Plans for a new global system to measure and record the carbon footprint of beverages on their packaging labels were launched on 10 April.
The European scheme, called the Carbon Action Plan (CAP), has been developed by a partnership between NSF International, the food safety and standards accreditation organisation, and Zenith International, an international beverage industry consultancy. It is supported by Trucost, an environmental research company.
While initially being implemented for bottled water manufacturers, the scheme is expected to be eventually extended to other soft drinks, before a possible roll out across the food industry.
Besides carbon footprints, the scheme will aim to include a variety of additional information on their energy and packaging requirements of a specific beverage.
These include the amount of renewable energy and offset carbon emissions used in making the product, the number of litres of water used to make a single litre of the beverage and the percentage of recycled material used for a product's packaging.
The CAP pilot has been undertaken by UK bottled water producer Highland Spring.
In the UK, the campaign run by the Evening Standard newspaper 'Water on Tap', which encourages restaurants to offer free tap water, has been gathering momentum since its initial debut at the end of February.
Aiming to 'slash the negative impact on the environment of bottled water, (especially of that which is) flown or shipped from overseas, the campaign includes a design competition for a carafe in which London tap water will be served and widely available across London restaurants and cafes from 2009. |
