Britvic partners with The Rivers Trust to protect Britain’s waterways
Britvic is committed to the highest standards of water stewardship and today reinforces its commitment by joining The Rivers Trust’s Water Stewardship Programme.
Membership of the programme will see Britvic working with its local rivers trusts to take practical action and improve the quality of waterways near its production sites. This activity will include:
- Britvic’s Leeds factory and The Aire Rivers Trust working together to improve biodiversity near the site
- Britvic’s Rugby factory and Severn Rivers Trust working together on a range of conservation projects including tree planting and wetland and meadow creation
- Britvic’s Beckton factory in London working with rivers trust Thames 21 to help restore 1.2km of the River Roding near Wanstead Park
Employees from all three sites will also be involved in volunteering activities including habitat restoration.
With only 14% of water bodies in England in good ecological condition and populations of freshwater species having declined by 81% since 1970, this work is essential.
Sarah Webster, Sustainable Business Director at Britvic, said: “Water is essential to life and livelihoods and, as a soft drinks manufacturer, it’s our primary ingredient. We know that in the coming decades, water shortages will become a growing threat and it’s one we need to take as seriously as the climate crisis and the war on waste.”
Christine Colvin, Director of Partnerships and Communications at The Rivers Trust, said: “With this partnership, Britvic are taking a critical step towards stewardship, and looking after their local water environments, beyond the factory fence, in collaboration with The Rivers Trust.”
Water stewardship has long been a focus for Britvic and is a fundamental part of the company’s Healthier People, Healthier Planet long-term sustainability strategy and sits alongside targets to cut carbon emissions and increase the amount of recycled content in its packaging.
Britvic is committed to cutting its water ratio – its water consumption relative to production – by 20% – by 2025. As part of this, its engineering team is taking steps to improve the company’s water efficiency in all its factories and these have been assessed using WWF's Water Risk Filter tool. This work includes optimisation of the line cleaning processes and water reuse.
