Top Editors ... Environmental Initiatives from the Food and Drink Industry

Title: Environmental Initiatives from the Food and Drink Industry
Date: 16/04/2008
Autor: Claire Rowan

Environmental initiatives are key to future success for food and beverage manufacturers as they impact not only on consumer perception and legislative fulfilment but also on profitability

As can be seen in the pages of this dedicated Supplement, suppliers are rising to the increasing demands from the industry and investing heavily in finding solutions to manufacturers’ environmental and energy-saving challenges.
Meanwhile, food and drink manufacturers themselves are making considerable strides in reducing their impact on the environment.
Pressure from retailers to boost their ‘green’ credentials in the eyes of consumers is having a knock-on effect throughout the whole food chain. Leading UK retailer Tesco has recently launched a new Greener Living product range to sit alongside its existing Finest, Value and Healthy Living ranges in a bid, it claims, to help consumers reduce the energy they use (and hence their carbon footprint), reduce the waste they generate, and reduce their impact on the environment.
This initiative will force suppliers to look even harder at their own environmental performance and offerings.
Food and drink manufacturers are already active with their own initiatives. Earlier this year, Cadbury Schweppes unveiled a new environmental strategy designed ‘to transform the company’s manufacturing processes and assets, minimising the use of energy, packaging and water in response to the challenge of climate change’; and McCain Foods has this year had three 125 metre high wind turbines built as part of its efforts to lower its carbon footprint and move its French fries (chips) production operations ‘towards a sustainable future’.
“The food and drink industry is fully aware that the production and consumption of its products (from farm to fork and beyond) also triggers environmental implications, and for many years has shown leadership in environmental sustainability,” said Jean Martin, president of the CIAA (The Confederation of the Food & Drink Industries of the EU), which has just published its new Managing Environmental Sustainability in the European Food & Drink Industries report.
“Manufacturers’ actions include voluntarily cutting energy use, water consumption and waste generation, increasing resource efficiency and engaging in a range of initiatives with food chain partners.”

Energy efficiency
As far back as 2003, Heineken joined forces with other Dutch breweries to develop a benchmarking scheme to determine the energy efficiency of breweries in The Netherlands and internationally. As a result, Heineken has reduced its electricity consumption by 3% from 2004 and 2005, which is within the company’s goal to reduce
electricity consumption by 15% within five years. At Kraft Foods, improved usage reduction programmes and processes, together with the application of technological innovations that promote energy efficiency, resulted in a 14% decrease in energy use and 21% decrease in CO2 emissions in 2006 compared with 2001.
Group Danone set itself the goal of reducing its energy consumption by 20% between 2000 and 2010, and by 2005, its mid-term results confirmed that those targets will be achieved as annual decreases currently stand at around 4%. The Group’s approach includes practical measures such as the precise organisation of the work place,
the definition of key performance indicators and the integration of energy management into daily business practice. These business initiatives are coupled with energy audits and investment in energy efficient equipment. As an ever present backdrop to commercial activities, the European Union is determined to tackle global warming and in 2007 adopted ambitious targets in its new energy and climate change policy. These include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, improving energy efficiency by 20%, raising the share of renewable energy
sources by 20% and the share of bio-fuels in road transport by 10%. All targets, according to the CIAA report, are scheduled to apply in 2010. Although food and drink manufacturing is characterised by relatively low energy intensity, according to the CIAA, there are major differences in energy intensities between the various sub-sectors
in the industry. In the area covered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), for example, food and drink manufacturing accounts for as much as 8% of total industrial energy use, ranking fifth behind primary metals, chemicals, paper and pulp and non-metallic minerals.
However, encouragingly, CO2 emissions by the food and drink industry remained constant at 13% between 1990 and 2005, despite production increasing by more than 51% during the same period in the EU-15
This indicates a ‘decoupling’ of economic growth from CO2 emissions, according to the CIAA, which has actively supported the EU co-funded project to implement energy efficiency measures in SMEs in the food and drink sector. The BESS (Benchmarking and Energy Management Schemes in SMEs) project has already led to tools being
developed by a consortium of national energy agencies and consultancies and tested in over 50 food and drink companies throughout Europe. The tools consist of an energy management specification; an implementation model, a handbook, a web based e-learning system, a benchmarking scheme and templates for energy audits, measure lists and checklists (www.bess-project.info).
Reducing water usage can result in considerable savings. Current data indicates that the food and drink manufacturing industry is responsible for a share of between 8% and 15% of total industrial water use, according to the CIAA report. ‘Concrete action to improve water efficiency at factory level falls into two categories: behavioural changes (best management practice) and investment in water-efficient technology.
Nestlé, for example, has almost doubled its production since 1997, yet its absolute water consumption has decreased by 29%, which represents a reduction of its specific water consumption by almost two thirds.

Packaging
The packaging issue is one of the most complex to deal with in terms of environmental responsibility. The food and drink sector recognises its responsibility to reduce the impacts of packaging, but the challenge lies in reducing packaging material without compromising food quality, safety, product integrity and consumers’ needs.
The food and drink industry is a major user of packaging and accounts for about two thirds of total EU packaging by weight.
However, it has introduced a number of initiatives for responsible packaging management, including source reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery.
According to the European Commission, in 2002, all EU recovery and recycling targets applicable to EU-15 were achieved. Out of a total of 66 million tonnes of packaging waste, around 36 million tones (54%) were recycled. Compared with 1997, this is an increase of 9 million tonnes and an increase in the recycling rate of 8%.
Food and drink manufacturers’ efforts have made an important contribution. For example, Coca-Cola has reduced packaging materials significantly: aluminium cans, glass contour bottles and PET bottles used today have been reduced by 33%, 57% and 32% respectively since their original introduction.
In 2005, the company’s use of cutting edge Ultra Glass technology eliminated the need for approximately 52,000 tonnes of glass globally, representing a CO2 reduction equivalent to planting 8,000 acres of trees. Coca-Cola also reduced global PET use by more than 10,000 tonnes via manufacturing and package redesign efforts.
Small changes can add up to larger benefits for the environment, as Unilever proved when it eliminated an outer carton from its Knorr vegetable mix and created a new shipping and display box. As a result, the company halved the packaging, resulting in 280 fewer pallets and six fewer trucks a year to transport the same quantity.
Unilever is also working on other design changes and lightweighting. For example, in The Netherlands, Calvé peanut butter jar packaging has been reduced by 23% through a combination of light-weighting and design change.
Significant initiatives have been put into place by the industry to reduce the impact of manufacturing, packaging, storing and transporting food and drink products, but efforts must be made to continue and build on its achievements so far. Given the complexity of the food chain, however, there is no single solution. In the words of Jean Martin: “Raising the profile of sustainability for the entire sector requires all manufacturers to raise their game.”