Federation House Commitment to Water Efficiency
FDF members are committed to making significant reductions in water use to help
reduce stress on the nation's water supplies.
Introduction
FDF and Envirowise recognise that the nation's water resources are increasingly
coming under
stress. This can
adversely affect security of supply, local
wildlife habitats
and
water quality. Tackling water stress is therefore an
environmental
priority.
The food and drink industry is a significant water user. As such, FDF and
Envirowise are extremely pleased to be
working together to promote water efficiency
best practice across the sector as a whole. Importantly, this partnership
has
led
to the successful development of the 'Federation House Commitment', a
strategically significant framework
for encouraging progress.
It will help FDF members to achieve their collective goal of making significant
reductions in water use by 2020. This
aim was announced as part of FDF's
Five-fold Environmental Ambition in October 2007.
In addition, the Federation House Commitment is being opened up beyond FDF's
membership. All companies in the
food and drink manufacturing sector are free to
sign up to it. It will therefore also be a key medium for the achievement
of
the
industry-wide target in the Food Industry Sustainability Strategy to reduce
its
water use, outside of that
embedded in products themselves, by 20% by
2020
compared to 2007.
In the meantime it is particularly pleasing that so many members of FDF have
demonstrated their status as captains
of the food and drink industry by signing
the
Federation House Commitment. We applaud their leadership on tackling
water
resource efficiency and urge others to follow their example. After all, we
have
only
one planet and must treat
it as a precious resource. We owe that
to
future
generations.
Fiona Dawson
Managing Director, Mars Snackfood UK
Chair, FDF Sustainability and Competitiveness Steering Group
Callton Young OBE
Sustainability and
Competitiveness Director, Food and Drink Federation
Dr Martin Gibson
Director, Envirowise
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The Federation House Commitment
FDF and Envirowise met at Federation House on 20 July 2007 to discuss
development of a water best practice
commitment between Envirowise and industry. Called
the 'Federation House Commitment' (FHC), this initiative was launched so
that
FDF
members can achieve their ambition to make significant reductions in water
use by
2020.
However, the Commitment will be opened up more widely so any
company in
the food and drink manufacturing sector
can sign up (by going to the dedicated FHC2020 website).
You can view video clips from the launch event, including speakers: Fiona Dawson; Iain Ferguson and Lord
Rooker.
The Role of Industry
The businesses signing up agree under this Commitment to engage fully with
the Envirowise programme.
Helped
by priority access to Envirowise Services,
signatories are committed
to:
- Supplying water use data[1] for individual sites, directly to Envirowise, within 3 months of making the
Commitment. For multi-site organisations, this would be taken forward as a
process,
building up to full coverage over a period
to be agreed in advance
between
each
relevant signatory and Envirowise. In due course this should result
in
a
2007
baseline of water use for individual signatories and, when
aggregated,
a
2007
baseline for the Commitment
as a whole.
- Assessing and reviewing on-site water use[2] through the construction of a water balance for each site.
- Developing site-specific action plans to reduce water use where possible (per
tonne of production if necessary)
and costs within 6 months of making the
Commitment.
- Delivering action plans through a systematic programme of on-site improvements.
- Annual reporting on water and cost savings at the site level to Envirowise (an
independent organisation undertaking
not to disclose company level data).
The Role of Envirowise
Envirowise, in signing, agrees to undertake administration of the Commitment
(which must
necessarily run over a
number of years). In particular, it will:
- Review its service offering for the food and drink sector and create an
overarching package of support measures
bringing together experience from its big
splash, supply chain and key account initiatives.
- Identify and address core multi-site issues across the sector through strategic
projects and the development of
good practice guidance and fact sheets.
- Promote the Commitment to a wide audience and celebrate and recognise the
achievements of participating
companies.
- Report annually in aggregated, anonymised, form on the collective progress of
signatories and their contribution
overall to the FISS target.
- Report annually to FDF on the contribution made by its members under the
Commitment to inform FDF's
environmental policy.
Footnote 1: In a pre-determined user-friendly format developed by Envirowise in
consultation with FDF.
Footnote 2: For the purposes of the Commitment, 'on site' water use is defined
as any water that is meter supplied to a site, e.g. from mains or borehole.
This
does not include cooling water that is returned to its original source or water
that ends up in the final product.
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Company Signatories
Paul Freeston
Chief Executive, apetito
Martin Glenn
Chief Executive, Birds Eye Iglo
Paul Moody
Chief Executive, Britvic
Todd Stitzer
Chief Executive, Cadbury Schweppes
Hubert Patricot
Managing Director, Coca-Cola Enterprises
Greg Peterson
Managing Director, Kellogg Marketing & Sales Co
Ben Clarke
Managing Director, Kraft
Fiona Dawson
Managing Director, Mars Snackfood UK
Stewart Gilliland
Chief Exectutive Officer, Müller Dairy (UK)
Alastair Sykes
Chairman, Nestlé UK
Salman Amin
President, PepsiCo UK
Iain Ferguson CBE
Chief Executive, Tate & Lyle
David Fish
Executive Chairman, United Biscuits
Dave Lewis
Chairman, Unilever UK
Geoff Eaton
Chief Executive, Uniq
Mike Parker
Deputy Chief Executive, Young's Seafood
Robert Schofield
Chief Executive, Premier Foods
Martin Bell
Managing Director, UIN Foods
Ken Wood
Chief Executive Officer, Weetabix
Ross Warburton MBE
Executive Director, Warburtons
Dr Martin Gibson
Director, Envirowise
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Message from Defra
Dear FDF members and Envirowise,
Thank you for inviting me to the launch of the Federation House Commitment.
I
am very pleased to support this joint FDF and Envirowise initiative which has
resulted in the first voluntary framework under which food and drink companies
can
work systematically towards improving efficiency and reducing water use
wherever
possible.
It is particularly pleasing to see so many influential companies, responsible
for
well known household brands, signing up on day one. I would like to urge
more
companies in the sector to follow the leadership and commitment being
shown
by
FDF and its members to the environment.
I look forward to FDF members fulfilling the water reduction ambition, set out
in their Fivefold Environmental Ambition, through participation in the
Commitment.
In addition, I look forward to
the
sector as a whole achieving the
industry-wide
target set in the Food
Industry
Sustainability Strategy to reduce
water
use, outside
of that
embedded in
products themselves, by 20% by 2020
compared to
2007.
Success
on
both
counts
will be a significant win-win for the
environment,
businesses'
bottom line
and
their corporate standing.
Rt. Hon. Lord Rooker
Minister for Sustainable Food, Farming and Animal Health
Read more messages of support.
The information in this section is taken from a document entitled Federation House Commitment to Water Efficiency (pdf, 989kb) published by FDF in January 2008.
For more information and to sign up to the commitment, go to the FHC2020 website.
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Last reviewed: 28 Jan 2008