Ambition 2025

The FDF’s Ambition 2025 progress report has been published and it demonstrates the progress made by the food and drink industry in all our target areas – from CO2 emissions to food waste to packaging – to create a more sustainable food supply chain.

Despite the challenges that 2022 brought, supply chain issues, labour shortages, threats to energy security as well as rising inflation and ingredient prices, our members remain focused on their commitment to lead the charge for a sustainable, resilient, and responsible food and drink industry, and deliver on our ambition to reach Net Zero by 2040 – a decade earlier than government targets.

On 31^st May from 4 to 5, there will be a one-off meeting to share views on the Sedex system and the upcoming changes. It will be chaired by Anoushka Harris from AB Foods, and FDF will be in attendance for purposes of competition law. The agenda will include: how members are currently using SEDEX and monitoring the data on the platform, and challenges and plans to manage the new SAQ with suppliers. If you would like to join, please contact Emma Piercy.

Join our next Sustainability Networking Breakfast Event on the theme of ‘Sustainability & Procurement’!  Guests can join from 08:30 with a short series of speeches and Q&A at 09:00. Our speakers from apetito, WRAP, Nestle, DEFRA and ADAS (our sponsors), will share different perspectives of this topic to cover the following areas:

• Standardising an approach to supply chain emissions
• Promotion of sustainable practices such as regenerative agriculture and wider supply chain initiatives
• How retailers are engaging with suppliers on the sustainability agenda
• Consultation on changes to public sector food and catering policy 

Guests can then continue their informal Chatham house discussions and to network with fellow industry professionals to discuss common issues, challenges, developments and ideas.  To register for this event, click here!

On 18^th July at 12:30, there is a webinar to provide an introduction to the Nature Recovery Network (NRN).  Please register here.

The NRN is a major commitment in the UK Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan and enacted by the Environment Act 2021. The NRN aims to expand, improve and connect a national network of wildlife-rich places across England’s towns, cities, countryside and coast. The national network has a range of ambitious objectives around nature recovery, as well as providing a range of economic, social, and health and well-being benefits. 

Partnership working is essential to deliver the objectives of the NRN, working together across a broad range of organisations and sectors to share skills, knowledge and resources. Natural England and the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) are holding a webinar to introduce the NRN and the key role that business can play in supporting nature’s recovery.

Delegates will leave the webinar with a better understanding of:

• What the NRN is and what it’s aiming to achieve and deliver
• Why businesses should invest in and support the NRN
• NRN business engagement activities and what's coming up next

SEEBEYOND was a project led by the Environment Agency in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, BSI and WRAP. It’s aim was to research how environmental metrics could be standardised within the Food and Drink sector enabling a level playing field for benchmarking of performance and creating opportunities for data automation and reducing the data burden on companies and the potential for greenwashing of environmental performance.

The final report is now available: link

The project team are also presenting a webinar with IEMA on 14^th June looking at the outputs of the SEEBEYOND project that you can sign up for here

FDF members can find more information in the circular ESC-020-22