The food industry is to axe the Courtauld Commitment name from its flagship plan to fight food waste, greenhouse gas emissions and water wastage, after two decades, The Grocer can reveal.
Given its title after the famous London gallery where industry leaders first met to discuss the plans, Courtauld has evolved through several phases. The latest aims to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030 and halve GHG emissions from the food and drink system (compared to a 2015 baseline).
The name change will see the commitment rebranded as the UK Food & Drink Pact. The commitment’s overseeing body Wrap said it would continue to drive the industry’s targets for a more sustainable food and drink system In the UK and globally.
The newly named UK Food & Drink Pact will involve nearly 200 organisations, including companies such as Aldi, Arla, Asda, Bidfood, Co op, Danone, Diageo, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Nestlé, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Unilever and Waitrose.
The pact will work alongside the UK Plastics Pact, the industry flagship commitment on plastic pollution, though Wrap said the two would remain separate identities.
The rebranding of the industry’s war on food waste and emissions comes with the economic crisis and geopolitical pressures raising huge questions over government and industry commitment to tacking major environmental issues.
Although hailed as world-leading, both Courtauld and the UK Plastics Pact have faced criticism.
In 2021, Wrap announced it was sidelining its Courtauld 2025 Commitment, launched in 2015, with a new set of “bolder” targets after admitting the previous targets were not ambitious enough.
Meanwhile the Plastics Pact, which was launched by Wrap and the food industry in 2018 alongside the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, has achieved mixed success. Half of its key targets for its end date of 2025 are set to be missed, and plastic packaging has only been reduced by 7% since it began.
However, The Grocer revealed last year that supermarkets are gearing up to launch a second phase of the pact, with a major push on reuse and refill technology being drawn up by Wrap.
Cailey Grice, delivery manager for the UK Food & Drinks Pact, said the the new name would give “fresh clarity” and was a “statement of intent” aimed at building trust and recognition in the sector.
She said the pact would unlock access to evidence-based tools, practical resources and collaborative working groups tackling urgent sustainability challenges facing the food and drink sector, underpinned “by innovation, expertise and collective determination”.
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