The food industry is responsible for a huge environmental footprint, from agriculture and packaging to transport and waste. So what is it doing to play its part in reducing its impact and protect the future of global food supply?
FoodNavigator’s Climate Smart Food Broadcast Series 2026 found out, tackling critical topics from regenerative agriculture and sustainable sourcing to upcycling, regulatory compliance, artificial intelligence, and food tech – all through the lens of unlocking value from sustainability.
It was produced without a single air mile. Filmed remotely or locally across the UK, the US and Singapore, it is our second climate-neutral event.
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Resilience is now a focus
While lower emissions used to lead the way for building climate-smart food systems, it has now been joined by resilience as a priority for the food and beverage industry. As commodities such as cocoa and rice increasingly at risk, securing a future for them with immediate action is vital.
From Nestlé discussing the need to make their coffee value chains more resilient, to Ferrero acknowledging that supply chain resilience is key, industry leaders are changing the way they approach the climate crisis.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that ecosystem risks are business risks,” said Paola Nogales Anaya, raw and packaging materials responsible sourcing manager at Ferrero. “Our supply chains and our value chain resilience depends on the resilience and the health of those ecosystems behind it. As such, we don’t really see nature and biodiversity as separate from the business.”
Dr Célia Cholez, head of regenerative and circular business models in the Global Sustainability Team at Symrise, agreed. “Climate driven agricultural volatility is really the lead sourcing risk,” she said. The company is taking steps such as promoting agroforestry and increasing biodiversity.
No matter what the commodity, protections must be put in place by the top of the supply chain.
Danone is approaching the problem with water stewardship. “At Danone, we’re managing mineral water resources,” says Cathy Le Hec, director of mineral water resources at Danone. “Our primary role is not only to bottle these resources. From a water quantity perspective and within a climate change context, it is very important to guarantee that the natural cycle of water is respected and that the groundwater is recharging properly for today and for future generations.”
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Alland & Robert is cutting carbon emissions in the acacia gum supply chain
French ingredients company Alland & Robert specialises in acacia gum and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the ingredient’s supply chain. In the Sahel, from which the gum is sourced, climate change is felt particularly keenly.
The company aims to reduce emissions through investing in energy saving equipment, prioritising electricity over gas in its plants, and working with suppliers and clients on low-carbon freight options. It also closely tracks its carbon footprint, implementing environmental indicators on production lines.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the company is putting its effort into protecting acacia trees, supporting reforestation in six areas of degraded land in the Sahel.
The company produces acacia gum certified with the Fair for Life label, a fairtrade label indicating that the product has been bought at a fair purchase price from a transparent and traceable supply chain. “This certification is the result of our ambitious corporate and social responsibility policy,” said Alland & Robert sustainability manager Violaine Fauvarque. “To us, this is the recognition of our long-term efforts towards a gum acacia supply chain that is beneficial to all parties involved.”
Quantifiable solutions are key
Technology is and will continue to be a prominent player in both carbon reduction and climate resilience. Its real value lies in providing measurable, quantifiable improvements in yield, emissions, water use or resource efficiency. That way, industry can see exactly what’s working and adapt and improve at speed.
“AI has the potential to really help scale and advance traditional sustainability programs further than they could have gone on their own,” said Coca-Cola Europa’s Civic Partners director of environmental sustainability, Megan Mitrevski-Dale. “I’m really excited about is how quickly it’s speeding up the whole decarbonisation and the energy transition in particular.”
She used being able to identify promising crop traits more quickly as an example, enabling them to then reduce the agricultural emissions and water use that is required by those varieties as well as being more resilient to changing weather.
Even when it’s not cutting-edge technology that’s making the change, the data is still at the heart of understanding success. Rice giant Tilda is using a technique called alternate wetting and drying and its success is showing in the data.
“Alternate wet drying is intermittent flooding and drawing of a field,” says Dr Emily Servanté, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge Crop Science Center, who’s involved with Tilda’s sustainability programme. “And that’s really exciting for us because we work on beneficial soil microbes. They love dried soil conditions so we’re bringing them back into relevance in rice cultivation by having these intermittent drying periods in the fields.”
“We have reduced the overall CO₂ equivalent emission by 36% per tonne of rice,” said Tilda’s managing director Jean-Philippe Laborde. “And we have saved the equivalent of 37bn litres of water. This is real farm data over three years.”
But no matter how good the technology is, there’s still very much a place for human input. “You have to put this this lens of critical thinking against any of the outputs that come out of it, to be able to make human judgments on where to best apply some of the interventions that the data is telling you that you could be most effective,” said Coca-Cola’s Mitrevski-Dale.
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Everis aims to make the whole value chain more sustainable
Everis, the ingredient trading platform, has a strong focus on sustainability. Traceability is the ‘backbone’ of Everis’s sustainability programme, and it maintains complete records of farming activities and product movement. Every shipment can be traced back to the plot where it was grown.
It helps farmers implement responsible agricultural practices, supporting them with technical guidance to ensure optimal performance and promoting farming systems that protect natural resources and improve socioeconomic conditions. The company has also transitioned towards regenerative agriculture, using cover crops, reduced tillage, and practices to restore soil biology and increase carbon sequestration.
The company pays particular attention to water-use efficiency, installing soil moisture sensors and new irrigation techniques to help reduce wastage.
Crop protection agents are only used when necessary, minimising environmental impact whilst at the same time safeguarding crop health. All uses are documented in Everis’s traceability system.
Climate-smart food starts at the beginning
Farmers are the beginning of the supply chain and it’s here that a successful climate-smart food system has its roots. But change can’t be made by farmers without the right incentives and the right support. The economics must work for them as well as everyone further up the supply chain.
Across the two days, deeper investment in farms and farmers was touched on time and again.
“The future success of our business and our growth is tied to the future success and resilience of farms,” said PepsiCo’s sustainable agriculture lead for North America, Caitlin Colegrove. “We’ve really found success by investing in programmes that combine financial incentives to de-risk practice change and adoption; strong, trusted technical assistance and an element of peer-to-peer learning and networking.”
Fair conditions and encouraging younger people into farming are also a priority, so that traditional farming practices don’t die out. Cocoa farming is a good example.
“We have to show the next generation that there’s a really good living that you can create out of being in this industry,” said Eleanor McKay, co-founder of the chunky chocolate brand FATSO. “I can imagine if I was the daughter of a small cocoa farmer who was being paid less than a dollar a day, that’s not going to be my ambition.”
She also advocates for shorter supply chains to make this possible.
“We need to be much more intentional about how we’re sourcing and try to avoid long supply chains because it takes away the opportunities for the people that make it all possible. Let’s face it, without these farmers, we don’t have chocolate.”
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Symrise aims to boost sustainability through partnerships
German ingredients company Symrise is aiming to boost sustainability through its partnerships and contribute towards the UN’s 17th Sustainable Development Goal, Partnerships.
It partners with farmers in sourcing locations such as Brazil and Madagascar. In Madagascar, Symrise partners with more than 7,000 vanilla farmers across 84 villages, offering them improved livelihoods, better education and health benefits. There, it works with independent certification organisations such as Save the Children and the Rainforest Alliance.
Through partnerships with researchers and scientists, Symrise aims to make agricultural production more sustainable. For example, in partnership with French research institute CRIEPPAM, Symrise developed a new harvesting device that cuts only the third of the lavender stem that’s needed, saving fuel for transportation and energy for distillation, while also protecting bees pollinating the lavender.
At a global level, the business works with development agency GIZ on the Bridging the Gap programme, which works as an umbrella for a range of projects by Symrise and its partners to secure the future of supply chains.
