IMPSF101 – Develop a strategy to achieve sustainability in a food environment

Overview 

This standard covers the skills and knowledge needed to develop and promote strategies that strive to achieve sustainability for organisations that are engaged in the manufacture or supply of food and drink products.

This standard applies to you if you are a manager who has responsibility for developing a strategy to support the achievement of sustainability in a food environment. It is expected that you will control and support others with regard to the development and implementation of this strategy.

Performance criteria

You must be able to:

1. identify influences which impact on sustainability of organisational activities
2. organise collection and analysis of data relevant to resource utilisation relating to sustainability
3. establish sustainability targets by benchmarking organisational practices against industry best practice
4. identify benefits to the organisation that can be achieved through sustainable organisational activities
5. specify targets for sustainable practice within all organisational activities
6. identify potential barriers to achieving sustainability
7. support integration of sustainability targets into all organisational activities
8. develop strategies to overcome barriers to sustainable development
9. promote usage of ingredients from sustainable sources
10. confirm sustainability targets are relevant through consultation with interested parties
11. establish processes to monitor and review progress towards sustainability
12. support implementation of strategy that strives to achieve organisational sustainability
13. promote benefits of sustainability to stakeholders
14. monitor and review progress towards sustainability
15. report on performance and improvements in sustainable practice to stakeholders

Knowledge and understanding

You need to know and understand

1. principles of environmental sustainability in relation to energy, waste, water usage and transportation
2. how environmental management systems (EMS) are used to support sustainability
3. how carbon currency data (carbon footprints) is used as an indicator of sustainability
4. the relationship between sustainability and three key elements of corporate social responsibility; economic, social and environmental
5. the importance of liaising with national policy makers to determine the influence of government targets and legal requirements on organisational sustainability
6. sources of advice and guidance on achieving sustainability
7. benefits of sustainability to organisations and stakeholders
8. how to gain stakeholder commitment to the development of sustainable food production
9. how to source ingredients from sustainable sources
10. government targets and legislation for usage of ingredients from sustainable sources
11. influences which impact upon the achievement of sustainability
12. how to establish targets for sustainable development including the use of benchmarking
13. how to control the efficient use of resources within organisational activities to help achieve sustainability
14. how actions of others within the supply chain can influence sustainability
15. potential barriers to achieving sustainability and how these can be overcome
16. how sustainability impacts on all the component functions of an organisation
17. how to collect and analyse data relevant to resource utilisation including the application of cost benefit analysis
18. how continuous improvement supports sustainability
19. how to report on performance and improvements
20. how to communicate with stakeholders

Keywords: Food; manufacture; sustainable; environmental; production; waste; energy; water; transport; efficiency; drink; strategy