Dairy UK and WRAP signed an agreement yesterday (8 January) making Dairy UK the fifth official partner to the Federation House Commitment (FHC), a voluntary commitment for food and drink manufacturers administered by WRAP.
The FCH, managed jointly by WRAP and the Food and Drink Federation, aims to reduce water usage in the food and drink industry as part of a wider industry sector target of reducing water use by 20 per cent (of 2007 levels) before 2020. The commitment asks participating enterprises to pledge to undertaking five steps:
- Develop a water use baseline (2007).
- Assess water use at each nominated manufacturing site
- Develop site-specific action plans
- Implement the actions identified
- Report annual water use and production data to WRAP and Hyder Consulting
According to the 2012 progress report, over 70 active signatories across 278 sites have commited to the FHC, reducing their collective water usage by 14.4 per cent on 2007 levels.
It is hoped the initiative could save 140 million litres of water per day and a combined financial saving of around £60 million per year on water bills.
Dairy UK will become the fifth partner to the FCH since its inception, following the Environment Agency, Food and Drink Federation, Defra and WRAP.
The partnership aims to facilitate the participation of Dairy UK members in promoting greater awareness of water efficiency within the industry. This has already prompted several new companies to sign up to the FCH, including twelve Dairy UK members: Arla Foods, BV Dairy, Dairy Crest, First Milk, and Müller UK companies Müller Dairy and Müller Wiseman Dairies.
Director of Dairy UK, Jim Begg, commented on the new partnership, saying: “The dairy industry takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and water use has to be at the top of the agenda for us in terms of a sustainable future.
“This partnership demonstrates our industry’s commitment to reducing its water consumption and will build upon and compliment the water reduction targets already set by the industry’s own Dairy Roadmap.”
Richard Swannell, Director at WRAP, remarked: “In order to achieve water use reduction through the Federation House Commitment (FHC), we need effective partnerships. As a result, I am delighted that Dairy UK has become an official partner. This will help to reduce water consumption further, saving businesses money and helping conserve an important natural resource."
Read more about the Federation House Commitment.
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