British soft drink producer Britvic has asked European suppliers to update contracts to align to sustainability targets and significantly cut carbon emissions.
The announcement is a step towards Britvic’s Healthier People, Healthier Planet 2025 targets which will seek to reduce scope 3 emissions by 35%, all priority raw materials to be 100% sustainably sourced, and have increased supply chain mapping for high-risk materials.
As part of the plan, over the next year suppliers will be requested to sign up to sustainability platforms such as Sedex and EcoVadis, helping to reduce environmental and ethical risks in the supply chain and provide measurable progress on their commitments.
Over the following 12 months, Britvic will work with suppliers to agree advanced contractual requirements on a case-by-case basis. These could include reporting on greenhouse gas emissions via the Green House Gas protocol, aligning with sustainability verifications and gaining leading sustainable certifications, and to support suppliers with their new commitments. Later this year, Britvic and its financial partner ING will formally launch a sustainable supply chain finance programme.
Inge van Disseldorp, sustainability manager at SVZ, premium juice supplier said: “I truly think that sustainability is about people. It starts with shifting the mindsets of key stakeholders towards sustainable behaviour.
“Britvic’s Supplier Sustainability Summit was a great platform to connect with supply chain partners from various parts of the world and to discuss pressing topics such as carbon and energy and human rights.
“I think Britvic did a wonderful job in boosting their supply chain partners to take responsibility together and to speed up the process of sustainable sourcing. We can achieve more together than on our own.”
Matt Swindall, Britvic’s chief procurement officer, added: “As with all other businesses, the most challenging net zero goal remains reducing scope 3 emissions.
“We know that reaching our climate goals means helping our partners meet theirs, and I was thrilled to have such a positive response from our suppliers to commit to such targets.
“We will be offering tailored support on a case-by-case basis to address each of our supplier’s individual sustainability challenges and help them to set ambitious but achievable goals.”
Britvic’s current target is set to reduce its scope 3 emissions by 35% by 2025 and follows the company introducing over 20 energy saving projects to its supply chain in the last year.
