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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