Key Insights into the Sustainability Practices of Large Food and Beverage Companies and Their Supply Chains

This paper provides a synthesis of the current and best sustainability practices employed by large food and beverage companies in their operations and across their supply chains. A total of 21 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 16 large food and beverage companies. 11 of the companies studied were multinationals and five were local companies. Various sustainability practices were investigated in the areas of digitization and Industry 4.O, food waste and the circular economy, life cycle assessment, packaging, climate modelling, water management, energy and emissions, supplier collaboration, industry collaboration, and customer collaboration. This resulted in the identification of a number of best practices. To the best of the authors’ knowledge this is the first time that the sustainability practices of large food and beverage companies have been investigated in detail. This should prove valuable to managers and others in this important field