Tag Archives: ferrero

FoodDrink Europe targets sustainability

FoodDrinkEurope has launched a report outlining its goals to move towards more sustainable food and drink production by 2030.

The report came following an event in Brussels yesterday featuring stakeholders such as Members of the European Parliament, UN representatives and key food industry players such as Nestle. 

FoodDrinkEurope’s ‘Environmental Sustainability Vision Towards 2030 ’ details three core areas of focus: sustainable sourcing, resource efficiency along the food chain and sustainable consumption and production.

Sustainable sourcing

Europe’s food and drink industry accounts for 70% of all EU agricultural produce, said FoodDrinkEurope, which showcased examples from companies that could help to promote sustainable sourcing and contribute towards food security.

The report praised Ferrero, General Mills, Mars, Nestlé and Unilever, which all pledged to source 100% certified sustainable palm oil by 2015. Mars and Ferrero have also committed to used only sustainable certified cocoa by 2020.

The report also lauded the development of harmonised assessment methods through the European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Round Table.

Energy

FoodDrinkEurope encouraged the industry to collaborate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Between 1999, food and drink manufacturers in Europe cut GHG emissions by 18%, while production value rose 29%.

The report endorsed using low carbon technologies, such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP). “The best way to provide heat is from a CHP plant as this provides maximum primary energy saving opportunities,” it said.

Kellogg is one large company using CHP. Its plant in Manchester, UK, has a 4.9 MWe CHP Plant that supplies 85% of the plant’s current steam demand and approximately 50% of electricity demand, which it claims reduces CO2 emissions by approximately 12% annually.

Alternate refrigerants

FoodDrinkEurope is also promoting refrigerant alternatives. “Some of the refrigerant gases commonly used by food and drink manufacturers, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), contribute to climate change if they escape to the atmosphere,” it said.

While no viable alternative is currently available, the EU trade body said that it supports a multi-stakeholder initiative by Coca-Cola, Unilever, McDonald’s and PepsiCo to find a solution.

Water use

The report estimated that the industry’s water use accounts for 1.8% of the European total. It encouraged employing tools to measure water use through a Life Cycle Analysis, but said the method was not ideal for communication with consumers.

Several FoodDrinkEurope companies are involved in developing a new ISO standard (14046) on water footprint based on a life-cycle approach which is expected to be completed by 2014.

Other initiatives

FoodDrinkEurope’s report also details ways manufacturers have converted waste into energy to power operations. Nestlé and Kraft for example have been recycling coffee grounds to power production processes, which has contributed 12% to Nestlé’s on-site renewable energy resources in plants in the UK, Germany and France.

FoodDrinkEurope also supports using biofuels for transport operations to limit the environmental impact. Nestlé, for example has been using liquid methane powered trucks in the UK.

European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potocnik said: “It is also clear that consumers should be increasingly informed via modern communication channels, such as smart phones applications and social media.”

The French food and drink industry association (ANIA) has developed the smart phone app ProxiProduit, which allows consumers to scan barcodes and obtain environmental information such as GHG emissions, biodiversity and water use.

The report concluded that its ‘vision’ was not a benchmark for the industry as “no one-size fits all”, but it could give inspiration to companies to promote sustainable growth.

via FoodDrink Europe targets sustainability.

Brand Reputation: Italy’s best ones are Ferrero, BMW and Barilla

Ferrero, followed by BMW, and Barilla, are the company whose brand reputation has been rated the best one in Italy by the last “Reputation Pulse 2011″survey, the most important and extensive national research about company reputation conducted by the Reputation Institute in partnership with Doxa. The Reputation Institute, the main structure at a worldwide level dealing with issues such as corporate branding and reputation management, has been helping in the last 15 years more than 200 companies to measure, understand and enhance their potential in terms of reputation.

Every year the Institute carries out a research at a global level about company reputation and the factors affecting it, surveying more than 1500 companies from 32 countries. The Reputation Pulse Italy is produced in partnership with Doxa and examines more than 120 companies operating in Italy ranking them following a reputation criteria, with a score ranging from 1 to 100. The survey had been carried during the first three months of 2011, with more than 3,000 people interviewed.

So this year is Ferrero standing at the top step of the podium (with a score of 81.68), closely followed by BMW (81.19) and Barilla (81.16), with only three companies achieving a score of ” reputation of excellence “(over 80). Further down the rankings there are companies like Armani (78.90) ranked fifth, Luxottica (75.56) eight, Coop (73.54) fifteenth, Pirelli (72.55) 17th, followed immediately by Benetton (72.42), 18th. The “top 20” companies outweigh the positive threshold of 70 points, the remaining companies are hardly reaching that level: of the 124 firms surveyed, only 30% are showing a score higher than 70.

The 2011 survey considered only the companies amont the 100 rated in Mediobanca’s annual report about the “Leading Italian Companies”. The Pulse Reputation Italy survey has also expressed an evaluation in terms of gain or loss of reputation as compared to year 2010: Alitalia sees the highest score reputation increase (+12.8 points), followed by Intesa Sanpaolo (+ 7.1) and Unipol (+6.5). Mediaset (-10.7) with Lottomatica (-10.6) and Mediolanum (-10.2) are the protagonists of the worst loss of reputation, with a drop of about 10 points compared to 2010.

“Corporate reputation – said Michele Tesoro-Tess, head of the Reputation Institute in Italy (Advice dept.) – has a primary strategic importance for companies: when positive, can be a source of value, but if it is weak or negative it can make the company vulnerable. ” “We analyzed – adds Guido Argieri responsible for the Reputation Institute in Italy (Research dept.) – that in Italy more than 50% of the public has a favorable attitude toward the first three companies in our ranking, leading to consumers to be more willing to accept any increase in prices or tariffs applied to these three companies products.” (Source: Purpleandnoise)