, is undertaking a PGDip in Sustainable Business at Cambridge – and is now working on an ‘Analysis Paper’ looking at a sustainability challenge in the food and drink sector – specifically looking at the role FDF can play in helping to drive change, and then applying those conclusions to the Net Zero policy area.  This will be followed by a second assignment around creating an action plan on account of recommendations from the analysis paper.

As part of the research she is reaching out to different stakeholder groups – and there is a specific questionnaire for food and drink manufacturers, and it is open to both members and non-members of FDF: there are 9 multiple choice questions with the option to add additional comments – and 3 free text questions.  All information gathered is confidential and non-attributable unless explicit permission is otherwise given.  The final paper will be viewed only by Cambridge University and key FDF staff.

If you would like to participate in this survey – you can do so via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DR8ZR3R

Responses to the survey are requested by Friday 20th August, but will be open a little longer.  Thank you for your support and I look forward to hearing your views!