Shaping the future of sustainable manufacturing
Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has released a white paper detailing the initial findings from its industry research partnership with Cranfield University.
Entitled Sustainable Manufacturing for the Future, the paper considers the current and future landscape of sustainable manufacturing across the food and drink industry in Great Britain, investigating the challenges and opportunities the industry needs to address to achieve rapid and fundamental change.
The six-month research partnership began in March this year, with a roundtable event held at CCE’s Milton Keynes factory to discuss the key topics impacting sustainability in the industry today, and those anticipated for the future. Outputs from these discussions have informed the recommendations put forward in the project’s first paper.
Released in conjunction with the launch of CCE’s GB Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report, the white paper identifies six key themes that the industry will need to address in the coming years – people, big data, technology, collaboration, value and resilience. Whilst it was agreed that government policy and legislation would also play an important role, the white paper looks at how the food and drink industry can take ownership of these six topics and drive progress forward from within.
The six themes will set the agenda for the project’s next phase of research. During this subsequent stage, CCE and Cranfield University will look to gain a better understanding of each topic. A second white paper based upon this research will be released later this year.
Steve Adams, group director of supply chain operations at CCE GB, says, “[The] white paper marks the first step in unlocking the future of sustainable manufacturing, and we look forward to exploring the themes in even more depth to identify the most important ideas and innovations which will help to progress and improve our industry.”