In our 2020 Future Foods announcement we pledged globally to halve food waste across our operations by 2025 – five years ahead of the UN’s SDG 2030 target. Our accelerated plan of action is fuelled by the urgency of what is not only a humanitarian but also an environmental and economic crisis.
The cost of food waste
- 4.5 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK every year
- If we all simply stopped wasting bread at home in the UK for a year, it could have the same effect on greenhouse gas emissions as planting 5.3 million trees
- If food waste was a country it would be the third biggest source of Green House Gases (GHGs)
Our fight on food waste
Our ambition is to drive wide-reaching change beyond the boundaries of our business and to tackle food loss and waste across the food chain – from factory to fork.
In the UK & Ireland, we were a founding signatory of The Courtauld 2030 Commitment which brings together over ninety organisations to make food and drink production and consumption more sustainable for the future. All signatories have committed to a collective ten-year target to cut the carbon and waste associated with food & drink.
To progress towards The Courtauld 2030 Commitment, as well as Unilever’s global food waste reduction roadmap, we’re taking action across our supply chain to reduce the waste associated with making our products, as well as using our brands and external voice to reduce waste in households and the hospitality industry.
How we're tackling food waste at Unilever
Find out more about how Unilever is addressing food loss globally through innovation and collaboration here.