Courtauld 2025 background

Transcription

1 Courtauld 2025 background WRAP is working with industry, Governments and other stakeholders to develop a new framework for collaboration across the food system 1 in the UK in order to meet global challenges on food sustainability. Courtauld 2025 is proposed to include a new ten-year signatory commitment to target action on food system hotspots 2 from product design and supply, through to consumption and making best use of materials which aren t consumed, complemented by wider collaboration with other organisations and initiatives. This framework for collaboration will build on the work undertaken by the Product Sustainability Forum and the successful Courtauld and HaFSA (Hospitality & Food Service Agreement) approach to delivery. Why are we proposing multi-stakeholder action? The UK faces challenges to food security as a consequence of rising global demand and the impacts of climate change. Reductions in food waste, carbon emissions 3 and demand on water-scarce regions are all needed over the next decade to help ensure UK citizens have access to sufficient food at an affordable price and with acceptable environmental impact. Businesses need to develop more efficient and innovative value chains to compete. Courtauld 2025 is centred on supporting multi-party collaborations to develop a more efficient and sustainable food system, and ensuring that consumers get the information they need to help change behaviours. Such collaboration is difficult for individual businesses to achieve due to issues of distant relationships with suppliers, inevitable distrust, scarce human resources, and difficulties in sharing implementation costs and end-savings. How would Courtauld 2025 operate? WRAP will organise core collaborative activities: a sector commitment of c companies (across retail, manufacturing, hospitality & food service and packaging) extending the current Courtauld signatory base; a steering group and working groups; measurement, reporting and evaluation of impacts against targets and intermediate milestones (see Appendix 1); evidence work to inform priorities; projects to develop and test good practice; and critically, working with a range of partners to spread good practice more widely across the food system. 1 Food and drink, from producer to consumer. In this overview, the term food generally refers to both food and drink. 2 Those areas of greatest impact, and those areas in which the greatest reductions in impact can be realised 3 In 2014, a research paper analysed the potential consequences of the FAO s projected 60% increase in demand for food by 2050 from 2005, and estimated that the resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions from food supply alone could equal the full 2 o C target emissions allowance for the entire global economy by Food waste reduction and a change towards healthier diets were highlighted as two principal demand-side measures to help tackle this challenge. Scenario analysis suggests that Courtauld 2025 could help reduce food waste by 10-15Mt between 2015 and 2025, saving 20-30Mt CO 2e emissions and preventing waste that costs around 30bn at current prices. 1

2 The development and delivery of collaborative action will centre on four themes which span the changes needed across the food system illustrated below. Themes 1 & 2 Product Design & Supply The ambition here is that, by 2025: Businesses along the supply chain will routinely work together to identify the most efficient means of delivering customer value; Evidence on the most effective actions / good practices will support them in doing so. And, through our programme of work, this will be available for the most impactful foods consumed in the UK; Good practice sustainability criteria will be widely embedded into the design, buying and sourcing of food & drink products; A number of cross-sector initiatives will also have delivered tangible resolutions to common business challenges, such as improving product life. The programme of work in years 1 and 2 will include: Undertaking a series of whole chain projects 4 to facilitate supply chain collaborations and generate evidence on tangible actions to improve efficiency; Taking recently-developed frameworks for embedding sustainability into design and buying processes 5 and test these by working with exemplar businesses. We will also promote wider take-up by seeking to harmonise the frameworks with existing providers of support services; and 4 For example, see: 5 For example, see: 2

3 Convening a limited number of cross-sector projects, which will tackle challenges that are common across multiple product systems. WRAP has proposed that an initial cross-sector topic for 2016 should be further action on improving product life. We are seeking nominations from businesses for a second topic in 2016, and subsequent topics in Theme 3 Changing Consumption Behaviours We need a step change in consumption behaviour. We need to take the public on a journey making people think differently about food and food waste changing their attitudes and awareness in a united, once in a lifetime, perception change. To do this we have to think differently, including: Ground breaking TV, digital interventions and PR to make people sit up and take notice signposting people to the solutions and support already making an impact across the UK from training to product design, to digital tools, to in-store and online campaigns; and Maximising locally targeted engagement which people see and feel at the heart of their community. The proposals for early activity for Courtauld 2025 centre on household food waste reduction, where the greatest savings potential across the UK food system. Theme 4 Maximising Value from Waste Materials & By-Products The aim here is to maximise the value from food waste & by-products (from the supply chain and post-consumer) by creating new markets, leading to a more resilient circular economy. Projects in years 1 and 2 of Courtauld 2025 would include: Research to quantify the composition of segregated waste streams, map this onto emerging research and technologies, and evaluate the potential economic benefits; Identifying the commercialisation opportunities for academic innovations, and broker project development including through a stakeholder forum on bioresources refining; and Developing and sharing an evidence base on the benefits and use of renewable fertilisers. Timeline for developing Courtauld

4 Appendix 1: Targets & Measurement of Impact Target-setting and measurement is being developed through a working group. In its first meeting in 2014, the group proposed setting high-level targets for carbon, water and food waste for Courtauld 2025, providing a whole-system ambition with a 10-year horizon. The second meeting on 11 th February 2015 reviewed specific options, and made the following recommendations. Food waste 6 A target should be set at the ambitious level of a 20% reduction in food waste by 2025 relative to 2015, in line with WRAP s analysis of what is achievable but stretching. This target level would be consistent with the policy goal proposed by the EC in 2014 (which may be included in any future version of the Circular Economy package). Courtauld 2025 should identify interim milestones towards the target, such as an initial threeyear milestone. The description of the target needs to make clear: o The scope of what s included, with consumer food waste prevention clearly identified as a component 7 o The collective nature of the target, who owns the target and the commitment of signatories to contribute towards the target, i.e. this is not a requirement on each company for their own waste generation o The plan for how Courtauld 2025 will achieve the target, identifying the enablers (i.e. what changes will contribute how much?) including for the work on consumer food waste prevention. Look at whether pre-harvest losses 8 can be considered at a later stage. The approach to measuring food waste should be a refinement of current methods (signatory reporting plus national survey and data collation). We should simplify and clarify signatory reporting on food waste, including: o Aim to improve the quality of the reported food waste data, and aim to move to category-level reporting where feasible o Seek to improve consistency of reporting, and focus on direct reporting by the major players o Seek to address existing challenges around reporting e.g. for branded/non-branded products o In the short term, do not introduce added complexity, such as non-signatory supplier reporting o Ensure alignment to emerging national and global measurement approaches. 6 References to food waste in this paper include food & drink waste. Note that the current Hospitality & Food Service Agreement does not measure drink waste. 7 The scope would include supply chains post-harvest, including for sale through both retail and hospitality & food service, and consumption in and out of home. 8 Post-harvest losses on the farm may be included, e.g. where pack houses are located on-farm. 4

5 Carbon / GHG emissions Collate the readily-available sector-level data to track the whole-system carbon impact of the food & drink system. (This does not require additional collection of data from individual businesses.) Identify what are the changes which Courtauld 2025 would look to facilitate and measure: o Use the whole-system context to focus effort on those enablers (e.g. cutting product cooking times) which are significant o Maintain focus on product hotspots which require cross-system action o Be cautious about fashion-led changes such as diet which might be readily reversed o Include changes with a direct carbon objective, and not just the carbon consequence of food waste reduction. Based on the whole-system view and clarity on the specific contributions of C2025, identify a clear ambition for C2025. We should articulate this ambition within the wider UK picture for example its contribution to predicted UK carbon budget shortfalls. Water Work over the next 1-2 years to bring together an industry-wide view on how to measure change in water impact (i.e. taking into account the impact on areas of water stress and scarcity). Courtauld 2025 should include an initial commitment to work together on this topic, with a view to agreeing an appropriate target and measurement approach as a means to focus mitigation actions where they are most needed. The use of a metric based on the reduction in waterrelated risk was discussed. A form of wording might initially be along the lines of: by 2025, deliver a measurable reduction in impact associated with water use & water stress in the supply chain (target and metric to be developed). In the interim, monitor existing industry reporting of water use without adopting a target for water use. WRAP should also translate action on food waste prevention into water savings and alleviation of water stress. Additional indicators Courtauld 2025 should seek to broker industry agreement on good practice criteria for individual product hotspots, and quantify the attribution of impact resulting from achieving those criteria. (A textiles example would be an agreed % reduction in carbon impact for cotton meeting the requirements of the Better Cotton Initiative, relative to conventional cotton.) Businesses can then pursue criteria and hotspots that are relevant to their own business interests (a pick-and-mix approach). Measuring take-up is an indicator of Courtauld 2025 progress. The attributed savings will also contribute to overarching targets, where not captured by wider reporting channels. 5

6 Criteria would be screened for adverse/unforeseen consequences and for their significance at a system level. [Subsequent discussion identified that major packaging companies are keen to participate in Courtauld WRAP anticipates that the use of packaging and its contribution to goals such as food waste reduction would be tracked through additional indicators, while the headline targets of Courtauld 2025 would remain focused on food and not packaging.] Common threads across all three categories of target In a 10-year initiative, targets should set a clear ambition and be based on a holistic system-wide view. Courtauld 2025 will focus on specific contributors or enablers to tackle the environmental hotspots across the food system. The measurement approach will comprise of a mixture of direct measurement (principally through existing measurement and reporting channels) and tracking progress indicators (e.g. uptake of good practice criteria for specific products and hotspots). It s important to be able to put a consumer perspective onto the Courtauld proposals, so that the ambition and activities can be readily explained to customers and the media. For example, explain what the benefits might be for consumers (e.g. achieving the Courtauld target for food waste could equate to a 1000 saving for the average household between 2015 and 2025, or 25bn to consumers overall). The ambition must be easy to understand and motivating for a broad audience. 6