Dawn Meats has become the latest organisation to pledge its support to Courtauld 2025. Dawn Meats will work in partnership with a range of retailers, food service, trade and local authority signatories under the newly formed Meat Working Group to reach the 2025 targets, pooling expertise and innovation.

Courtauld 2025 is an initiative led by the waste prevention body, WRAP that seeks to address sustainability challenges facing the food and drink sector. It has the potential to generate savings of £20bn for the UK food supply chain.

The food and drink industry faces a range of challenges such as access to water; losses in the supply chain; and waste – as evidenced by the 10% of meat purchases (240,000 tonnes) that are thrown away annually in UK homes. These challenges provide a real opportunity for businesses and other stakeholders to take leadership that will benefit all.

Courtauld 2025’s UK ambition is threefold:

• Achieve a 20% reduction in food and drink waste
• Achieve a 20% reduction in GHG emissions
• A reduction in impact association with water use in the supply chain

Commenting Marcus Sherreard, UK Commercial Director, Dawn Meats said, “Today is an important milestone in our sustainability plan, which again sees Dawn Meats collaborating with other stakeholders who share similar aspirations and objectives on continuous improvement across the entire supply chain. At Dawn Meats we truly believe that issues around supply chain sustainability can only be addressed collaboratively, and we are delighted that WRAP has provided the food and drinks industry with this opportunity to tackle issues related to resource efficiency. We are committed to working together with our partners on the Meat Working Group to identify and develop best practice in our industry in the coming years.”

Commenting, Peter Maddox, Director at WRAP said, “It is great to see support for Courtauld 2025 growing at such a pace, and it is imperative that it does so, given the significant economic contribution of the food and drink industry. We are delighted to welcome Dawn Meats on board. Dawn has demonstrated a keen understanding of the importance of sustainability to the bottom line, as well as an impressive capacity for innovation in this area. They will be important partners as we work towards a more sustainable resource efficient economy.”