Jan. 29, 2008 -- Twenty-one of the U.K.'s leading food and drink makers, including Cadbury Schweppes, Nestle, and Unilever, have pledged to use less water in their manufacturing operations. Under the new Federation House Commitment, jointly developed by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and the nonprofit Envirowise, the companies have pledged to review their current water use and create site-specific water efficiency plans within the next six months.

EnviroWise will offer support and guidance to participating companies throughout the project. Each company has agreed to provide EnviroWise with annual reports on their progress.

The 21 signatories are: apetito, Birds Eye Iglo, Britvic, Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola Enterprises, GlaxoSmithKline, Kellogg Marketing & Sales Co., Kraft Foods UK, Mars Snackfood, Muller Dairy UK, Nestle UK, PepsiCo UK, Premier Foods; Tate & Lyle, UIN Foods, Unilever UK, Uniq, United Biscuits, Warburtons, Weetabix, and Young's Seafood.

The FDF has set an industry-wide target to reduce water use in manufacturing 20% by 2020 as part of its Five-Fold Ambition environmental commitment. FDF estimates that the new water agreement could save as much as 140 million liters of water each day and a combined cost savings of $120 million each year.