Reducing food waste, cutting carbon and protecting critical water resources
The Courtauld Commitment 2030 is a UK success story - a voluntary agreement that enables collaborative action across the entire UK food chain to deliver farm-to-fork reductions in food waste, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water stress that will help the UK food and drink sector achieve global environmental goals.
Our targets
Challenging and ambitious, the Courtauld 2030 targets are fully aligned with UK and international environmental goals.
For food waste
To deliver against UN SDG 12.3: a 50% per capita reduction in food waste by 2030 vs the UK 2007 baseline (covering manufacture, retail, hospitality and food service, and household).
The scope of the Courtauld Commitment 2030’s food waste reduction target remains unchanged from the Courtauld Commitment 2025 (covering manufacture, retail, hospitality and food service and household), as does the level of ambition for impact to 2025 (a 20% reduction compared to 2015).
For GHG emissions
To deliver a 50% absolute reduction in GHG emissions associated with food and drink consumed in the UK by 2030 (against a 2015 baseline).
This is aligned to a 1.5oC pathway and an important milestone towards meeting wider food sector targets for Net Zero by 2040, e.g. within the British Retail Consortium’s Climate Roadmap.
For water
An overall target by 2030 that 50% of fresh food is sourced from areas with sustainable water management.
As well as businesses continuing to increase water use efficiency in their own operations, our combined objective is that, by 2030, the UK food & drink industry will have helped to achieve sustainable water management to improve the quality and availability of water at catchment scale in the top 20 most important product & ingredient sourcing areas in the UK and overseas.
The Food System Transformation Plan
Our Transformation Plan contains information, all in one place, on what the food and drink sector needs to do to achieve the Courtauld 2030 targets.
Our achievements
Our latest Courtauld 2030 Progress and Insights Report sets out the achievements of the food and drink sector over the last year towards achieving the voluntary agreement’s targets and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Work with us
Retailers
We help retailers and their supply chains to be more resource efficient, encourage consumers to reduce their waste, and redistribute more surplus food to those in need.
Manufacturers
By making their production processes more efficient, manufacturers are instrumental in protecting key resources - food, water carbon.
Hospitality and food service
With award-winning campaigns, we're helping businesses to reduce the amount of food thrown away, reduce water stress and GHG emissions.
More opportunities
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Courtauld Affiliates
Achieve your sustainability objectives.
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Courtauld Associates
Take action to deliver on environmental, social, and governance objectives.
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Move to net zero
Go beyond targets by delivering practical changes that go beyond ‘greenwash’.
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Redistribution organisations
Identify ways of increasing the beneficial use of surplus food.
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Citizen campaigns
Get involved with our award-winning citizen campaigns.