Thursday 31 July 2014

£2m drip drop in water costs for manufacturers

Manufacturers sloshed down their water costs by £2 million for their food and drink production.

Firms signed up to the Federation House Commitment reduced their water use by 1.35 million cubic meters between 2012 and 2013.

Since the start of the FHC in 2007 signatories have collectively made a 15.6% reduction in their water use - excluding water in product, according to the waste body WRAP.

That has saved enough to fill 2,430 Olympic-size swimming pools.

The news comes as part of the Commitment’s annual progress report, published by WRAP yesterday.

Richard Swannell, WRAP’s Director of Sustainable Food Systems said: “I’m particularly impressed by the reduction of water-use-intensity in the last year, which continued at a rate comparable with the early stages of the Commitment, a great result since many of the easier wins have already been implemented.”

The efforts will help towards the Government’s Food Industry Sustainability Strategy which has a water reduction target of 20% by 2020.

The FHC includes 236 sites with comparable data in this year’s report, with 45% of water use notched up by three sub-sectors: dairy (17%), meat processing (17%) and soft drinks (11%).