Courtauld Commitment 2025 Milestone Progress Report

The Courtauld Commitment 2025 Milestone Progress Report sets out the progress that has been made by the food and drink sector against the voluntary agreement’s targets. Also highlighted are best practice activities across the sector to reduce food waste, greenhouse gas emissions and pressures on water..

Alongside the Milestone Progress Report we have published ‘UK progress against the Courtauld Commitment 2025 and UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3’. This report provides more detail and context of progress against the Courtauld Commitment 2025 targets, as well as information on the UK’s contribution to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030.

Progress made includes:

• Household food waste (food and inedible parts) now totals 6.6 million tonnes - down from 7.1 million tonnes in 2015. This is 70% of the food that is wasted post farm gate.
• Total UK food waste now measures 9.5 million tonnes (household and supply chain, 2018) down from 10 million tonnes in 2015 (and 1.7 million tonnes a year lower than in 2007). The greenhouse gas (GHG) enissions associated with total UK food waste is around 25 million tonnes CO₂e – equivalent to 5% of UK territorial emissions (including some overseas production) and the same as produced by 10 million cars, a third of all cars on UK roads in 2018. The land required to produce the food we waste would be equivalent to an area larger than Wales.
• Action by Courtauld 2025 signatories has helped reduce the amount of food waste in the supply chain by 4% per capita over the period 2015/18, with the supply chain contributing around 30% to the UK total, at 2.9 million tonnes.
• Collaborative water projects in the UK and overseas reaching have reached more than 500 suppliers.
• There has been a 7% CO₂e reduction across the food system, equivalent to 730,000 fewer cars on the road.

Other highlights in the report include:

• Food businesses representing 50% sector turnover are acting on food waste under the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap;
•  World-leading citizen-facing initiatives Love Food Hate Waste and TRiFOCAL are helping millions of people waste less food;
• Sector leaders are motivating hospitality and food service professionals to become Guardians of Grub, with a nationwide ‘Stand Up for Food’ month of action;
• More retailers and brands are adopting good practice for helping their customers enjoy food at its best.