Courtauld Commitment
Type of practice Reduce
Name of practice Courtauld Commitment
Name of main actor WRAP and 52 major retailers and brand owners, UK
Type of actor(s) Company
Location United Kingdom
Stage of implementation End-of-life
Year of implementation 2005
What was/is being done? The Courtauld Commitment is a responsibility deal aimed at improving resource efficiency and reducing the carbon and wider environmental impact of the UK grocery retail sector. It supports the UK governments’ policy goal of a ‘zero waste economy’ and the objectives of the Climate Change Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. WRAP is responsible for the agreement and works in partnership with leading retailers, brand owners, manufacturers and suppliers who sign up and support the delivery of the targets. Courtauld Commitment 1 looked at new solutions and technologies so that less food and primary packaging ended up as household waste. Phase 2 follows the original Courtauld Commitment (Phase 1), launched in 2005. It moves away from solely weight-based targets and aims to achieve more sustainable use of resources over the entire lifecycle of products, throughout the whole supply chain. At the launch of Phase 2 in March 2010, 29 major retailers and brand owners had already pledged their commitment to this voluntary agreement. Today there are now 52 signatories.
The targets are (1) to reduce the weight, increase recycling rates and increase the recycled content of all grocery packaging, as appropriate - through these measures the aim is to reduce the carbon impact of this grocery packaging by 10%;
(2) to reduce UK household food and drink waste by 4%; and
(3) to reduce traditional grocery product and packaging waste in the grocery supply chain by 5% - including both solid and liquid wastes.
Outcomes and impacts Over the four year period Phase 1 was running, it saved 1.2 million tonnes of food and packaging waste, with a monetary value of £1.8 billion and 3.3 million tonnes of CO2.
First year progress results of Phase 2 (released in December 2011) show that signatories are already half way to achieving the packaging reduction target and three quarters of the way to reaching the household food waste objectives. The supply chain impact is significantly less at only 0.4%.
Source(s) http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/courtauld-commitment-2-targets-progress-and-benefits
