Newsletter, July 2007

Contents this month

• Main article: Attention deficit in the electronic age
• Community cohesion down the pub
• Project news

Project news

Sustainable food

DbyD have just opened a consultation on sustainabilty in the food industry for Defra.

The food industry accounts for:

• about 14% of energy consumption by UK businesses and 7 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year
• about 10% of all industrial use of the public water supply
• about 10% of the industrial and commercial waste stream
• 25% of all HGV vehicle kilometres in the UK
• healthy food choices and information that will assist consumers to adopt more healthy and balanced diets; and
• 12.5% of the UK's workforce.

In the introduction to Defra's Food Industry Sustainability Strategy, the then Secretary of State, Margaret Beckett, highlighted the importance of wider industry engagement in improving the sustainability of the food and drink industry and invited industry led Champions' groups to report to her on the measures necessary for making progress and the means of monitoring success.

Since the publication of the Strategy, Defra and the food industry have been working together to create action plans based on the headline targets in the Strategy. The industry led Champions' Groups were established to identify where progress can be made. The groups examined current best practice, looked at ways of working and have identified barriers which may discourage the industry from behaving in a more sustainable way.

Defra are now seeking input from the food industry on the recommendations make by the Champions groups. See http://defrafiss.dialoguebydesign.net for more.