NZFGC Teamwork on Sustainability

There is no doubt the main reason the food and grocery sector was able to ensure New Zealanders were able to get through the COVID-19 lockdowns of the past 12 months or so with very little disruption to vital supplies was due to teamwork.

That is, teamwork both inside our food and grocery manufacturing and importing companies and our supermarkets, and teamwork between those companies and the supermarkets.  

It was teamwork that ensured all parts of the supply chain – from farmers, packers, manufacturers, suppliers, logistics workers, merchandisers and supermarket staff at all levels – was working efficiently and with enough staff willing and able to work through the lockdowns, often at personal and family cost and risk.

The Food & Grocery Council, Woolworths NZ, Foodstuffs South Island and Foodstuffs South Island and various Government organisations formed another team overseeing it all and looking for problems before they arose.

It was due to all this that the few issues shoppers seemed to have was with toilet paper and hand sanitiser, and that was due to a rush on those items rather than shortages.

Working in teams is what FGC is good at.

What many people don’t realise is a large part of our success is due to eight working groups made up of members who do a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. These groups form a big part of our engine room.

They are: Industry Relations & Supply Chain – works with supermarkets on industry issues and supply chain; Health & Regulatory – comprises technical experts from the membership and oversees legislation and issues on food safety, nutrition, marketing etc; Talent & Diversity – promotes the industry as a great place to work and builds diversity; Health & Safety – a joint group with retailers, focused on workplace safety; Membership Services – organises education, mentoring and networking events; Sales & Merchandising – represents outsourcing organisations; Export – highlights exporting issues; Sustainability – works and advises on all issues of sustainability.

They all report to and advise the FGC Executive and the Board (chaired by Mike Pretty, ANZ Chair of Kraft Heinz) as and where required, but most of the time they have their heads down solving issues and coming up with initiatives to make the industry go faster. 

The newest of them is the Sustainability Committee, which had it's latest meeting last Friday hosted by Nestle. The group was formed in 2019 to tackle the many issues of sustainability and took an immediate focus on driving packaging sustainability in the food and grocery sector.

Its six sub-committees and their aims are:

·        Plastics: Maximising positive changes away from the use of the most damaging plastic types. Its focus is on identifying how much plastic is used, increasing reuse and recycling, and reducing the amount of virgin plastic by increasing use of recycled content. Working on the design of extended producer responsibility scheme for plastic packaging as part of work towards a priority product scheme. Providing guidance to members on plastic consumption.

·        Compostable: Assessed the feasibility of introducing compostable products for commercial composting or home composting with the recommendation that this is “Not for Now”. Identified the roadblocks and what needs to happen before compostable products are introduced into households. It is working to educate FGC members, advocate for government investment, and is also working with the supermarket companies.

·        Beverage Container (Container Recovery Scheme): FGC was not part of the council-led group tasked with designing a deposit scheme to minimise the cost while maximising the recovery and recycling of containers. However, the sub-committee provided input to this work.

·        Paper: Working with paper recyclers and processors to identify the grades of paper being used and to reduce the gap between imported fibre and the use of recovered fibre. Supported the Government’s infrastructure gap analysis work. Providing guidance to members about use of paper. 

·        Metal Recycling: Aiming to maximise kerbside collection of consumer metal packaging and components. Members include supermarkets, the metal recycling industry, and the Sustainable Business Network.

·        Labelling: focusing on the implementation of the Australasian Recycling Label in New Zealand.

This work is being driven at speed by its high-powered leadership, which includes Nestle CEO Christian Abboud, as Chair, and sustainability expert Lyn Mayes, of Mad World, as a special adviser.

It’s a great example of how FGC members are working together to do their bit for the environment. We now have over 70 FGC members involved in the work of this Sustainability Working Group and we welcome all volunteers!

First published in Supermarket News Magazine, May 2021.