Caring for our environment

It is commonly accepted that the Earth is affected by the impact of human activity as we go about our daily lives. Today, there is wide recognition of the challenges of Climate Change, in addition, whilst the global population continues to grow, the Earth's resources remain under stress as our global populations grows.

We are concerned about the future of the Earth because like you we care about future generations, which is why we strive to run our business in a responsible manner to meet this need.

We work daily to take due care with the impact we have on the environment as much as we practically can at any given time. We call this responsible management.

In some cases we have a neutral impact on the environment whilst in others we are reducing our impact. Overall our Forever Food Journey is designed to have a net positive impact on the earth over the 2010-2015 period. You can see our targets as you explore the site.

Farming must be efficient if it's going to meet the ever-increasing demands of modern society. We believe it's vital to find the right balance between creating sufficient yield today and maintaining the environment for tomorrow. That's the essence of Forever Food.

We're committed to demonstrating genuine progress in sustainable sourcing. Working closely with our partners and suppliers, we support, innovate, develop and promote the awareness of sustainable sourcing and its importance in food production.

For example, you may know that our Field Fresh Garden Peas are grown by expert Growers to strict standards. But as well as having an Environmental Action Plan for the whole farm - covering things like soil and water management, pest control and biodiversity - we also ask them to work in partnership with The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, finding additional targets for positive action.

Our ongoing programme is committed to helping our growers identify better ways of reducing negative impacts on the agricultural environment, as well as enhancing and protecting the role of agriculture in society. This is why we are a key supporter of The Princes Countryside Fund.

And as a major supplier of fish products, we play a very active role in making world fisheries sustainable - we call this Sustainable Fisheries Development (SFD). Our SFD policy encourages our suppliers to source fish to internationally recognised standards, continually improving their levels of responsibility for employing responsible fishing methods and ensuring high standards of fish processing.

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) - the world's leading certification and eco-labelling programme - is another organisation with whom we're proud to have a long-standing association. Championing the certification process with our key suppliers, we're proud to be the largest supporter of MSC across Europe by volume meaning that our financial support allows the MSC to expand its marine sustainable development programme

We've also been instrumental in supporting the development of the Responsible Sourcing Standard (RSS) for fishmeal and fish oil, the world's first responsible sourcing standard for feed that is used in fish farming with other vegetable ingredients. We have worked hard to drive positive change with the International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organisation and the RSS is an example of industry and civil society getting together to drive Sustainable Fisheries Development .

You asked us:

What does Sustainable Development Mean to Birds Eye?

Sustainable development is most commonly defined as meeting the needs of the present without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. That's why we're calling our programme 'Forever Food', we're making sure that the way we produce food for consumers today will allow our children and children's children to harvest the Earth's food resources as well.