UK food and consumer companies go green

Participating companies include Brakes, Compass Group, Heinz, Nestle UK, Premier Foods Group Ltd, Unilever UK, and United Biscuits. Initiatives such as sharing vehicles and more efficient warehousing will result in the industry saving 48 million miles of travel by the end of this year. This figure is equivalent to removing 800 lorries from Britain's roads, and conserving 23 million litres of diesel fuel per year. IGD, an international food and grocery expert, will monitor progress on distance travelled, fuel usage and weight of products moved. It will also capture the miles saved through partnership projects. The savings will be generated through a mix of internal projects and external partnerships between retailers and suppliers. The outputs will be shared within the industry to encourage improvements from companies of all sizes. IGD President and Nestle UK chief executive Alastair Sykes, said: "At a time when we have some of the highest fuel costs in the world, IGD members have taken a radical industry-wide approach to the sustainability challenge." He continued: "It's not just about large companies working together as we want to encourage companies of all sizes to get involved. There will always be a need to transport food and grocery items from producers to shoppers, and the more efficiently we can do this, the better for everyone." Weblink: www.igd.com/ecr.