Waste Target summary report

IGD Waste Target

2015 Report

2 IGD Waste Target 2015 Report

Welcome

“IGD’s ECR group has been working on waste initiatives for more than five years. This is an industry that shows real dedication and desire to make a difference for consumers, our businesses and the environment. This is one issue everyone in the supply chain can gather around and use our collective energies on.”

Gavin Chappell, Vice President e-commerce, Asda Stores Ltd Retail Co-chair, ECR UK Executive Board and past Retail Co-chair, ECR Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup

“A growing proportion of supply chain leaders across the industry are acknowledging that eliminating waste is not only good from a sustainability perspective and something which

employees have a genuine engagement with, but also that it is simply good business sense. It’s been a pleasure to help manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers work together

to reduce their waste and while it’s great we’ve exceeded our target, there is a lot more still to be done.”

Karl Donnan, Supply Chain Director, Unilever UK LtdPast Supplier Co-chair, ECR Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup

“The IGD and ECR waste initiative is a very good example of the industry working together to make a real difference. It is extremely refreshing to see the genuine commitment across all the businesses involved to reduce waste within the end-to-end food chain. The level of collaboration and willingness to share initiatives and new ways of working has been excellent so far. We just need to build on the great momentum we have generated, so that we can continue to make a difference.”

Simon Stokoe, Senior Manager Supply Chain & Logistics Strategy, Sainsbury’sRetail Co-chair, ECR Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup

3IGD Waste Target 2015 Report IGD Waste Target 2015 Report

Welcome

Joanne Denney-Finch OBEChief Executive, IGD

In 2009, the IGD ECR (Efficient Consumer Response) UK Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup took a bold decision to embark on a ground-breaking initiative to eliminate 200,000 tonnes of waste from the supply chain over the next five years. We had a twofold aim: to encourage the industry to address waste collaboratively and to promote the prevention of waste at source rather than recycling, recovering or disposing of it.

Over the last five years, this initiative has seen 42 manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and foodservice companies work together to eliminate 260,000 tonnes of product and packaging waste from the UK supply chain.

Businesses from across the industry have collaborated to make hundreds of changes to the way they work, sharing their learnings through case studies for IGD. This report encapsulates the journey and celebrates the great efforts of participating companies in meeting, and then exceeding, those original targets.

A huge thank you to all those that made this initiative possible. IGD continues its work in this area, sharing best practice to engage with more companies.


Making an impactOur five-year programme has been the result of a huge amount of hard work across the industry.

1 We conducted a survey of total waste amongst our companies and total savings from these projects amounted to an estimated 15% of the initial amount of waste. However, there was some change to participants in that timeframe

FOCUSED ON

PREVENTION

AND

REDISTRIBUTION

OF

GROCERY WASTE

WITHIN THE

SUPPLY CHAIN

OVERSEEN BY THE ECR UK BOARD OF

30+ SUPPLY CHAIN

DIRECTORS


The background

The IGD Waste Target forms part of IGD’s charitable goals. The programme was initiated in 2009 when the ECR UK Board established a Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup and a five-year target to eliminate 200,000 tonnes of waste from the supply chain.

The initiative had a twofold aim:• To encourage manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to address waste together between factory in-gate

and retail checkout• Preventing waste at source or redistributing it (rather than recycling or recovering it)

For UK food and grocery manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing combined, the annual value of food, drink and packaging waste in the chain is estimated at £6.7bn (WRAP, February 2015). Although waste cannot be completely eliminated, WRAP estimates that around 20 million tonnes could be prevented between 2015 and 2025, at a cumulative value of £30bn-40bn (at present value).

IGD had a crucial role to play in driving the ECR UK Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup and bringing together key trading partners to enable them to share innovation and best practice.

IGD worked with supply chain experts to develop an online resource, which provides hints, tips, tools and industry case studies to inspire, enable and equip readers to help them prevent waste. Throughout the project, the participants have helped ECR UK to develop a series of best practice tools and produced more than 50 best practice case studies, which are shared for free via www.igd.com/wasteprevention, which receives 2,000 hits per month.

The ECR group has also produced a simple reporting tool, a series of webinars, events to engage more companies and supply chain walkthroughs


Measuring resultsThe IGD Waste Target focused on preventing waste before it occurs; a task much more challenging than managing waste once it has occurred. The objective has been to inspire and enable companies to prevent or redistribute waste, to build understanding of the most effective solutions and to share this widely.

Prior to this initiative, the industry had been making good progress in diverting waste away from landfill through recovery and recycling. However, as the diagram shows, this was only a start. Preventing material from becoming waste in the first place is far better economically, environmentally and socially. With food, for example, anaerobic digestion achieves only 12% of the CO2-equivalent savings compared with eliminating waste at source. Where food waste cannot yet be eliminated, the priority is to redistribute it into the mouths of people, or when that is not possible, to animals.

Reduction is much better and much more challenging(The equivalent in a household is buying, storing and preparing exactly what is going to be consumed)

Recover is good and relatively easy


How has progress been measured?

The way progress has been measured has allowed IGD and the 42 companies involved to drill down into the detail of how waste was eliminated. Other industry agreements, such as the Courtauld Commitment organised by WRAP, report annual corporate totals of ‘end-of-pipe’ waste and the overall quantities of waste prevention, redistribution and diversion to animal feed.

Using the ECR Six-to-Fix ways to prevent waste, IGD’s Waste Targets measured change by change, what businesses have done and the impact. This complements the collective industry targets of Courtauld. This allowed us to see how improvements were made, to direct efforts to the most effective solutions and to encourage other companies to join in.

The ECR programme has broken through many boundaries. Underpinning the total savings are many stories of ground-breaking collaboration, which IGD and its industry partners have helped to inspire and introduce.


Measuring success: ECR UK’s Six-to-FixThe most effective way of reducing waste is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Ten times more commercial and environmental value can be gained through eliminating waste than can be salvaged through recycling or recovery.

ECR UK developed the Six-to-Fix to help the industry reduce waste and save money.

Preventing waste means working with colleagues and trading partners to identify and address the root causes, so the Six-to-Fix are all underpinned by collaboration.

Using the Six-to-Fix helps prevent surpluses and yet they still do occur in the supply chain for many reasons – for example, through weather changes and unexpectedly low demand. A great way of stopping surpluses from going to waste is then to find alternative markets. It is vital to deal with an unpreventable surplus quickly and decisively.


Measuring success: ECR UK’s Six-to-Fix

Hundreds of changes have been made and reported by companies towards the IGD Waste Target. The changes prevented 260,000 tonnes of waste having to be recycled, recovered or disposed of.

Engage (i.e. motivating more people to address waste) was used in about 10% of the changes, achieving nearly 10% of the impact. Several suppliers and some of their customers have better tapped into the knowledge and interests of their teams. There is plenty more scope for this in other companies.

Design was used in more than 25% of the changes, achieving 15% of the overall impact. Many packaging and product formulation changes have been made. Those focused on reducing product (rather than packaging) waste have yielded the most substantial reductions.

Range was used in over 5% of the changes, achieving nearly 5% of the impact. It is only customers (retailers, wholesalers and foodservice companies) that have reported these changes and impacts.

Forecast was used in nearly 10% of the changes, achieving less than 5% of the impact. Changes to improve forecasts have helped, although this type of change yielded the lowest waste reduction impact per change.

Process was used in more than 25% of the changes, achieving over 10% of the impact. Many process changes have been made by both customers and their suppliers. Those changes made by suppliers have yielded substantial reductions in waste.

Human consumption of surpluses was used in nearly 20% of the changes, achieving over 15% of the impact. Opportunities remain for the industry to redistribute its surpluses of finished goods before they become unsafe to consume.

Animal consumption of surpluses was used in 5% of the changes, achieving more than 40% of the impact. Massive opportunities remain for the industry to send its peelings and other ingredient surpluses to animal feed, rather than to waste recycling or recovery.

All of the changes involved Measure. Collaboration underpins all of the Six-to-Fix.


Six-to-Fix: Measure and CollaborateMeasure. To prevent waste, it first needs to be measured. Only then will it be paid attention to, its root causes analysed and the prevention opportunities identified.

Preventing waste means knowing what is arising where, when and why and to analyse instances, volumes, weights and values of waste in absolute terms and as a percentage of sales. Waste needs to be measured right along the supply chain to ensure it is prevented overall – and not just moved from one area or company to another.

Collaborate. Working together underpins the Six-to-Fix, as it is the only way to identify and fine-tune the decisions and behaviours that need to be changed to prevent waste.

The waste seen by one team is often caused by the earlier decisions and behaviours of other job functions and trade partners. Most of us are unaware of how much waste our choices and actions cause. Individual companies can address waste within the scope of their own control, but by working together with trading partners, it is possible to consider and reduce total waste.


Six-to-Fix: Engage

• Aggressive goals were set, using the extensive technical knowledge on site as well as best practice from other production facilities

• A high level of interest from senior management in reducing waste caused a high level of staff resource, employment of a team leader, and weekly and monthly KPI review meetings

• A cross-functional and cross-shift team was set up to use lean problem-solving tools to tackle areas of the factory that were producing costly waste, which was affecting product yield

• Stores focused on how much they were wasting by comparing themselves to stores taking a similar amount in cash and reporting on progress

• Stores were made to physically reduce their waste

and manage it more effectively, by reducing the number of waste collections from store

• The number and size of bins on site was limited to focus operators’ minds on whether they really needed to waste

• A comprehensive daily waste reporting structure was introduced, which enabled waste to be a topic of daily operational reviews with operators. This was escalated to monthly operational review with senior leadership team

• An investigation was set up into the perceived monetary value of material which was much less than actual monetary value and meant less attention was given to reducing waste. Authority to adjust and write off stock was restricted.

Colleagues are the greatest force for change that any business has. As many teams as possible should be involved to improve awareness and motivation to help prevent waste.

Examples of the changes that companies have reported on Engage include:


Six-to-Fix: Design

• Introduced seasonal life extensions and reduction in waste when the quality of fresh produce allows, e.g. two additional days on vegetables and potatoes

• Introduced fresh ethylene scrubber technology in packaging to extend shelf life and reduce waste of strawberries, pears and avocados

• Light-weighted pallet shrink-wrap and moved to pre-stretched product, resulting in a 59% reduction in shrink-wrap used

• Eliminated obsolete secondary packaging from the supply chain by introducing online case printing and reducing the number of case artworks from more than 100 to just two

• Increased the number of suppliers using returnable

packing rather than cardboard• Bags of ingredients that were delivered in

cardboard boxes are now delivered in industry-standard pallet boxes, which are sent back to the supplier and re-used

• Introduced automated handling of work in progress in reusable containers, replacing previous system of single-use corrugated boxes

• Waste reduction through extended shelf life was achieved through skin packaging meat range

• Reduced out-of-date product waste through case size optimisation with suppliers to match replenishment frequency, rate of sale and display volume

Typically, the cheapest of the Six-to-Fix and with the longest-lasting impact. This involves formulating products and structuring packaging to prolong life, reduce damage and prevent waste.

Examples of the changes that companies have reported on Design include:


Six-to-Fix: Range

• A system solution was introduced to enable store-specific ranging tailored to a store’s needs, including suppression of high-waste lines

• Waste was reduced and sales maintained by improving local delisting decisions, by highlighting ‘safe to delist’ products for which loyalty card data shows sales transfer to other products

• The supply chain function introduced early alerts about product lines becoming consistently high-wasting, to prompt the commercial function to work with suppliers to reduce the waste. Then, if that didn’t prevent it, the line was centrally removed from those stores where the waste was highest

• A complete review of the range in-store was undertaken, including reduction on stocking points,

reductions in store distribution, delists and changes in phasing to remove event clashes

• The number of cases sold per week by store for each fresh, pre-packed food line was reviewed and any lines that sold less than half a case per week in any store were advised to be removed from individual stores, resulting in thousands fewer stocking points

• Hot weather temporary delists were introduced for lines known to suffer high wastage during prolonged periods of warm weather

• The company became more rigorous in applying new line criteria to prevent launching the ‘wrong’ new lines and committing to unrealistic stock volumes

Changes made to range mean that when adjusting their existing product assortment or selecting a new one, companies factor in how to minimise waste as one of the considerations.

Examples of the changes that companies have reported on Range include:


Six-to-Fix: Forecast

• Following a detailed review of promotion waste, a new weekly report was developed to ensure initial shelf fill is reduced if it exceeds the forecasted sales

• More accurate weather planning, factoring in the temperature and precipitation impacts on sales, was introduced

• New forecast software was introduced, which helped increase accuracy

• The estimation of the sales uplift to be expected from above-the-line marketing support was improved

• A tool for frontline teams was linked to the online ordering system, ensuring that the correct materials were purchased and utilised in the

precise quantities demanded • The ordering system was improved to allow faster

reaction to changes in sales• A monthly meeting was implemented to improve

collaborative forecast accuracy by confirming promotion status, siting, volumes, phasing, cannibalisation and expectations of competitor impacts

• Promotional planning was improved, proposing the right products and the right price mechanics in alignment to trading partner’s promotional strategy and calendar

• Contingency plans were created for potential winter weather extremes

Estimating seasonal, promotional and new product demand accurately can help prevent waste, especially if companies work together.

Examples of the changes that companies have reported on Forecast include:


Six-to-Fix: Process

• Better insulation and more accurate temperature measurement was introduced and a heat source was removed to better chill fresh ingredients and reduce scrap

• Expiries have reduced through a new agreement with suppliers to receive part pallets and by flowing product just-in-time

• Standard operating procedures have been implemented for re-working losses back into the mixer

• Chilled food items were picked as singles rather than outers, allowing stores to order exactly what they need rather than too many for their sales demand

• Order calculations were amended for long-life

fresh foods so they only ordered to sales, rather than sales plus shelf capacity, which reduced the level of stock and waste in-store

• Five old evaporators were replaced with one new one with less surface area in contact with milk, reducing the amount of waste during regular washing

• Process was changed to ensure a more consistent viscosity and to reduce the number of mixes that needed to be scrapped

• The feed mechanism was redesigned to eliminate blockages, spillages and scrappage

• Road-rail containers were used to reduce transit damage of finished goods

Reshaping business processes can improve product and information flow, with benefits for waste prevention.

Examples of the changes that companies have reported on Process include:


Redistribution: People

• A new system algorithm for bespoke dynamic markdowns is now utilised

• Surpluses of short-life chilled food with lumpy demand are sent to a subsidiary company for re-processing and sale as cooked or frozen product

• Company shop is used to sell damaged and very short shelf-life goods, rather than them being sent to recovery

• Instead of scrapping product that doesn’t meet our regular specifications, a brand has been created for it to be sold through the discounter channel as an own-label equivalent

• Cardboard boxes are now reused by a domestic removal company rather than recycled

• Sub-standard detergent powder is now repurposed rather than scrapped

• Site planning teams now identify products before they expire and donate them to local charities

• Retail policy has been changed to introduce markdowns to previously disposal-only departments

• Fresh food distribution centres and home delivery picking centres now donate any surpluses

• Employees have been educated about the opportunities available for utilising excess stock, including through staff shops and local charities

• Date-expired product is checked by the quality team and where possible, it is donated

• Store management is now empowered to send food that cannot be sold to benefit consumption by people or animals before it becomes unfit

Surplus consumer goods that are still saleable should be reduced to clear but then taken off sale and donated for human consumption to local good causes or via national redistribution organisations.

Examples of the changes that companies have reported on redistribution to people include:


Redistribution: Animal

• A waste stream made up of the by-products from the factory was changed from being land spread to being redistributed for use as animal feed

• Backhauling bakery waste was introduced, which takes a product that would usually be deemed as waste and turns it into animal feed

• Redundant foodstuff is now collected separately from waste in designated colour-coded bins positioned throughout production and is then bulked up on site and used for animal feed

• Bakery surpluses are segregated and reverse logistics collections are made from all stores to distribution centres. These are then used for pet food

• An education campaign, additional containers and a new segregation process to send a fifth of what had been sent to general waste to animal feed have been introduced

• Short-dated pet food is now donated to dog/cat charities, plus food not fit for human consumption is sent to animal feed

• Waste dough is now collected and cooked using the residual heat from the ovens, so it can be taken for animal feed

If human consumption is not possible but food is safe for animals then sending it via local farmers, animal charities and national contractors is far better than waste recycling or recovery. This includes peelings and other ingredient surpluses.

Examples of the changes that companies have reported on redistribution to animals include:


Company activity

Asda has shared the ECR best practice guidance widely across its teams, encouraging them to draw inspiration and generate ideas. As part of its involvement with the IGD Waste Target, Asda worked to develop sustainable partnerships with key stakeholders, suppliers, FareShare and third-party carriers to redistribute surplus food occurring in its supply chain and to prevent good food going to landfill. The project raised awareness with suppliers on over-delivery of products and sought to reduce this practice. Asda also embarked on a project to review and reduce waste within the beef category, working with its supplier to introduce new skin pack technology.

Allied Bakeries is fully committed to the IGD Waste Target. The company has invested £210 million in new bread plants and bakery infrastructure and as part of this, has focused on improving product shelf life. Through bespoke new patented production technology, Allied Bakeries has increased product shelf life by an extra day across the range of Kingsmill 800g bread. The business has also adjusted stock control processes to increase available product life on-shelf by a further day. As a result, shoppers have been able to keep Kingsmill bread in their cupboards for longer and Allied Bakeries’ customers have been able to manage their stock better, reporting increases in shelf availability and significant waste reductions.

AB World Foods (ABWF) is fully committed to the IGD Waste Target. ABWF targeted the prevention of potential packaging waste entering the supply stream. The company performed a systematic engineering exercise on all of its packaging, designing out elements which would cause the packaging to be heavier than it technically needed to be. The challenge was to ensure that the protection or the transportation was not compromised. There were two projects which contributed substantially to removing packaging waste from the ABWF supply chain: removing master cases (thick corrugated board) from import items and introducing lower glass weights on containers of its Pataks and Blue Dragon brands.


Company activity

Booker has been part of the ECR Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup since its inception and was an initial signatory to the waste prevention target. Being part of this group has supported and driven the company’s work on waste. Booker has worked collaboratively with suppliers in the work group to identify waste prevention opportunities in the joint supply chain. The ECR group’s work on redistribution of surplus food to charity enabled Booker to launch its own local charity initiative, identifying ways to break down the traditional hurdles to this route.

To demonstrate its support for the IGD Waste Target, Boots UK has focused on waste prevention through more accurate forecasting and supply, by examining store and product sales at a granular level and ensuring the information provided to its systems is as accurate as possible. Boots UK worked with key suppliers to ensure that changes made within its systems and processes could be implemented within the supply chain. Key developments include improving the accuracy of waste recording within Boots stores; improving replenishment systems to create more accurate orders and future forecasts; and delivering the capability to pick products in a mixture of singles and cases, based on store demand.

Brakes was part of the ECR workgroup that helped to set the initial IGD Waste Target. Helping to create some of the best practice guides gave the business the opportunity to learn from others in the industry, enabling the team to gather insight into how they could go the extra mile. Brakes made several changes, from selling off residual product via staff and customers on promotions, to having a management strategy in place for product at the point it could no longer be sold to its own customers. These products now either go out to clearance houses or food charity organisations, such as FareShare or the Community Shop. To help deliver these changes, the Brakes supply chain team introduced lean training, which has since been embedded across the culture of the whole company.


Company activity

Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) believed that the opportunity to take part in the ECR programme, working alongside other manufacturers and retailers, would yield further benefits in its work to reduce waste. The ECR Waste Hierarchy highlighted to CCE that anaerobic digestion was not always the most sustainable option and encouraged the business to consider redistribution. CCE analysed existing data and identified key stakeholders, to develop criteria and solutions to help deal with waste product. CCE has made significant improvements at one of its manufacturing sites by working with the team to reduce glass bottle losses. The company also investigated opportunities for redistribution, increasing support to charities and diverting other waste to animal feed.

To support the IGD Waste Target, Diageo wanted to introduce packaging with the lowest possible environmental impact, while still protecting and displaying its brands. In 2009, the company set targets to reduce its average packaging weight, increase the recycled content of its packaging and make all its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2015. It also looked for ways to work with its suppliers, customers and consumers, to ensure that its packaging was effective, as well as sustainable. In 2011, Diageo began to move its beer multipack to a multipack shrink. This project subsequently led to the redesign of multipacks of Diageo GB’s iconic Guinness stout in 2015.

General Mills came on board with the IGD Waste Target after recognising the passion and energy generated by the programme. The company actively encourages people throughout its organisation to use ECR’s best practice guidance to generate ideas.General Mills takes an end-to-end approach to waste prevention through sourcing, conversion and finished goods management and by reviewing all aspects of supply chain management. One of the company’s key areas of success has been through developing stronger demand planning capability, so that it is responding with greater agility to changes in demand.


Company activity

L’Oréal believed the IGD Waste Target had clear parallels with its own group target to reduce waste and was therefore keen to play an active role in the programme. L’Oréal used the ECR best practice guidelines as a useful resource to check its own strategy and progress in waste prevention. In manufacturing, packaging was changed on a number of make-up lines from cardboard boxes to shrink wrap. The team implemented reuse of empty cardboard boxes to lessen the use of additional packaging and reduce waste at its distribution centres. Finally, working with its stretch-wrap supplier, L’Oréal introduced a new lightweight wrap for dispatching orders.

Marks & Spencer plc has had huge success in managing surpluses arising in-store. Its teams have worked to ensure the maximum amount of sales to customers to reduce waste at back of store. M&S successfully launched a back-of-store redistribution programme with Community Shop with a number of stores currently providing fresh produce and bakery to two locations in Goldthrope and Lambeth. This has been a joint effort by both parties, overcoming logistical and financial hurdles to get product to those who can use it, six days a week. M&S also works with FareShare, FoodCycle, FoodCloud and Neighbourly to redistribute across the country.

Mars is a longstanding supporter of the IGD ECR Board and contributed to the baseline research and scoping that helped to establish the IGD Waste Target. The ECR workgroup has inspired Mars to think differently about how it approaches waste reduction. Building on its internal sustainability programmes, Mars now approaches waste with an end-to-end supply chain perspective and has incorporated this into its collaborative work with customers. With specific customers, Mars has used shared data to understand problem areas and applied problem-solving tools to get to the root cause and drive action. Waste is now included as an area of focus in customer supply chain walkthroughs and is included in periodic KPIs.


Company activity

Mondelēz became involved with the IGD Waste Target because it wanted to raise internal engagement with its waste agenda, as well as work with other suppliers and retailers to make a difference. Mondelēz has made a number of changes throughout its supply chain, using the ECR best practice tool and case studies to improve engagement and raise awareness across its different sites. One change of which Mondelēz is particularly proud is the introduction of a new milk evaporator at its Marlbrook plant. Working with the ECR Group means that waste is now higher up the agenda and engagement has increased throughout the supply chain.

Morrisons was one of the key leads from the inception of this workgroup and a keen supporter throughout. In the early days, the Morrisons team built the reporting tools for the waste reduction submissions. It also helped to develop and deliver the training sessions for other IGD group members on how to report their savings and improve broader business knowledge on waste, including what could be done to reduce waste in their own businesses. Morrisons has also worked closely with its supply base on various initiatives to reduce waste, one of the best tools being walking the supply chain end to end from factory, all the way through to stores, looking for joint opportunities to reduce waste and cost.

Müller Wiseman was part of the the original group of ECR workgroup companies that set the waste reduction target, as well as acting as the sub group co-chair for the Fresh and Chilled Workstream.The Six-to-Fix framework has focused Müller Wiseman’s activities. The company has reviewed outlets for redistribution, worked to improve forecast accuracy and made minor modifications to packaging. One particular change that Müller Wiseman implemented was end-to-end walkthroughs with retailers, which helped to highlight waste drivers in store and inefficiencies in the chain around goods-in discrepancies and customer returns. On the back of these walkthroughs, Müller Wiseman refined its customer returns process.


Company activity

Nestlé saw the IGD Waste Target as a great opportunity to drive positive change throughout the industry. The manufacturer has co-chaired the waste reduction group since its inception. Nestlé added into the waste prevention guidelines its basic problem-solving technique, in which everyone at Nestlé is trained. Nestlé then used this process at Booker to identify why KitKat Chunky was one of its biggest waste lines. The tool led the team to the root cause and they were soon able to make some basic packaging changes, which resulted in a dramatic packaging waste reduction on this line at Booker.

Getting involved with the IGD Waste Target was a natural progression for PepsiCo, which had already worked closely with IGD in other areas such as logistics and seen first-hand the benefits of a forum for developing collaborative solutions. The company adopted and communicated the IGD Waste Hierarchy, reviewed case studies, participated in joint waste walks with key partners and helped to refresh the waste prevention website. A continuous focus on waste elimination at PepsiCo has also resulted in getting to zero landfill in a little over a year; a 30% reduction in the amount of production waste in just four years; and the move to a single waste contractor across all of its sites.

Procter & Gamble UK has participated in the ECR network for a number of years, at board, workgroup and subgroup levels. P&G has an internal group focused on driving waste reduction and through ECR, welcomed the opportunity to share learnings with and learn from others. P&G’s changes were centred on two key areas. First, it implemented projects involving packaging redesign for both raw materials and finished product. It also made changes to its systems and processes to help prevent out-of-spec stock. Where unavoidable, P&G ensures suitable stock is donated to charity or made available to staff shops. There were substantial teams involved in these projects and all showed dedication to reducing waste, which sometimes required innovative and out-of-the-box thinking.


Company activity

Sainsbury’s has supported the IGD Waste Target as part of the subgroup that built on the existing tools available on the website, as well as by hosting supplier visits. Working with its partners, Sainsbury’s has made many changes. These have included packaging changes; merchandising and display changes to reduce damage to product; process changes to reduce disposal of products to sell at a markdown or redistribute to local charities; and system changes to make store orders more accurate. One Sainsbury’s project saw changes to in-store merchandising units for eggs, to reduce damage and remove card and polythene that had to be recycled. Sainsbury’s and its supplier partners developed a solution that reduced overall waste, logistics and labour in-store.

Targeted waste reduction projects form part of Senoble’s day-to-day activities and as such, the team was keen to get involved in the IGD Waste Target. Benefiting from SMART KPIs that already tracked its waste performance throughout the supply chain, Senoble developed collaborative initiatives to deliver improvements benefiting the environment, covering all stakeholders including the final consumer. The successes Senoble has seen have been achieved through reshaping mind sets and changing business processes, as well as collaboration with customers. Extending product life, working with Company Shop and improvements to forecasting are all examples of the changes Senoble has made.

Tesco is proud to have actively contributed to and supported IGD’s Waste Target. Carefully managing stock levels on a daily basis to match supply and demand is complex and Tesco has used the tools and guides developed through ECR’s best practice guidelines to share effective ways of reducing waste across the supply chain. Tesco has made a number of changes to prevent waste. These range from introducing Tesco Connect, which shares future orders direct with suppliers to support production planning, to developing clear in-store waste management procedures to reduce-to-clear products, and ending buy-one-get-one-free promotions on fruit and vegetables.


Company activity

A universal supporter of IGD, engaged in all relevant workgroups and charitable campaigns, The Co-operative was also closely involved in the IGD Waste Target. To support the IGD Waste Target, The Co-operative has introduced a number of changes to prevent waste. These have included: moving produce to plastic crates, which saves packaging waste going to landfill or recycling; decreasing case sizes on four- and six-pint milk, thus reducing waste cost at store; aligning all fresh product shelf life under the Fresh Shelf Life initiative; and working with FareShare on redistribution through charities.

A previous supporter of many IGD collaborative workgroups, Unilever committed to the IGD Waste Target by providing the co-chair and resource for the workgroup. In 2010, it launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which places reducing environmental impact at its heart. Unilever used the ideas and examples from the ECR best practice guides to identify new areas of waste reduction outside those already being worked on. An early target under the Sustainable Living Plan within its manufacturing and distribution centres was to eliminate non-hazardous waste going to landfill. Unilever used ideas shared through the ECR group to establish a new cross-supply chain process to authorise shelf-life extensions that allowed surplus food products, which were fit for human consumption, to be donated to charity. Furthermore, customer waste data was used to influence a redesign of Pot Noodle secondary packaging that would further reduce waste in stores.

Waitrose has a director on the ECR Board and has helped resource the ECR Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup. A Waitrose team member was part of the Waste Steering Group and helped develop the ECR Food Redistribution Ready Reckoner. ECR best practice is used alongside the existing and well-established Waitrose Waste initiatives and principles. Waitrose has reduced waste by, for example, increasing the use of returnable packing, donating surpluses arising in a distribution centre to the Company Shop and introducing a new food waste hierarchy that empowers Waitrose branches to redistribute surpluses to benefit human or animal consumption.


2 Sisters Food Group LimitedArla Foods UKASDA Stores LtdAssociated British FoodsBooker Group PlcBoots UK BrakesCoca-Cola Enterprises LtdColgate-Palmolive (UK) LtdCompass Group UK & IrelandDairy Crest Group plcDiageo plcDunbiaGeneral Mills UK LtdGerber JuiceH J Heinz Foods UK LtdKanes Foods LtdKellogg Marketing & Sales CoL’OréalMarks & Spencer plcMars

Molson CoorsMondelēz InternationalMüller Wiseman DairiesMusgrave GroupNestlé UK LtdNew York Bakery CompanyProcter & Gamble UKPalmer & HarveyPepsiCo UKPremier Foods Group plcSainsbury’sSenoble UKTesco Stores LtdThe Co-operative GroupUnilever UK LimitedUnited BiscuitsWaitrose LtdWarburtons LimitedWm Morrison Supermarket plcYoungs Seafood LtdZorba Delicacies

Participating companies


Next steps

Great progress has been made, but there is much more to be achieved. IGD continues to drive the work of ECR’s Product & Packaging Waste Workgroup to develop and share best practice with more companies via www.igd.com/wasteprevention

It is our intention to encourage more companies to come on board and make ‘waste’ a priority. Our easy-to-use best practice provides the know-how to get started.

As ever, we will continue to work closely with other industry organisations, such as WRAP, to ensure that as an industry, we can collectively deliver an even bigger impact on waste in 2015 and beyond.

“The impressive results achieved by the businesses involved in the IGD’s ECR UK work underline the importance of collaboration in making change happen. Individual, targeted projects undertaken as part of the ECR work complement the industry-wide work of the Courtauld Commitment. They really help to showcase the ways in which businesses are taking action and inspire others to follow. “WRAP’s impact in this area is set to extend under the proposed Courtauld 2025, which will broker further collaborative action from producer to consumer. We look forward to continuing to work with IGD.” Dr Liz Goodwin

Chief Executive Officer, WRAP

igd.com/wasteprevention

Waste Target summary report

Documents

Transcript of Waste Target summary report