Britvic's Supplier Strategy to Cut Scope 3 Emissions
Leading soft drink manufacturers Britvic have adopted a sustainable procurement strategy as one of its key business drivers. It is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals programme and focuses on four key priorities. They are to run a low carbon supply chain, use sustainable packaging, use regenerative agriculture, and source ethically.
The company has a broad supply chain network, sourcing goods from Britain, Europe, South America and Asia, and knows that to reach its company sustainability goals, they need to help its procurement partners do the same.
“We know that reaching our climate goals means helping our partners meet theirs. By 2025, we want to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions (direct) by 50% and our Scope 3 carbon emissions (indirect) by 35% - and we can’t achieve this on our own,” says Chief Procurement Officer Matt Swindall.
“At Britvic we take our responsibility to our Healthier People, Healthier Planet sustainability strategy seriously and creating an effective sustainable supply chain has to be done in partnership with our suppliers,” he adds.
The company is not leaving its suppliers to tackle the issue on its own, as they have been rolling out a sustainable supply chain programme with ING to help support, finance, and encourage suppliers to make improvements to its sustainable supply chains.
“Sustainability is at the heart of ING’s strategy, and we are committed to support Britvic as well as their suppliers in their sustainability journey,” said Soulaimene Ben Lassoued, Senior Associate in ING Trade Advisory and Structuring.
“The transition towards a Sustainable Supply Chain Finance programme is an important milestone that we are confident will make a positive impact to the whole value chain by rewarding and incentivising Britvic’s key suppliers to act more sustainably, and at the same time, improve their cash flow.”
Britic also runs Supplier Sustainability Summits to welcome procurement workshops on issues such as carbon and energy, sustainable agriculture and human rights, sustainable innovation and responsible sourcing.
Britvic Healthier People Healthier Planet 2025 targets
The company is working towards ambitious sustainability targets which are looking to cut Scope 3 emissions by 35%, aim for all priority raw materials to be 100% sustainably sourced, and have improved supply chain mapping for high-risk materials.
Suppliers are being asked to play their part in these ambitions by signing up to sustainability platforms such as Sedex and EcoVadis, and supplying measurable feedback on their progress. It is a targeted strategy, as it invited key European supply partners who produced 70-80% of the Scope 3 emissions to update contracts to include emissions reporting and climate targets.
“As with all other businesses, the most challenging net zero goal remains reducing Scope 3 emissions,” adds CPO Matt Swindall.
“We know that reaching our climate goals means helping our partners meet theirs, and I was thrilled to have such a positive response from our suppliers to commit to such targets. We will be offering tailored support on a case-by-case basis to address each of our supplier’s individual sustainability challenges and help them to set ambitious but achievable goals.”
Britvic and clean energy procurement
The company is also expanding its procurement of renewable energy to power its operations. Currently 75% of the electricity used to make its soft drinks in Great Britain is coming from a 160-acre solar farm in Northamptonshire.
“This is an exciting opportunity to ensure that some of the country’s most recognisable and much-loved soft drinks are powered by renewable energy,” says Sarah Webster, Britvic’s Director of Sustainable Business.
“We know consumers want to buy more sustainable products, and this is another step towards reducing carbon emissions and our long-term sustainability targets.”
The solar site generates 3.1 Gigawatts of power and could cut as much as 1,113 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the supply chain annually.
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