Federation House Commitment

The Federation House Commitment (FHC) is a voluntary agreement which aims to help reduce overall water usage across UK Food and Drink industry by 20% by 2020.

Commitment background
Launched in January 2008, the FHC was originally run by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and Envirowise. From April 2010, WRAP became the single delivery body for the UK government resource efficiency programme, taking on the work and commitments of organisations such as Envirowise. As a result the FHC is now jointly managed by WRAP and the FDF.
WRAP has contracted Hyder Consulting to administer the FHC and to provide dedicated technical implementation support to both existing and new signatories.
Benefits of signing up
FHC signatories have access to a package of tools and specialist support to help them to review and reduce their water use, including:
- Peer working group meetings - to provide training and specific advice (technical and managerial) to signatories and provide them with specific help to implement action plans.
- Technical support delivery - signatories are provided with a range of technical support options when they sign up to the FHC to help them to deliver the maximum cost and environmental savings.
Interesting facts
- Water use by signatory companies has reduced by an impressive 11.9% per tonne of product (excluding water in product) despite an overall increase in production of 7.5% since 2007.
- In 2010, signatory companies only used 22.9 million m3 water compared to 24.2 million m3 in 2007, the baseline year for the FHC. The amount of water saved over that period is equivalent to 520 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
- Between April 2010 and March 2011, 16 companies signed up to the FHC, making public their commitment to reducing water use. This brings the total to 54 active signatories, across 245 sites, engaged in making on-site improvements to reduce their water use.