Net zero and food – waste, supply chain

Recorded: 20 January 2021 (10:00 - 11:30 UK time)

What’s this webinar about?
As part of BSI’s Net Zero Week, this session focuses on the challenges and opportunities in the food chain and consider some of the tools and approaches currently available to help the sector and related segments achieve net zero. This webinar:

• Provides an overview of the need for action on supply chain (scope 3) emissions, the challenges food & drink businesses face and the opportunities for collaboration
• Provides case studies of organizations using food waste in innovative ways in the circular economy – e.g. FareShare and its response
• Explores other policy responses and tools that might be needed to help the food sector meet the 2050 target

Who is this webinar for?

• Food producers and manufacturers
• The hospitality industry
• Healthcare
• Retail brands

What will participants gain?

• First-hand information on some key initiatives towards achieving net zero in the food chain – specifically on the use of food waste
• An update on the role that standards are playing in helping the sector achieve net zero, and on potential new areas of work that could be further developed
• The opportunity to ask our experts questions
• A post-event copy of all presentations and a recording of the webinar

Agenda

Welcome and introduction - Sara Walton, Sector Lead (Food), British Standards Institution (BSI)

Tackling supply chain (scope 3) GHG emissions - Karen Fisher, Special Advisor, WRAP

Food sector goals for Net Zero, carbon reduction targets - Emma Piercy, Head of Climate Change & Energy Policy, Food and Drink Federation 

An innovative and sustainable use of waste - towards Net Zero, accounting for the circular economy - James Persad, Head of Marketing and Communications, FareShare 

Round table discussion/Q&A session

Summary and end of the webinar - Sara Walton, Sector Lead (Food), British Standards Institution (BSI)

Sara Walton is the Food Sector Lead (Standards) for BSI, the National Standards Body for the UK and a founding member of ISO (International Organization for Standardization).

She has over 10 years’ experience of standardization, working with representative stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. I’ve led UK committees in food safety, quality and occupational health and safety, providing practical standards solutions in areas of interest to government, industry and civil society.

Sara has responsibility at BSI for standardization for the food chain, particularly addressing innovation and other key issues such as risk management, resilience and trust. 

Prior to working for BSI, Sara worked in business information publishing, creating and delivering knowledge solutions for organizations based on their legal and compliance needs.

Karen Fisher is a Special Advisor at WRAP. She has been working in the field of food systems sustainability and appraisal for nearly 20 years – with a background in Life Cycle Assessment and Product Footprinting. At WRAP she is currently leading a number of workstreams with the food & drink sector focused on tackling the significant challenge of measuring and reducing supply chain GHG (scope 3) emissions. This work involves organisations that span the whole of the food chain, including farming bodies, manufacturers & processors, retailers, hospitality & food service businesses, government representatives and other stakeholders. The aim is to use the Courtauld Commitment 2025 as a platform for collaboration to make faster and more effective progress towards reducing GHG emissions in food & drink supply chains. This includes addressing barriers to action, such as measurement & reporting inconsistencies, which need a whole supply chain approach.

Emma joined the Food and Drink Federation in October 2019, and with the UK’s target of net zero by 2050, Emma is currently focused on developing the organisation’s narrative on net zero and the tools to help the sector in meeting those targets.  These will feed into the UK Government’s forthcoming Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy and in building stakeholder commitment to those targets ahead of the UK hosting COP26.  Before joining FDF, Emma held a number of policy and regulation roles with RWE AG, RWE Npower Cogen, Elexon, Sustainable Energy Association, First Utility (now Shell Energy) and National Grid Gas.

James is Head of Marketing and Communications for FareShare. His team promotes and protects the FareShare brand, so that we can grow our impact according to our vision – to let no good food go to waste. Since starting at FareShare in Jan 2018 our awareness has grown twenty nine-fold, and we won the Food and Drink Federation’s Best Campaign award for our Feed People First campaign – to obtain government financial support for charitable surplus food redistribution in the UK. Previously, James managed the marketing and events teams at the Carbon Trust for nine years, and a very long time ago he worked for 11 years in London-based advertising agencies, from a graduate trainee to a Director. James was a Non-Executive Director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust for six years until 2019.