Sustainable food news – by GreenWise staff 2nd November 2015 Bidvest Foodservice and a ‘green alliance’ made up of food industry giants, Unilever, Premier Foods, Delifrance UK, Vegware, and Jacobs Douwe Egberts have today launched plate2planet, a ‘one-stop-shop’ digital platform that aims to address the growing demand in the food sector for useful and practical information about sustainability. “Our customers, and those of our plate2planet partners, care deeply about sustainability and operators across the industry are taking measures to tackle the challenges,” said Shirley Duncalf, head of Sustainability at Bidvest Foodservice. The platform will share green knowledge, including ‘how to’ guides, case studies, handy tools, supply chain stories, guidance on regulations and best practice examples for those working in the industry. Duncalf said plate2planet’s collective wealth of knowledge was “unparalleled” in the industry. “Our aim, in sharing these resources in a single space, is to support the entire industry to make small but effective changes which can ultimately have a huge impact on a global scale, and on profit margins. Our message is that by working together we can truly enact positive change,” she said. A recent survey by the Sustainable Restaurant Association revealed that 83 per cent of consumers said sustainability directly affects their dining choices. Bidvest said making sustainable business choices is a challenge for caterers to navigate, who face ever-evolving changes to sustainability policy and regulation as well as to consumer demands. “Caterers are looking to drive successful green initiatives that truly add value to their own community, customers and their bottom line but many of them tell us they do not have the resources to research trends, find new suppliers or dissect complicated reports and Government documents,” Duncalf said. Commenting on the launch, Sarah Robb, channel marketing manager at Premier Foods, said: “We are thrilled to be involved in this initiative. At Premier Foodservice we believe we have a crucial role in helping to build a sustainable future for the industry and we’re continually looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint and minimise our impact; whether that’s through the sourcing of local ingredients, reducing emissions or buying responsibly to ensure the upmost quality and authenticity of our products. We believe this is an excellent platform for the foodservice industry to share best practice and work collaboratively in driving the sustainability agenda forward.” Peter Bolger, national account controller for Bidvest at Unilever Food Solutions, added: “The launch of the new digital platform platetoplanet.co.uk is perfectly in line with Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan, which is our blueprint for sustainable business. “We are excited and pleased to be associated to this initiative and to join hands with Bidvest to create a space where people can share and learn about news and opportunities around sustainability.” Also partnering on the site is Planet First, the sustainability consultancy that provides The Planet Mark a certification for organisations that want to demonstrate their ongoing commitment to sustainability. Bidvest is the first food service company to sign up to The Planet Mark and is keen to see its suppliers adopt the ‘kitemark’.  Steve Malkin, ceo Planet First and founder of The Planet Mark, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering on Plate2Planet. 90% of BidvestFoodservices’ customers claim sustainability is important to their business and at Planet First and The Planet Mark we believe every organisation can be sustainable and can contribute to a planet where everyone can thrive. Like this story? Please subscribe to our free weekly e-newsletter at the top of the page for more content like this. Related content: Related links: Source link

The slumping oil price has carved a chunk out of Australian oil and gas majors, with Woodside Petroleum reporting that profits halved in the first six months of the year while Santos swung to a loss of more than $1bn. Woodside said on Friday that net profit after tax halved from a year ago to $340m in the six months to June 30. Sales revenue slid 22 per cent from a year earlier to $1.807bn as oil prices dropped 46 per cent in the same period. More On this topic IN Oil & Gas Slumping oil prices fell into a bear market earlier this year, weighed down by a two-year supply glut, though they rose above $50 a barrel overnight for the first time since June amid persisting hopes an informal Opec meeting next month will yield a production cap. Peter Coleman, chief executive officer, talked up Woodside’s operational performance, saying: “Combined with the low cost of our operations and a continued focus on cost reduction we are in a robust position as oil price forecasts improve in 2017.” He said Woodside would add “significant volumes” from its Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project to the company’s portfolio in mid-2017, and further low-cost production from its Greater Enfield project in 2019. But the company faces major challenges in finding growth opportunities. Earlier this year it indefinitely halted development of the $40bn Browse LNG project, located off the coast of Western Australia, in which it is the major partner alongside Royal Dutch Shell, BP, a joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi and Mitsui, and a subsidiary of PetroChina. That was the second major blow for Woodside in a little more than three months, after it dropped an A$11.6bn bid for smaller rival Oil Search, an ASX-listed and Papua New Guinea-focused producer. Oil and gas explorer Santos, meanwhile, on Friday reported a net loss of $1.1bn for the first half, hit by a $1.05bn impairment charge against its new Gladstone liquefied natural gas export project. A year ago, the company reported a $30m net profit. Excluding impairments, the company posted a loss of $5m in the first half, versus a $25m underlying profit a year ago. Much like Woodside, Santos’s averaged realised oil prices was down 29 per cent from a year ago, leading to a 6 per cent drop in sales revenue — in spite of production volume rising 10 per cent and sales volume increasing 32 per cent. Kevin Gallagher, chief executive, acknowledged the company has much work still to do in embedding a new operating model, driving down costs and using available cash flow to reduce debt. But he said Santos has “made good progress” towards being cash flow break-even at between $35 and $40 a barrel on a portfolio basis, and is “forecasting a free cash flow break-even price of US$43.50 per barrel for 2016, down from US$47 per barrel”. Following a difficult 2015 in which the company’s share price almost halved as it raised capital and sold assets to bolster its balance sheet, Santos in February scrapped its pledge to maintain or increase its dividend every year. This week, Australian electricity and gas provider Origin Energy similarly cancelled its final dividend, as it reported a 41 per cent slump in first-half profit. Shares in Woodside were up 2.2 per cent on Friday morning in Sydney while Santos rose 0.4 per cent, in a broader market that was up 0.1 per cent. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

Savills, on behalf of Webb Commerce, has let space at Britannic House, 15/27 Cowgate in Peterborough to Fit 4 Less. The budget gym operator has agreed to a new 15-year lease and will occupy 9,490 sq ft (881 sq m) on the first floor of the building. The property, which was formerly occupied by Rileys as a snooker hall, was granted planning consent for the change of use earlier this year. Edward Gee, associate in the business space agency team at Savills Peterborough, comments: “Situated in a thriving city centre location, the new gym will be a welcome addition to Peterborough’s growing leisure offer. We are very pleased to have secured this deal on behalf of our client and we look forward to seeing the gym open shortly.” Fit 4 Less was advised by GCW. Source link

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Southern Electric Power Distribution (SEPD) has reconnected over 138,000 customers since Monday morning after strong winds from Storm Katie disrupted power supplies in the south of the UK. Wind speeds reached up to 106 mph during Storm Katie, which battered the UK on Sunday evening. SEPD said it expects the final 200 customers without power in Aldershot, Petersfield, New Forest, Basingstoke and Slough to be reconnected by lunchtime today (29 March). The firm said it has been calling affected customers to keep them updated on ongoing repair works, and offered alternative accommodation and food to customers it was unable to immediately reconnect due to safety concerns. SEPD’s director of customer operations Stuart Hogarth thanked customers for their patience and apologised for the disruption and inconvenience that they faced on a Bank Holiday. He said: “Our customers have been really understanding of the conditions that faced our engineering teams since [Sunday] night.” Source link

The station redevelopment, which is being led by Costain under a £400m deal with partners including NG Bailey and WSP, has been under intense scrutiny in recent years as work continued while Britain’s fourth busiest station remained open. London Bridge’s concourse is part of the six-year redevelopment of the station that is due to complete in 2018. When the concourse is built it will be the size of Wembley Stadium. The redevelopment is part of Network Rail’s railway upgrade plan and the Thameslink programme. London Bridge is used by 56 million passengers each year. Network Rail’s chief executive Mark Carne said: “This is a big step towards the bigger, better railway passengers deserve. “The opening of two-thirds of the concourse marks a major milestone in the redevelopment of London Bridge and, while there is plenty still to do, I am pleased passengers can now see the benefits beginning to come through. “We are essentially rebuilding Britain’s fourth busiest station – the tracks, the platforms and the infrastructure which enables trains to run – while keeping the station open and doing our best to keep passengers moving.”   Source link

Welsh Water has announced plans to invest £21 million to improve drinking water supply in west Wales. With some parts of the network nearing the end of its operational life, this significant investment will see more than 174km of water mains in west Wales cleaned or replaced over the next two years. Some of the first areas to receive investments include Hermon where £500,000-plus will be spent on upgrading the water network, while more than £600,000 will be invested in the drinking water network in Eglwyswrw. Around £650,000 will also be spent in the Pont-siân area in Ceredigion. The widespread investment in the area by the company will also involve replacing more than 5km of the drinking water trunk main in Llechryd and Cilgerran. Last November, Welsh Water experienced a burst on the network in Llechryd which left customers temporarily without water. To minimise the risk of such disruptions to supplies in the future, Welsh Water pledged £5 million to replace this strategic trunk main. This was in addition to the £16 million already planned on improving the resilience and quality of the water supply across the area. Welsh Water managing director of water services Ian Christie said: “With some parts of the water network laid over a century ago, the time has come for us to undertake some essential work to cleanse the pipes or where needed replace whole sections. “We are committed to providing customers with a first class supply and our work here, including the replacement of the Llechryd main after the recent burst, reflects this. “We understand that a large refurbishment programme like this can cause disruption in the short-term, but the long term benefits include reduced leaks, less interruptions to supply and high quality drinking water for the whole community for decades to come.” A version of this article first appeared on wwtonline Source link

Energy Transfer Equity, the US pipelines group, on Friday won a court ruling allowing it to walk away from its agreed takeover of Williams, another pipeline company. The move gives it an escape route from a deal it had pursued vigorously last year, but had come to see as unattractive because of the turmoil in the energy industry. A judge in a state court in Delaware, where Williams is registered, ruled that the company could not force ETE to go through with the takeover, because it had failed to demonstrate that its prospective buyer had not made “commercially reasonable efforts” to complete the deal.  The court ruling was closely watched by dealmakers across the US, as it will provide a blueprint for companies with buyer’s remorse to get out of a deal where the valuation of the target has significantly changed. The decision, which followed a two-day hearing earlier in the week, is the latest twist in an unusually complex and acrimonious dispute between the two companies. ETE’s deal-driven growth strategy has foundered as investors have worried that pipeline businesses, which had been depicted as relatively safe investments with stable earnings, were vulnerable to the fallout from the slump in oil prices. ETE, led by billionaire founder Kelcy Warren, approached Williams about a takeover a year ago, and after initially being rejected in September agreed a deal then valued at $34bn to create one of the largest gas pipeline companies in the US.  Since then, the value of ETE’s units, which it has instead of shares, has dropped 40 per cent, while Williams’ shares have dropped 49 per cent.  The judge in the case observed that because the price offered for Williams had been in cash, which ETE would have to borrow secured on its devalued assets, “the proposed transaction quickly became financially unpalatable” to ETE.  The judge added that it had become clear that ETE “desired an exit from the merger agreement as strongly as it had desired to enter the agreement in the first place”.  40% Drop in value of ETE’s units since September The deal had a complex structure that meant it was unclear what tax would have to be paid. After the deal was announced, ETE’s lawyer, Latham & Watkins, said it could not provide an opinion that the transaction would be tax free, which is a mandatory condition to successfully complete a deal in the US. Williams argued that ETE had breached its contractual obligations by failing to use “commercially reasonable efforts” to secure the opinion from the law firm.  However, the judge ruled that Latham & Watkins “could not in good faith opine that tax authorities should treat the specific exchange in question as tax free”, and Williams had failed to demonstrate that ETE had not done all it should have done to secure that opinion.  The court’s decision to allow ETE to terminate its merger with Williams will add to the record number of deals that have collapsed since the beginning of the year.  According to Thomson Reuters, more than $525bn worth of announced transactions have been killed since the start of the year. Several companies have either walked away from deals because of regulatory reasons or because of a change in the value of the target following a sharp drop in valuations. Source link