Protecting biodiversity is fundamental to our business and to our communities. Without bees there would be no fruit, and without fruit there would be no Robinsons, MiWadi, Maguary or Teisseire.
We’re taking steps to help nature flourish in and around our manufacturing sites, championing regenerative agriculture, and enhancing our sustainable sourcing strategy for key agricultural ingredients, such as fruits, to make sure we source from suppliers and farmers who are meeting regenerative agricultural principles.
Britvic is a member of the Sustainable Agricultural Initiative Platform to identify solutions to help meet regenerative agricultural principles in our ingredient supply chains. We’re aiming for 100% of our priority ingredients to be sustainably sourced and have water stewardship plans by 2025.
We’re also established a project to directly tackle deforestation. Employees have taken part in the Floresta Britvic, a reforestation project, which planted 1,700 tree seedlings covering 2.5 acres in Astolfo Dutra, Minas Gerais. Each tree represents one Brazilian Britvic employee and is in an area located 5km from the company’s factory in the region. The reforestation will continue to, aiming to mirror company growth over the coming years.
At Newcastle West in Ireland, where Ballygowan Mineral Water is bottled at source, we have over 40 acres of protected land. We are passionate about protecting this local area and have a strong biodiversity plan in place. We are members of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan, which provides a clear roadmap for managing landscapes to support pollinating insects which are in dramatic decline across Ireland.
Four native Irish black honeybee hives have been installed on site and we are working with a consultant ecologist to make sure we allow enough space and opportunity for both kept, wild and solitary bees to thrive. The bees have been welcomed by our employees, with the pollinator programme becoming a strong driver of employee engagement. They have also produced their first harvest of honey, which will be distributed for staff and visitors to enjoy.
Long flowering meadows were expanded from approximately 2,723m2 to 22,941m2 and allowed to grow all year with cutting and removal taking place in September. Cutting back overgrown wild scrub areas has reduced shading, resulting in fresh growth and a visible increase in wildflowers.
Protecting our natural resources is important to Britvic. All the paper and packaging materials we use are already 100% Forest Stewardship Alliance certified. And, although significantly reduced, the sugar we use for making our drinks is certified by Bonsucro.
To help ensure our future sourcing strategies are deforestation-free, we have also carried out risk assessments on our other key commodities. In Europe, we are committed to ensuring that we meet the requirements of the European Regulation on Deforestation-free Products for products sold on the European market. None of our finished products are listed within Annex I of the regulation therefore our drinks are not in scope. However, given the global nature of our operations, we are working to ensure that commodities such as cocoa, coffee and soy included within some of our drinks are deforestation-free by the end of 2025.
