🌱 What's In and What's Out: The 2023 FMCG legal pipeline, and 3 waste streams Discarded Spirits are tackling.
Featuring Discarded Spirits, ManiLife, Mindful Chef, eBay and more...
Happy Monday, and Happy 2023!
This week we cover:
Quick Take: The legal pipeline for FMCG brands in 2023: Let’s start with annual reports & carbon report requirement.
Brand Spotlight: ‘Waste tastes beautiful’ - how Discarded Spirits are reimagining waste to fight unnecessary impact within the food industry.
In case you missed it: 🌱 Wrapping it up: A look back at 2022, and a few brands to remember this festive period.
> Good News Last Week
🎯 Mindful Chef released their 2022 Sustainability Report - showcasing 15 million meals donated since 2017, a 4% carbon reduction per box, the launch of their Regenerative Farming Program and over 157,690 litres of rubbish cleared.
🎯 ManiLife is swapping plastic for glass jars, made from 60% recycled glass. This follows their desire to build a reusable packaging loop, and will be seen on all 275g peanut butter SKUs.
🎯 PANGAIA (scoring 84.5) and English Tea Shop (scoring 117.8) announced they’re now B Corp certified
⭐️ Asda announced a new ‘refill price promise’, guaranteeing that each of their refill products will be cheaper than packaged alternatives. Asda partnered with WRAP, Unilever and Innovate UK to figure out customer barriers to participation, after first introducing refill two years ago.
⭐️ eBay announced it will return as ITV’s fashion partner for Love Island again this year. ITV is doubling down on promoting pre-loved clothing instead of fast fashion brands. After the last series, eBay UK noted a 24% increase in new fashion businesses signing up that offered second-hand, upcycled or otherwise ‘circular’ items.
⭐️ IKEA have started delivering furniture from their Gennnevilliers warehouse 9km northwest of Paris to customers in Paris by boat. It’s estimated that this will not only offer more home delivery slots for Paris customers, but will result in CO2 emissions five times lower than road delivery, and 300,000 fewer kilometres driven through the streets of Paris.
⭐️ ZARA announced the launch of a laundry detergent designed to minimise microfiber shedding by 80% during washing. Designed in collaboration with BASF Home Care and I&I Solutions Europe.
> Click on each link to read more.
> Quick Take
The legal pipeline for FMCG brands in 2023: Let’s start with annual reports & carbon report requirements.
Here we are, almost a third of the way through the first month of 2023. For some, this news is welcomed with open arms - the post-christmas slump is subsiding and you’re slowly getting back into the swing of things. For others, this may bring about a sense of concern - 2023 is the year of increased customer demands on sustainability, and even more climate compliance requirements. Businesses are flooded with accusatory messages - "are you compliant?", "are you prepared?". That's a lot of pressure to deal with in the midst of January blues.
So, to help, here’s a quick guide to help your business prepare for the year ahead*. This is part one of the new series - focusing on carbon, packaging, social and labour and more. Kicking off with: Carbon & Companies House Reports.
* quick caveat here from us. We’re not legal experts, we just work for FMCG brands and have a real passion for this sort of thing. This guide is not exhaustive, focusses on the UK only and may become outdated as regulations change. Please refer to government advice and seek professional support if needed.
1. SECR (Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting)
What is it?
Introduced in 2019, SECR requires obligated companies to report on their energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions within their financial reporting for Companies House.
Who has to comply?
All Quoted/listed companies (on UK stock exchange), large unquoted companies and large limited partnerships (LLPs). Companies are deemed as large if they meet two of the following: 250+ employees, greater than £36m turnover and/or a balance sheet of more than £18m.
What are the requirements?
Companies must report on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, at least one intensity ratio and energy efficiency actions undertaken in the annual report on Companies House. Businesses are also encouraged to report Scope 3 emissions, however this is voluntary at present.
2. Section 172 (Companies Act 2006)
What is it?
The Section 172 of the Companies Act (2006) requires large businesses (same criteria as in SECR) to detail and disclose on how the business & it’s directors act in the way that would be most likely to promote the success of the company for social, environmental and economic benefit.
Who has to comply?
Same criteria as SECR.
What are the requirements?
The S172 must be included in the company's annual report. Whilst there are no specific requirements, the report must include six key elements of the Act which can be found here.
3. ESOS Phase 3 (Energy Savings & Opportunity Scheme)
What is it?
The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) makes ‘energy audits’ mandatory for big companies. It requires participants to carry out a verified assessment of their energy use, with the end result being a list of quantified energy saving opportunities aligned towards Net Zero.
Who has to comply?
ESOS affects “large UK undertakings”. Unlike SECR and S172, this means it is a requirement not-for-profit bodies and other non-public-sector organisations, as well as private businesses, that meet the following criteria:
Employ 250 or more people and/or:
Have an annual turnover in excess of £44 million;
Have an annual balance sheet total in excess of £38 million.
What are the requirements?
Organisations must measure and report on 95% of total energy (up from 90% in phases 1 and 2). To be fully compliant organisations must:
Calculate total energy consumption;
Identify areas of significant energy consumption;
Identify and quantify energy saving opportunities;
Appoint a third party auditor/assessor to verify results;
Notify the environment agency and submit the assessment;
Keep all reports and records to document improvements.
What about small businesses?
At the moment, mandatory requirements in this category are for ‘large’ organisations only. This is likely to filter to SMEs in coming years, so we recommend ensuring your business is prepared for the above ahead of time.
For businesses based in Scotland or Northern Ireland, we recommend checking out NetRegs - which details environmental legislation in both countries. No similar guidance currently exists for England and Wales.
Found this guide useful? Let us know via email (you even can reply directly to this newsletter), and tell us what else you’d like to see. Look out for part 2: Packaging Legislation in 2023!
> Brand Spotlight
‘Waste tastes beautiful’ - how Discarded Spirits are reimagining waste to fight unnecessary impact within the food industry.
This Friday 13th is the inaugural Food Diversity Day, designed to celebrate endangered foods and get more diversity onto our plates. So, the mission of this week’s brand spotlight, Discarded Spirits, exemplifies one of the main themes; joining the fight for a truly sustainable food system.
First, what is Food Diversity day?
Based on Dan Saladino’s book Eating to Extinction, the first ever Food Diversity Day aims to kickstart a campaign to reconnect the food we eat with the ecosystems that we exist within and to rethink the global food system to bring around what Saladino refers to as the “Second Green Revolution”, for a slow food movement. What is this? The slow food movement aims to reconnect and rebuild people’s understanding of how food affects the world around us through good food production and fair food for everyone (read more here).
For a truly sustainable food system, we need wide-scale transformational change. Reducing food waste is detailed as one of the most actionable ways to mitigate climate change. According to Discarded Spirits, 70% of food & drink waste is avoidable - so, they are challenging the age of disposability and pioneering a progressive wave of spirits that challenges the way we use natural resources through up-cycling. After all, one man’s waste truly is another man’s treasure.
Let’s dig into three food industries that Discarded Spirits are targeting to reimagine their waste:
The Coffee Industry
Discarded Spirits was initially founded to find a use for Cascara, the discarded fruit husk of the coffee berry. Every year, a billion tonnes of Cascara is wasted globally as a side effect of the coffee industry. With the rise in coffee culture (fuelling the coffee industry to grow by 5% year-on-year) the associated waste continues to rise. While some Cascara is re-purposed for organic fertiliser and used on coffee plantations, the majority is sent to landfill. Discarded Spirits have tapped into this discarded “waste,” recovering the deep, rich, fruity flavours from the husk to infuse, creating a botanical flavoured sweet Vermouth. With environmental benefits of reducing food waste, Discarded Spirits are also helping coffee farmers to find an additional revenue stream, as they can sell the Cascara as well as their coffee.
The Wine Industry
To make 1 bottle of wine, approximately 1,200 grapes are crushed, leaving behind 20% of that weight from grape skins, seeds and stems. This is known as wine pomace, and the wine industry produces close to 12 million tonnes of it annually. Pomace has traditionally been used as fertiliser or animal feed, however up-cycling it into a product for human consumption retains the value of the food, as per the food waste hierarchy. So, Discarded Spirits use this pomace for the base of their vodka by distilling it instead. Not stopping there, during the wine-making process a second waste product, referred to as ‘wine alcohol’, is created when de-alcoholising wine. Discarded Spirits recover the flavours of the original grape from the wine alcohol, and blend it into their Discarded Grape Skin Vodka too.
The Banana Industry
Within the whisky industry, rum is aged in casks to impart flavour into the wood in preparation for the final stages of malt whisky maturation. This rum is then often disposed of or sold on. Discarded Spirits repurposes this rum to form the base of their Discarded Banana Peel Rum.
Half of the world’s bananas are grown with the purpose of being shipped for the global market, In 2019, 20 billion tonnes of bananas were shipped internationally from where they were grown, making them the world’s number 1 fruit. Shockingly, despite there being a diversity of 1,500 varieties of banana, these 20 billion tonnes are comprised of a single variety. Humans have created a monoculture, favouring The Cavendish for its low price, thick skin, size and the way it ripens. With every banana is a skin, which until now has been discarded or composted in households around the world. Banana peels increasingly feature in vegan cooking, but who knew that banana peels can provide added tasting notes? Extracting the flavours from the peel brings a fresh toffee note for a rum with a rich banoffee pie flavour - found in their Discarded Banana Peel Rum.
Want to find out more?
On Friday January 13th, from 9am to 7.30pm, some of the UK's leading scientists, writers, chefs, farmers, campaigners and entrepreneurs will be taking part in a continuous feed of discussions, storytelling and information sharing - all about the wonders and importance of food diversity. These discussions will be made available for free via Eventbrite, live-streamed on YouTube and available to view after the event. Explore the resources for each of the sessions here.
Watch Discarded Spirit’s video, The Origins, to watch the story of Discarded Spirits - “from provenance to pour”.
Check out some of the restaurants and public spaces putting on special food diversity menus for Food Diversity Day.
See more of Discarded Spirits:
> In case you missed it
🌱 Wrapping it up: A look back at 2022, and a few brands to remember this festive period.
Featuring a heartfelt thank you from the Following the Footprints team!
> Follow up with…
Press Release: New Report Shines Spotlight on Millions of Tonnes of Edible Food Going To Waste On UK Farms
Podcast: Climate Change & Happiness - Season 1 Episode 7: Inadequacy & the upside down pyramid
Team Game: Project Drawdown’s Solutions Board Game