NSF Int'l Issues Sustainability Standard for Beverage Industry
May 16, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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NSF International launched the Carbon Action Plan (CAP) to provide beverage companies and their suppliers with a program aimed at carbon footprint measurement.
CAP is also designed to enable audited results to be combined with other environmental information in a consumer-friendly form on product labels, said NSF International.
This approach was developed as a joint venture between Zenith International Ltd. and NSF International. The companies are also working with Trucost Plc, an international environmental research provider.
The CAP is designed to extend carbon footprints to the "shop shelf" and will cover a range of sustainability ratings, according to NSF International.
The five rating scores include:
- The amount of renewable energy used.
- The percentage of recycled material in the packaging.
- The number of water liters used to make one liter of product.
- The extent of a company's carbon reduction in the previous two years.
- The amount of carbon emissions verified as having been offset.
The CAP label design is based on ideas used for nutrition labeling so that consumers will understand them more easily, said NSF International.
The first CAP pilot was undertaken by U.K. bottled water producer Highland Spring. "We are assessing the environmental impact of our suppliers including all our fuel and energy use as well as distribution and waste," said Bryan McCluskey, technical manager for Highland Spring.
"As a result, we can see our total direct and embedded greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and can break them down by type and size of bottle. The biggest benefit of the CAP scheme is that we can now identify GHG hot spots in our supply chain - by managing them, we will reduce our carbon footprint with certainty."
The CAP will first be implemented across the bottled water industry and pilots are in the process of being established with companies in each continent.
Soft drinks will be the next priority and the plan will then be rolled out to other food and drink sectors, said NSF International.
A not-for-profit organization, the CAP Partnership, is being set up to monitor and develop the program.
Source: NSF International.