Courtauld Two heralds more complex impact calculations

14-Apr-2010 - Last updated on 16-Mar-2017 at 14:19 GMT

Related tags Courtauld commitment Cold chain Shelf life

Retailers and food manufacturers have been quick to sign up to Courtauld Commitment Two (CC2), the second phase of the voluntary agreement to reduce the environmental impact of packaging and waste.

Unlike the first Courtauld Commitment, launched in 2005, CC2 considers more than just packaging, looking also at domestic and industry product waste. For packaging, it goes beyond simple weight considerations to propose overall carbon impact reductions (see box on the bottom right).

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which brokered both versions of Courtauld, agrees that questions remain over how easy it will be to calculate, compare and communicate the potentially complex carbon impacts involved.

But head of retail programmes Andy Dawe said: "The 10% [carbon impact reduction] figure for packaging wasn't plucked out of thin air. It came out of some careful modelling work done with the potential signatories regarding the remaining opportunities." Dawe noted that the overall reduction targets were "owned by" WRAP, and that individual companies were likely to overperform or underperform with respect to them.

He added: "Signatories do have to be consistent in the way they report. We have a documented methodology, which the Carbon Trust is currently peer reviewing." That review is due to be completed during April. By mid-March, there were 30 signatories to CC2, including for the first time Arla Foods and Unilever.

Unilever and many other CC2 signatories are members of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (Incpen). Director Jane Bickerstaffe said: "This is just one step towards industry and WRAP getting a better understanding of the complexity of supply chains. We hope it will lead to holistic, science-based decisions in government, not decisions based on single factors."

Incpen was particularly pleased that food waste was being brought into the equation, given the positive impacts that packaging can have in addressing this issue.

Dawe pointed out that WRAP's support for development work on shelf-life optimisation such as seal quality was continuing. "We need to ensure that business is gaining the full benefit of this type of work," he said. "We're also contributing to work on portion sizing in bakery products and on how the chill chain can be improved to minimise loss of product."

CC2 targets for 2012