Understanding the environmental lifecycle of our products has become essential to achieve our goal and is now a growing consideration in product decision making.

We have made significant improvements in the management of suppliers and in our product quality systems. Policies, standards and manuals now cover the management of health, safety, quality and environmental aspects associated with our products, covering manufacturing sites, suppliers, storage and transport

These include a Procurement Sustainability Program, Food Safety and Quality Management System (FSQMS), Occupational Health & Safety Policy; Environment Policy and Customer Supply Chain Manual.


Packaging

Foster’s uses PIQET, a life cycle analysis tool, which assists in understanding and accounting for the environmental impacts of our product packaging. This contributes to packaging solutions with lower embedded environmental impacts, building on our recent success stories including Wolf Blass Green Label wine and the Greenhouse Friendly™ endorsed Cascade Green beer.

Foster’s is a signatory and active member of the National Packaging Covenant (NPC). The NPC is a unique, collaborative agreement between Governments and Industry based on the principles of product stewardship. It is designed to minimise the environmental impacts arising from the disposal of used packaging, conserve resources through better design and production processes and facilitate the re-use and recycling of used packaging materials. An action plan has been developed and regular progress reports are provided to the NPC.

Additionally, Foster’s Group has been a member of the Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) and its predecessor organisation, the Beverage Industry Environment Council, for over 25 years. An industry association of companies including Australian beer and soft drink fillers as well as the suppliers of beverage containers, the PSF aims to achieve measurable environmental improvements in post-consumer packaging.

The "Do The Right Thing" and "Don't Waste Australia" anti-litter campaigns were both PSF initiatives, and it has been a strong supporter of Keep Australia Beautiful and its Tidy Towns competitions for many years.

Other environmental activities which we have undertaken through the PSF have included:

• Development and funding of kerbside recycling programs
• Research into kerbside recycling to provide feedback to local councils on effectiveness and to facilitate improvement
• Research into littering behaviour to identify how best to encourage people to ‘Do the Right Thing’
• Stimulating the introduction of recycling at public events

Food Safety and Quality

A Food Safety and Quality Manual (FSQM) was developed and introduced in 2009, it is a vital tool in the management of product health, safety and quality. The manual sets out expectations for our sites to ensure we deliver safe, quality and best value products to customers and consumers.

The manual assesses site performance in the following areas:

• Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points
• Quality management
• Materials management
• Change management
• Good manufacturing practices
• Product control
• Process control
• Personnel

Our Suppliers

In 2009 Foster’s developed and implemented an Ethical Procurement Code used in the selection and management of its suppliers. The Code covers: non-use of forced and child labour; ensuring employee health and safety; making sure working conditions, hours and benefits comply with international standards; and that discrimination is not tolerated but freedom of association is encouraged. The Code also requires suppliers to have environmental management systems in place.

The broader Foster’s Procurement Sustainability Program, of which the Code is a part, includes requirements for supplier assurances on energy efficiency, greenhouse gas reduction, water efficiency, waste reduction, recycled content, and recyclable packaging. These elements are considered in supplier selection and management and are complimentary to traditional financial, capability and quality considerations.

In addition to our sustainability criteria, the introduction of the Food Safety and Quality Manual (FSQM) and auditing tool has provided a basis for us to benchmark our key suppliers.

Links:

Ethical Procurement Code

National Packaging Covenant Action Plan 

National Packaging Covenant Report