Leaders
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Birds Eye‘s Forever Food programme commits it to sustainable sourcing, waste reduction and energy efficiency
“The heritage of Birds Eye is all about families and children – looking after them and meeting their needs. And our mission is to ensure they have food for ever,” says Peter Hajipieris, chief technical, sustainability and external affairs offi- cer at the company. And so the Forever Food programme is born, mapping out how the com- pany will operate up to 2015 to ensure its cus- tomers get responsibly-sourced food, for ever. It’s an initiative that has been in the pipeline for some years and developed with a range of organisations and suppliers, including WWF, the Marine Stewardship Council, the Food and Drink Federation and The Prince’s Countryside Fund. And it’s very ambitious.
Covering all manufacturing sites, raw materi- als and third party suppliers, the company has pledged to reduce water consumption by 20% and carbon emissions by 30%, both by 2020. The commitment also includes targets to send no waste to landfill from UK operations by 2015, reduce packaging by 15% by 2012, and source 100% of its wild and farmed fish from certified fisheries by 2012. “The biggest chal-
lenge will be cutting our CO2, because you have to invest a great deal in this,” says Hajipieris. And the fish target has its own headaches (“fish is the most dysfunctional and politically-chal- lenging food area”). “We began working with Birds Eye Iglo more than ten years ago to drive sustainability in fisheries,” says David Nussbaum, CEO of WWF UK. “The Forever Food programme is a welcome expansion of these aims and we very much support its ambition to become a leading initiative, driving change for sustainability in supply chains and in consumer behaviour.” The Forever Food “journey”, as the compa- ny likes to describe it, is all about educating staff and consumers about the difference they can make, as well as stimulating family interest in sustainable development issues that affect their daily lives. It’s not just another CSR pro- gramme. “We’re transforming the business,” says Hajipieris. “Before we launched Forever Food, I wanted to set up function to deliver it.. So, we’ve restructured internally; linking up our procurement and supply chain teams so that we are all on the same page.
18 | Sustainable Business | August/September 2010
Birds Eye has linked up its procurement and supply chain teams as part of the restructuring process
SNAPSHOT Birds Eye is an international brand of frozen foods such as seafood, meat and vegetables owned by Pinnacle Foods. The company is considered to be one of the founders of the modern frozen food industry and is credited with inventing a fast freezing process that preserves the quality of food. Founded by General Foods, which in 1929 bought the rights to use a fast-freezing process patented by Clarence Birdseye.
“Forever Food marries up beautifully with the brand. It’s all right putting the logo on the products and on the website, but you’ve got to support that with a programme.
“And what we’ve discovered in doing all this
work is what a brilliant story frozen food has when it comes to resource utilisation. We waste so little compared to chilled food.” Forever Food will be supported by a market- ing campaign that began with the release of new food packs in July. But Hajipieris doesn’t just want to speak to consumers. “This is about com- municating with suppliers and staff too,” he says, “helping them to understand that this isn’t an esoteric thing – because normally it is quite cor- porate.” For Forever Food to resonate with its stakeholders, the language around the initiative has been simplified. “We don’t want to launch it and forget about it – it’s with us for ever.” It’s an exciting and far-reaching programme that Hajipieris refuses to reveal how much is costing Birds Eye – “let’s just say it is a substan- tial amount of money”.
birdseye.co.uk
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