Sustainabilitylive! 2012 Seminar Programme - Managing Environmental Risk in Food Supply Chains

Over the next few years the global food production system will need to feed significantly more people with significantly less impact on the environment. In practical terms this will entail providing a higher quality diet while managing the increased competition for scarce resources including land, water and energy. The environmental risk in the business environment will increase as the climate changes, making it even more difficult to deliver the 'joined up' business thinking and processes needed to survive, let alone thrive, in the new global environment. This session will examine how businesses can identify, analyse and manage environmental risk in food value chains by: - identifying and analysing carbon risk in existing value chains - identifying and analysing water risk and climate change risk in existing crop production areas - examining how these risks can be managed. The session will draw on lessons learnt from a collaborative project with Writtle College - University of Essex, Metropolitan University of London and private sector partners in the foodservice sector, including growers, processors and wholesalers. The project developed an audit toolkit to enable companies in the food and foodservice sectors to benchmark their suppliers in terms of environmental management. The presentation will be of interest to managers seeking to engage value chain partners by highlighting areas of best and next practice and identifying the main challenges in practical terms