47153 AG Barr Annual Report 2025 AW4 SQ WEB - Flipbook - Page 40
A.G. BARR p.l.c. Annual Report and Accounts 2025
RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS REPORT CONTINUED
Water and waste
As a multi-beverage business, water is a key
ingredient, as well as a necessary resource we
rely upon across our operations. Water scarcity
is an increasing concern both in the UK and
across our international supply chain, and we
continue to monitor and map the risk of water
restrictions along our value chain.
We are pleased to report further improvements
in our water usage efficiency. We’ve already
exceeded our water efficiency target for 2025,
achieving a ratio of 1.72 litres of water used for
every litre of product we produce. This represents
a 12.2% improvement in efficiency compared to
our 2020/21 baseline, due in part to a number of
initiatives across our manufacturing sites. More
information can be found in our non-financial KPI
section on page 21. We’ve also implemented a
reduction in process water usage for rinses at
our Cumbernauld site, which has the potential
to save c.15 million litres of water per year and,
through our water utilisation programme at
Milton Keynes, we aim to implement these
learnings across our operations.
We are also targeting waste reduction across our
own operational sites. Our Brilliance in the Making
continuous improvement manufacturing
programme operates across our production sites
and identifies and delivers initiatives that generate
efficiency, waste and water improvements.
The programme demonstrates the benefit of
efficiency improvements for both our operations
and in reducing our environmental impact. During
the year we reduced our total solid waste to 3.0kg
waste produced per 1,000L of product produced,
exceeding our 2024/25 target. Our Environmental
Representatives across our production sites are
crucial for implementing our Group-wide waste
and water strategies throughout the organisation,
and are encouraged to flag resource and
process inefficiencies if they occur.
We are aware of the energy and emissions
required in recycling and processing waste
and have sought to simplify this process where
possible, and have partnered with a number of
businesses to reuse the cardboard packaging
for our raw materials.
Sustainable sourcing
As part of our sustainable sourcing strategy we
also know that the most significant water use in
our value chain is in agriculture. The crops that
we rely upon for many of our products, such
as mangos, are grown in hot, potentially
water-stressed areas, and we are working in
partnership with our global suppliers through our
Supplier Code of Conduct to ensure adherence
to environmentally responsible practices,
including water stewardship.
As climate change and a rising population
put pressure on our limited natural resources,
it is important for all our raw materials to be
sourced sustainably and used effectively.
For the fifth consecutive year, we’re pleased to
announce that 100% of our non-hazardous waste
was diverted from landfill. Our objective is to
maintain this performance on a permanent basis,
as we aim to improve our waste management
through initiatives such as waste auditing and
packaging return and reuse.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct sets out the key
supplier principles we work to and the minimum
standards we require our suppliers to meet, which
form part of their contractual commitments to us.
This Code is fundamental to ensuring we work
with suppliers who uphold the highest standards
with respect to human rights, conditions of
employment and who actively reduce their
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As one of our No Time To Waste workstreams,
sustainable sourcing is key to ensuring our
high-quality ingredients and materials are
sourced and manufactured in a fair, ethical
and environmentally responsible way.
Water and waste
Our Milton Keynes site has begun
the latest project to optimise our
water usage, with workstreams
focussed on rinse reductions and
Clean In Place (CIP) optimisation.
Beyond technological changes, this
project will also involve employee
training to improve maintenance
and metering, allowing us to more
thoroughly monitor our water and
waste production.
environmental footprint. We ensure our critical
suppliers have embedded sustainable and ethical
practices in their organisations, and that they
are committed to maintaining these principles
within their own supply chains.
Our key suppliers must acknowledge their
compliance on an annual basis through our
stringent supplier approval process, which uses
questionnaires and audits to confirm adherence
to our standards across a broad range of
requirements. For many years we have used the
Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex) platform,
a not-for-profit global membership organisation
dedicated to driving improvements in ethical
and responsible business practices. We also use
the Sedex Supplier Approval Questionnaire as
an important secondary validation step which
allows independent benchmarking of suppliers
on a consistent measurable basis.
The output from these questionnaires also allows
us to collaborate and engage with our suppliers
to set objectives and action plans to deliver
sustainable and continuous improvements. This
includes active and ongoing dialogue with our
key suppliers related to their carbon reduction
plans – their actions support the delivery of our
Scope 3 science-based targets, and ultimately
our net-zero ambition. We monitor the
proportion of our key packaging and ingredients
suppliers with Science Based Targets in place,
and will expand this process to include other
environmental metrics into our supplier
evaluation as data becomes available.
We will implement a no deforestation
commitment and policy with effect from the
end of December 2025. This covers our primary
deforestation – linked commodities such as
cocoa, coffee, sugar and palm oil, and details
the traceability of information and monitoring
procedures we will implement to ensure no
deforestation occurs along our supply chain.
Materiality and stakeholder engagement
We regularly engage with internal and external
stakeholders to ensure that our responsibility
agenda addresses the material issues.
Governance
Our responsibility agenda is integrated into our
strategic, financial and business planning, as
well as our risk management processes, with
ultimate accountability sitting with the Board.
