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(Photo captioned: Iain Dalton, General Manager of Leckford and Heather Jenkins, Director of Agricultural Strategy)

Biodiversity at Leckford

Last year, as part of work done in connection with the Leckford Estate’s Environmental Stewardship agreement with Natural England, the Environment Agency (EA) commissioned an ecological survey that included an assessment of water voles. Numerous signs of their presence were found at two sites, and the EA’s survey report concluded that there was a good water vole population, an encouraging result given that the UK water vole population has suffered the most serious decline of any wild mammal in Britain in the last 100 years.

Leckford has been involved in a number of other ecological surveys.

• The wildfowl and water birds on the River Test have now been counted annually for over 30 years, and monthly winter counts contribute to the national Wetland Bird Survey organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). The common birds around the Estate are also counted for the BTO’s Breeding Bird Survey.
• Moth experts working for the John Spedan Lewis Trust for the Advancement of Natural Sciences have repeated a comprehensive moth survey from the 1970s, and more than 500 species have been recorded.
• During the summer, weekly butterfly counts are undertaken on two sites on the Leckford Estate. These contribute to Butterfly Conservation’s national monitoring of butterfly populations.

All these surveys help to find ways to preserve our country’s rich biodiversity.


WATER USE

Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world, including the UK, and many more areas are expected to experience this imbalance in the near future.

Climate change could have significant impacts on water resources around the world because of the close connections between the climate and the hydrological cycle.

We do not use a lot of water, but still recognise the need to manage our consumption. As with many areas, monitoring is the key to management, and by January 2010, we had installed additional water meters in all our shops. We now install water meters in all new shops as standard. We are also exploring the feasibility and costs of implementing additional metering at our other premises such as our head offices and distribution centres.

The additional water meters are above and beyond those required from the Water Boards and will deliver accurate and timely consumption information, meaning we no longer rely on billing information for our shop water consumption data. They will also enable us to identify issues and take appropriate action immediately. Data from the new meters has already highlighted a small number of instances of over-consumption of water due to leakage faults that we have been able to pinpoint and rectify. The increased level of detail on water consumption has also highlighted the high levels of estimation that were previously included in our annual water consumption figures. Due to uncertainties in the accuracy of baseline data, our water reduction target is currently on hold. Once data is available for 2010/11, we will be in a much firmer position to review and set a meaningful target for water reduction.

During 2010, we will remain committed to exploring initiatives to reduce water use and to also utilise further opportunities for rainwater harvesting.

Product fotprints

We recognise the importance of our responsibility to mobilise others in actions that lower the impact associated with the use of water and CO2 generated from the production, distribution and consumption or use of our products.

Carbon footprinting of 50 fruit, vegetable and horticulture products has been completed and all our Waitrose produce suppliers have committed to using data from a number of carbon lifecycle assessments that have been co-funded by Waitrose, Bangor University and relevant suppliers. We are focusing on work that will make future audits more detailed and easy to access by both suppliers and growers. This will enable us to establish reduction targets and draw up policy objectives across a wider group of products in the future.

Waitrose is also working with key produce suppliers to improve water efficiency and encourage good water stewardship. A policy for agricultural packers and growers has been published, which covers the origin, sustainability, quality reduction and storage of water. Water reduction targets are also in place.