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Courtauld 2025 Year One – setting the foundations for change
WRAP today announced the names of twenty-four new signatories to the Courtauld Commitment 2025 (Courtauld 2025), as the sustainability body published its first Review of work underway through the food & drink sector voluntary agreement. New signatories include ABP Food Group, Accor Hotels UK & Ireland, The Federation of Bakers, Hovis, ISS UK and the Welsh Local Government Association who join 156 organisations working collaboratively through Courtauld 2025 to cut by one fifth the resources needed to provide UK’s food & drink, in ten years.
Today’s Review covers the first twelve months of Courtauld 2025, and outlines how WRAP has collaborated with partners to set the groundwork for forthcoming activities, and details the key outputs already launched. Steve Creed, Director of Business Programmes at WRAP explains, “This first year has been about creating sector-wide collaboration and developing networks for change, and I’m very pleased with how signatories have responded.
“In just one year, for example, we’ve set up ten working groups covering a range of key issues from tackling the largest food waste categories, to driving consumer behavioural change. The meat and livestock group includes producer bodies, processors, retailers and hospitality & food service. The group will spend 2018 testing on-farm resource-efficiency measures and exploring ways to tackle consumer food waste, for example through reducing confusion around freezing. Work is also underway in Wales mapping red meat products and by-products from abattoirs that will give new insight into opportunities to improve efficiency, and maximise carcase use. And that’s just one working group.
“This Review gives me confidence for what will follow, but we need industry to focus now on building on these foundations.”
To illustrate how Courtauld 2025’s holistic approach from farm to fork is already delivering change, WRAP sets out achievements under sector categories. A snapshot of these is given below, while the full picture can be viewed online.
Collaboration in action
Helping us all to save more food
What the future holds
Looking forward, the Courtauld 2025 Review highlights key actions to be completed in the coming months and years. For WRAP, focus remains on reducing the environmental impact of the UK’s food in the home, while helping organisations and businesses improve their productivity through greater resource efficiency across the supply chain. Steve Creed explains, “We want to catalyse collaborative action on household food waste, and bring together groups at work across the UK in coordinated action behind a common ambition to accelerate, and make it easier for everyone to drive change. Signatories, including retailers, brands and local authorities, will have the opportunity to play a leading role in coordinating engagement plans going forward.
“In line with the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy, Courtauld 2025 is positioned to help identify where resource efficiency is an issue across the supply chain and develop and share best practice to help increase productivity, and eliminate waste. This calls for strategic and collaborative action by sector leaders, and that’s why setting down strong roots for Courtauld 2025 in this first year has been so important.”
With eight of the top ten countries from which the UK imports its food drought-prone, water is becoming an increasingly unpredictable factor. A water ambition is being developed for Courtauld 2025 that includes a framework for increasing collective action in areas of water stress. Working closely with World Wildlife Fund, the Rivers Trust and experts in this field, WRAP is helping businesses identify water risks and impacts – and starting to coordinate collective actions in areas of common risk.
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» Publication Date: 06/12/2017
The development of this project has been co-funded with the support of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Union
[LIFE16 ENV/ES/000305]
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