6 Jun 2012 --- At a high-level event in Brussels, FoodDrinkEurope has launched its Environmental Sustainability Vision Towards 2030.

The Vision, a first for FoodDrinkEurope in this area, is part of a broad collaborative work with other stakeholders across the supply chain, governments, civil society and academia, covering three cores areas of work: (i) sustainable sourcing; (ii) resource efficiency along the food chain; and (iii) sustainable consumption and production. The Vision is also underpinned by a set of steps needed for its accomplishment, and forms an integral part of the latest comprehensive FoodDrinkEurope Environmental Sustainability Report, the third in a series published by the organisation, also unveiled today.

The food industry has a unique relationship with nature and the environment, on which it relies for continuous, adequate supplies of safe, high quality, raw materials to make world-renowned food and drink products. As a result, ensuring smart, green growth within Europe’s food manufacturing industry makes good business sense and helps not only to safeguard the earth’s limited natural resources but also helps ensure the industry’s long-term competitiveness and prosperity.

The Vision and adjoining Report demonstrate, using a wide range of best practice examples, how food operators from the largest to the smallest are meeting the challenges of sustainable growth throughout the entire life-cycle of their products across the supply chain on the path to creating a greener economy. One of the key successes has been the ability of food operators to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 18% while increasing their production value by 29% over the period 1999-2008. Future key actions across several areas include: (i) designing sustainable supply chains so that ingredient crops are cultivated sustainably to halt deforestation, (ii) the further roll-out of good water management practices, (iv) supply chain partnerships to maximise resource efficiency, (v) prioritising rail and water transport where feasible, (vi) preventing packaging waste through re-use, recycling and recovery systems, and (vii) working with stakeholders to help prevent food waste.

During the high-level event, panellists MEP Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, Tony Long, WWF, Ben Caspar, European Commission, James Lomax, UNEP and Pascal Gréverath, Chair of the FoodDrinkEurope Environmental Sustainability Committee and Assistant Vice-President, Environmental Sustainability for Nestlé, discussed the FoodDrinkEurope Vision Towards 2030, stressing the important progress already made in the area of environmental sustainability by food operators in Europe, while highlighting the challenges and opportunities that the ‘green growth’ agenda presents for the future.

Speaking following the launch, Jesús Serafín Pérez, FoodDrinkEurope President, commented: “The FoodDrinkEurope Environmental Sustainability Vision Towards 2030 and comprehensive Report mark a significant achievement for FoodDrinkEurope and its members. These pieces of work are the fruits of labour of many months of effort in the organisation, compiled in close collaboration with other stakeholders along the supply chain to ensure that the FoodDrinkEurope Vision goes in the right direction to respond to the tall environmental challenges facing society today as we prepare to feed an expected world population of 8 billion by 2030.

Likewise, in recognising the important role that the food industry has to play, we know that our success in achieving the goals set out in our Vision does not depend our industry alone; a ‘whole-of-society’ approach is critical to ensuring green growth for a more sustainable world for generations to come. As the successes achieved to date under the excellent multi-stakeholder initiative, the European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Round Table (of which FoodDrinkEurope is a member), make clear, by working together with other actors along the supply chain ‘from farm to fork’, we can identify tangible, concrete solutions which are both inclusive and holistic in approach.”