The UK Business Taskforce on Sustainable Consumption and Production will look for practical ways in which businesses can minimise the negative environmental impacts of products and services, while remaining profitable.
The group will also make recommendations to the government on how policy can help foster more sustainable patterns of consumption and production, while increasing efficiency and competitiveness.
"Moving to more sustainable consumption and production practices is one of the major challenges we face," said UK environment minister Elliot Morley.
"We need a major shift to deliver new products and services with lower environmental impacts across the whole of their life, as well as new business models which meet this challenge while boosting competitiveness."
Leading business and sustainability networks in Britain form the backbone of the taskforce. These include the Business Council for Sustainable Development - United Kingdom, the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry and its Business and the Environment Programme and the Sustainable Development Commission.
Sustainable development involving sound environmental management have become key policies for both the European Commission and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
UK-based business advisory agency Envirowise said in January that food manufacturers could save up to £1,000 per employee by using more effective waste management techniques and sticking to government rules on wastage.
The food industry is one the UK's biggest manufacturing sectors - with output worth around £65.7bn - and, as such, has been subject to an EU drive to limit water waste and emissions.
Maia Vassileva, Envirowise media manager, said: "Cutting waste can be profitable. At the end of the day it's all about optimisation. And getting environmental credentials will help brand positioning,"
UK authorities last year launched a new sustainable production plan that includes funding for a number of research projects into efficient use of resources.
The EU hands out rebates for businesses hitting emissions reduction targets; something that earned Britain's brewing industry a combined £8m last year.