Sustainability
Our approach
Our sustainability approach is designed to safeguard our people and communities, protect the environment and ensure all our food and feed products are safe
Our sustainability approach
As a world-leading agricultural network, we understand the vital role we play in the lives of everyone in that network, from the producers who grow commodities, to the consumers who buy them and the people who work for us. We are conscious of our obligations in the communities where we operate and to the environment we all share.
We aim to meet our responsibilities to everyone involved – to our people, suppliers, customers, communities and the environment, ensuring we fulfil and go beyond our legal requirements to manage the risks inherent in our business and to maintain our social licence to operate.
Our approach consists of:
Our values are key to how we run our business. They reflect our purpose, our priorities and the way we conduct ourselves, wherever we work and whatever our role. They are based on a series of positive behaviours – we make things happen, we are responsible, connected and open, and we look ahead. Our values define who we are and how we do business and govern our approach to sustainability.
Our values provide the foundations for our business and supplier codes of conduct, which set out the standards we require people to understand and meet. These codes put our values into practice and inform our daily actions and decisions
View our code of conduct and supplier code of conduct.
We have a range of policies, including anti-corruption and whistleblowing policies, which set out our strategic positions and inform our corporate decision making
Our policies are supported in turn by more detailed operational policies, procedures and guidelines to meet the specific needs of individual assets.
Monitoring our performance
Reflecting the importance we place on sustainability, a committee led by Chief Executive Officer David Mattiske, supported by senior members of the business, monitors progress and achievement in this area.
Management reporting to the global executive management team and the board of directors must include reports on performance in the areas of health and safety, environment and communities and human rights.
We regularly share our performance, learning and experiences with all internal stakeholders and management around the world to ensure everyone remains informed and benefits from being a part of our global network.
Our sustainability strategy
Our sustainability strategy is designed to safeguard our people and communities, protect the environment and ensure all our food and feed products meet the highest international standards.
As a global leader in agricultural commodities we understand the vital role we play in the lives of those who work for us, in the communities they live in, in the safety of those we serve through the commodities we supply and in supporting the environment we all share. We aim to meet our responsibilities to our people, our customers, our communities and the environment, ensuring we fulfil our legal requirements and go beyond them to manage the risks inherent in our business and maintain our social licence to operate.
Sustainable Development Goals
We support the 17 principles of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which are mapped on to our sustainability pillars. We take active measures to contribute to the following:
SDG 1: end poverty in all its forms everywhere
SDG 2: end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture
SDG 3: ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages
SDG 5: achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
SDG 6: ensure access to water and sanitation for all
SDG 7: ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy
SDG 8: promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all
SDG 12: ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
SDG 13: take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
SDG 15: sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss
SDG 17: revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
External partners
We work with a range of organisations and businesses in our industry and beyond so that together we can build the most sustainable future possible.
We are part of the United Nations Global Compact, an initiative to generate a global movement towards sustainable development. We are committed to aligning our operations with universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
We are a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a global advocacy association made up of 200 international companies that have a focus on sustainable development. It provides leadership to drive change and improve sustainability within each business and will increase the opportunities for us to collaborate with like-minded companies in creating a sustainable future.
We are members of the Soft Commodities Forum (SCF), a global platform for leading soft commodities companies, convened by the WBCSD. We participate in a common framework for reporting and monitoring progress on transparent and traceable supply chains for soy in Brazil's Cerrado region. The initiative aims to turn the commitments made by its members into accountable and measurable action.
Read the December 2021 report
Read the June 2021 report
Read the December 2020 report
Read the June 2020 report
We are a member of the Cerrado Working Group, which brings together stakeholders such as major retailers groups, financial institutions, civil society members, agri-industry and commodity exporting associations. The group, formed in 2017, is seeking solutions to end legal conversion of natural areas by developing an environmental compensation mechanism that would compensate farmers to keep native vegetation inside their lands beyond the legal requirements.
As members of the Round Table on Responsible Soy, an international organisation that promotes the responsible production, processing and trading of soy globally, we are part of a joint effort to increase production of soy while reducing environmental harm.
As long-term signatories of the Amazon Soy Moratorium, we do not source soybeans from lands deforested after 2008 in the Amazon Biome or from producers who are not compliant with other socio-environmental requirements across Brazil.
Since the start of the Amazon Soy Moratorium in 2006, deforestation in the Amazon has significantly reduced. We continue to work with the industry, producers, governments and many other interested parties to bring solutions to the sector in order to fully eliminate deforestation from our value chains.
The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world and aims to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future. It trains producers in sustainable practices to reduce the amount of fertiliser, pesticides and water they use. Our goal is to increase the volume of sustainably produced cotton in our supply chains.
We are members of the ISCC, a globally leading certification system that certifies the sustainable origins of the agricultural produce we market and supply.
