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 Addressing sustainability from an industry perspective involves a complex set of drivers and responses, we believe that a coordinated, cooperative effort involving the entire supply chain is needed to effectively address sustainability challenges.
AFGC considers water, waste, energy/emissions, packaging and social issues to be the current key sustainability challenges for the food and grocery sector. We strongly view sustainability as an opportunity to unlock immediate and long-term value via tangible cost savings and resource efficiencies, risk mitigation, reputation and market positioning, and staff engagement and retention. In short, AFGC believes pursuing sustainability makes good business sense.
AFGC Sustainability Principles
The Australian Food and Grocery Council is committed to developing sustainable and socially responsible systems for the production and consumption of products, ensuring the food and grocery industry provides safe and healthy products for consumers, while investing in our local communities, engaging effectively and responsibly with our customers and creating wealth and employment in the Australian economy.
The AFGC:
- Encourages dialogue between industry, government and others to promote the development of sound policy on sustainable food and grocery production and consumption measured by social, environmental and economic dimensions.
- Undertakes industry data collection and benchmarking to assess progress by the industry.
- The AFGC encourages member companies to meet this commitment by:
- Designing, operating and maintaining processes and plants which optimise the use of all resources whilst ensuring that unavoidable wastes are recovered, reused or disposed of in an economically sustainable and environmentally responsible manner
- Minimising the use of substances and site emissions including odour, noise, air and water that may potentially harm the environment
- Using and developing packaging and distribution systems that reduce demands on natural resources, whilst preserving product quality, safety and packaging functionality
- Ensuring all product labelling is accurate, truthful, not misleading and capable of substantiation
- Working with suppliers and other business partners in the supply chain to measure environmental impacts to create a robust platform for systemic improvement in performance
- Encouraging a culture of environmental awareness amongst employees through management commitment, appropriate communications, training and other relevant initiatives.
AFGC Sustainability Commitment
The Australian Food and Grocery has recently released the AFGC Sustainability Commitment which is an industry wide approach to improving sustainability by building on the existing achievements and setting a pathway to continued improvement. The Sustainability Commitment provides a collaborative, proactive platform to ensure the industry is leading the way as responsible operators by producing food and groceries that are safe and of high quality, in a more sustainable manner.
The industry commitment to sustainability is focused on the following key areas:
- Water
- Waste
- Energy and emissions
- Packaging
- Sourcing and social issues.
Under each of key areas, the Sustainability Commitment includes clear objectives, targets, metrics and case studies that unlock the value of sustainability and provide a coordinated strategy for industry to participate in.
The targets within the Sustainability Commitment are set at an industry level and performance will be reported annually through the AFGC Sustainability Report. More details on the Sustainability Commitment will be released once the formal launch occurs in June 2012.
AFGC Sustainable Practices Committee
Our Sustainable Practices Committee is made up of representatives from across our membership with a vast array of experience from environmental management to corporate affairs and quality control. The core issues for the Committee include:
- Water - availability and efficiency
- Waste - resource efficiency
- Energy - climate change and greenhouse gas emissions
- Social - ethical sourcing and corporate responsibility.
Green Shopping a mutual responsibility Australian shoppers, food manufacturers and retailers have a mutual responsibility towards buying, producing and stocking “green” products a survey by the AFGC found only 13 per cent of Australians buy environmentally-sustainable food and groceries from the supermarket. However 80 per cent of Australians consider sustainability issues when putting products in their shopping trolleys, according to independent research conducted by Net Balance supported the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), Woolworths Limited, Amcor and EPA Victoria.
Twenty-seven per cent of respondents said to they would compromise on packaging to protect the environment but only 6 per cent would give-up convenience, AFGC’s Green Shopper survey of 1000 Australian shoppers leaving four Woolworths supermarkets in Sydney and Melbourne found. The survey – released May 2010 by NetBalance at AFGC’s annual industry conference also found an overwhelming 93 per cent of people agreed that manufacturer and retailer efforts to reduce the environmental impact of products was “very important”.
Thirty-six per cent of Australian shoppers are prepared to pay more for “green” products, the survey found. Around 85 per cent of shoppers are worried about the impact of food and groceries on the environment however 78 per cent won’t pay extra for “sustainable” products which they believe are more expensive, according to research commissioned.
Many leading food and grocery companies are already committed to more sustainable production of their products while maintaining the high quality of Australia’s safe and nutritious food supply in a global environment of water and carbon constraints.
In AFGC’s Green Shopper survey, the most frequently nominated green product categories included:
- Toilet paper – 23 per cent of respondents knowingly purchased recycled green toilet paper.
- Dishwashing liquid –16 per cent of people the purchased of a green dishwashing liquid
- Free range eggs – 16 per cent chose free range eggs
- Laundry liquid and powder – 10 per cent bought green laundry powder
- Fresh fruit and vegetables – 9 per cent said fresh fruit and vegetables was their green purchase.
- Other categories for green purchases included tuna/salmon (5 per cent), milk (5 per cent), paper towels (4 per cent), chicken (4 per cent) and light bulbs (4 per cent).
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