UK parliamentary event highlights the Soft Drinks Sustainability Roadmap

The British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA), which represents the soft drinks industry in the UK, has held a parliamentary event to highlight efforts to improve sustainability in the soft drinks sector.

The Soft Drinks Sustainability Roadmap was launched last year and aims to encourage companies across the soft drinks supply chain to identify opportunities to reduce their environmental impact, use resources more efficiently and share best practice.

The event, attended by Defra farming and food minister George Eustice, gave signatories including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Britvic, Princes Gate Spring Water, ACE UK, Doehler and Ball Trading the opportunity to showcase their achievements.

These include:

• By introducing a new packaging format Britvic has made significant reductions in the weight of packaging per serving.
• Coca-Cola Enterprises has replenished 159 million litres of water through its river stewardship projects.
• Following the installation of two wind turbines Princes Gate Spring Water is now carbon neutral.

Mr Eustice MP, praising industry efforts, said: “The soft drinks sector generates £7.7bn a year for the British economy and employs over 20,000 people. This new agreement will ensure we continue to build on this success by creating a thriving industry with a production process that is efficient, saves energy and reduces waste.”

BSDA director general Gavin Partington added: “Today’s event shows that companies in our sector are seizing opportunities to reduce their environmental impact and the Sustainability Roadmap provides a great opportunity to extend best practice and deliver long term cost savings.

“We are pleased that 39 organisations have already signed up to support the Roadmap and we look forward to working together to minimise the environmental impact of the sector.”