Meet the Finalists: Sustainability Award

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ (CCEP) Action on Climate programme has seen the business accelerate its journey to Net Zero and help drive carbon reduction across the sector.  

The company has set its own ambition to reach net zero across the supply chain by 2040 and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% by 2030 (vs.2019).  

Within the last 18 months CCEP has made significant improvements, including expanding its solar farm at Europe’s largest soft drinks factory in Wakefield, investing in replacing material handling equipment at manufacturing sites with electric equivalents and overhauling packaging to 100% rPET. 

CCEP has pledged to invest £11m in its GB manufacturing sites over the next five years to replace its 200-strong fleet of material handling equipment (MHE), which is used to move over 520-million-unit cases of product around our sites, with units powered by lithium-ion batteries. 

Freshpak Chilled foods 

Freshpak Chilled foods, which produce a range of chilled products including sandwich fillings, dips and mayonnaise, cooks between 2m to 3m eggs every week. 

The company focuses on the effective use of resources and says it is aware that its activities affect not just the immediate area and neighbours, but its partners, suppliers, and customers. 

The company wanted to maximise the recycled content and recyclability of its product packaging, minimise food waste, improve its recycling rate,  minimise waste to landfill and implement processes to reduce our carbon footprint.  

Its sandwich filler packaging contains 80%+RPET and is itself recyclable.   Cardboard sleeves on certain products are made from virgin board from FSC certified sources. The company has also  improved recipes and portion control as part of its commitment to WRAPs Food Waste Reduction Roadmap. It also reuses or recycles 99% of all waste generated with just 0.02% of waste is landfilled. 

Moy Park

Moy Park has a commitment to be Net Zero by 2040. With support from the Carbon Trust it is working with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce emissions in line with climate science. It has recently made a formal commitment to implementing a Biodiversity Charter and has begun the Charter assessment process. 

Moy Park has adopted several strategies to reduce emissions. This includes investing in emissions reduction projects in Moy Park owned facilities. There is also investment in research and development projects to assist producer efforts to strengthen and scale regenerative farming practices.  

Moy Park together with its partners Queen’s University Belfast and JF McKenna, has been successful in attracting funding from Innovate UK to develop their £250,000 ‘Ideal Home’ project. The project will provide an improved, resource and energy-efficient solution to poultry houses. 

Nestle UK and Ireland 

Nestlé worked with dairy co-operative First Milk to implement a long-term sustainability programme with 80 farmers. 

This delivers long-term environmental and community benefits as well as a premium price for farmers. This has seen farmers planting hedgerows, woodland, renovating stonewalls and protecting streams. The objective was to establish a payment mechanism that paid farmers for both their milk and their environmental/social impact.

On the social impact side The Women in Agriculture group has enabled 27 female farmers to share experiences, support one another and meet with female Nestlé colleagues in the factories and offices.

While its Next Generation Programme includes learning about the Supply Chain, personal development, presentation skills, visits to Westminster and visits to Nestle factories, and customers.

Pilgrims UK

Pilgrim’s UK is committed to creating a better future through sustainable farming and production processes. Underpinned by its Pilgrim’s UK 2030 sustainability action plan it works across the five areas: sustainable farming, sustainable food production, sustainable products, sustainable packaging and sustainable business and community. 

As part of its commitment to reach net zero CO2 emissions in its own operations by 2030, the company is taking important steps developed in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and as members of the UN Global Compact Nestlé.  

It is driving its sustainability projects with a £10M funding boost by the end of 2022, to roll-out a series of process innovations and operational improvements. Upgrades include completing the transition to LED lighting across all its sites, and switching out equipment with more energy efficient alternatives, such as replacing gas boilers with heat pumps and optimising refrigeration systems. 

Princes

Addressing and combatting climate change is a challenge with ever-increasing consequences for society and future generations to come and as a Group, Princes is focused on 'acting now'. Over the last 18 months, the company has ensured its group-wide notions of ‘innovation’ and ‘progress’ have been driven into the heart of its sustainability projects globally. Two key initiatives it has deployed in the fight against climate change, have been its bio plant at the Princes Tuna Mauritius (PTM) site, and across the wider group, a concerted effort to explore sustainable packaging solutions. In 2021, the brand acted to close the loop on semi-solid and liquid waste at its fish processing facilities across PTM and establish a new bio plant venture, which is set to reduce CO₂​ emissions by 8,650 tonnes per year. This represents 80% of the current operational emissions for PTM’s largest manufacturing site. This collaborative innovation project involves a long-term agreement with Energie des Mascareignes (EDM) – a joint waste-to-value venture between UK-based Green Create and IBL Energy – which will convert all semi-solid waste from PTM sites, alongside effluent water, into biogas via anaerobic digestion.