Moving Towards Environmental Sustainability: The European Food Industry Perspective

Tove Larsson

Director Environmental Sustainability

FoodDrinkEurope

13th June 2013

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1 – Introduction to FoodDrinkEurope

2 – Environmental Sustainability Report 2012

3 – The Food SCP Round Table

4 – Challenges & Opportunities

Outline

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Who we are

Role: Represent the food and drink Manufactures at the EU Level

National federations (25, including 3 observers) - E.g.: FDF (UK), ANIA (FR), BLL (DE), PFPZ (PL), FederAlimentare (IT), etc. - Observers: Croatia (HUP), Norway (NHO),Turkey (TGDF)

European sector associations (25) - E.g.: Breakfast cereals (CEEREAL), Chocolate, Biscuits and Confectionary (CAOBISCO), Spirit drinks (CEPS), Diary products (EDA), Snacks (ESA), Soft drinks (UNESDA), etc.

Major food and drink companies (18) - E.g.: Barilla, Coca-Cola, Cargill, Danone, Heineken, Kellogg, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Ülker, Unilever, etc.

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The EU food and drink industry

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Sustainability – in the heart of our business

■ The EU food industry purchases 70% of EU agricultural produce

■ The EU food industry is the largest agricultural importer in the world

Therefore:

■ The industry needs a stable supply of high quality raw materials

■ The first objective of the industry is to use 100% of its agricultural

resources wherever possible

FoodDrinkEurope launches Environmental

Sustainability Vision Towards 2030

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Environmental Sustainability Vision 2030

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Considering its complexity and diversity, what in your view should be the priority actions of the European food and drinks industries AS A SECTOR to address environmental challenges?

Raise awareness of the importance of reducing food waste along the

food chain

Facilitate best practice exchange among operators

Facilitate communication of environmental performance along the

food chain, including to consumers

Actively promote harmonisation of environmental assessment methodology

Work with supply chain partners to maximise resource efficiency

Work with public authorities, scientific community, civil society and other stakeholders

to enhance consumers' environmental awareness

Provide information on environmental improvement options and public support schemes to operators,

particularly SMEs

Develop more joint industry standards and certification schemes

for sustainable sourcing

Support mutual recognition of environmental standards and

certification schemes

Other (please specify)

Food waste: a key priority for FoodDrinkEurope

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Resource efficiency is a key issue as we face the challenge of meeting global food demand in an era of increasingly scarce resources

Losing resources in manufacturing means losing production value

Wasting food means wasting resources and efforts put into improving sustainability in the production of food

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European Food

Sustainable Consumption and Production

Round Table

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A lack of harmonised tools for practical environmental

assessment and to support consumer communication

Today: no uniformly applied assessment methodology for food, apart from conducting standardised LCAs, which are too complex and too expensive for daily industrial practice

High diversity of food and drinks, different environmental impacts at different stages of the life-cycle (e.g. sugar vs. milk vs. pizza)

Specificities in terms of health and nutrition must be considered

Proliferation of competing schemes developed by various actors within the EU (public authorities, retailers, producers)

Different methods assessing different impacts with different methodologies (carbon footprint, water footprint, CO2 content of packaging, recyclability, air-freight, organic, etc)

Communication tools supported by different schemes which reduces consumer understanding and comparability.

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Sustainable confusion?

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Key characteristics

Official launch: 6 May 2009 in Brussels

Vision: Promote science-based, coherent approach to SCP in the food sector, consider interactions across the entire food chain

Working areas: Methodology, communication, continuous improvement

Scope: Food and drink products across the whole life-cycle

Food actors: 23 European food chain organisations

Other members: Sustainability Consortium, World Resources Institute

Co-chairs: European Commission (DGs ENV, SANCO, JRC, ENTR)

Support: UNEP, European Environment Agency

Observers: National governments, Eurogroup for Animals, UN FAO, UNDP, Spanish Consumers Union (OCU)

Participation: EU level organisations subject to expertise and commitment

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Three Key Objectives

1. Establish scientifically reliable and uniform environmental assessment methodologies for food and drinks

2. Identify suitable tools and guidance for voluntary environmental communication to consumers and other stakeholders

3. Promote continuous environmental improvement measures along the entire food supply chain

Links to ongoing policy developments

ISO 14040 and 14044

European Environmental Footprint Methodology

Food and Drink Environmental

Assessment Protocol

Product Category Rules

RT Guidance on voluntary

communication (Footprint,

certification schemes, etc.)

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Information communicated must be valid and reliable

Best achieved using a multifaceted approach

Need for consumer research as consumers need to be enabled to make informed choices

The third party use of environmental information has to be further analysed (data verification)

The food chain partners play an important role in enabling consumers to act on complex product-specific information and to make informed choices, supported by awareness raising and a broader public education strategy

“Communicating environmental performance along the food chain”

Conclusions

■ Holistic approach to environmental sustainability

■ Resource Efficiency & Food Wastage

■ Healthy and Sustainable Diets

■ Communicating Environmental Information

■ Environmental Claims

Challenges & Opportunities moving forward

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