The Food & Drink Sector
Cook, chill and clean: the shape every food and drink site shares, why the sector earns its own foundations course, and how the process courses build on this one.
9 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
Food and drink is the UK's largest manufacturing sector, and from an energy manager's chair its thousands of sites (breweries, bakeries, dairies, ready-meal factories, soft-drinks plants) are variations on one underlying machine. Every one of them heats product to transform or make it safe, cools product to keep it safe, and heats water to clean everything the product touched. Cook, chill, clean. The processes differ enormously; the rules, the utilities and the recurring opportunities do not, which is why this platform teaches the sector in two layers: this shared foundations course, and process courses that build on it.