Strategic choice

Although actively reporting on sustainability, Nutreco did not have a clear sustainability policy that could be embedded within its business processes.
A commitment to achieve that was made in 2008 and it was addressed in 2009. During the year the Supervisory Board of Nutreco formed an Innovation and Sustainability Committee and the expanded Executive Board made the strategic choice to initiate the process of embedding sustainability in the business model of Nutreco. This provided the basis and stimulus to develop the Sustainability Policy.

To gather input from across Nutreco, a Sustainability Group was brought together in 2009 to help develop the policy. Members from six countries were nominated by the Executive Vice-Presidents, the Chief Purchasing Officer and the Director of R&D and Quality Affairs to represent various functions from the three Nutreco divisions and key corporate functions. Their views and ideas provided the basis for formulating a sustainability policy that was approved by the Executive Board in November 2009. Implementing the policy will provide a structure and direction for sustainability actions at all levels in Nutreco, helping to make them as productive and relevant as possible and enabling Nutreco to maintain continuous improvement in sustainability.

Sustainability targets

In line with the policy, the Executive Vice-Presidents set sustainability targets for Nutreco. For example, operating companies have been challenged collectively to reduce carbon dioxide emission from Nutreco operations by 50% from 2009 levels by 2015. To emphasise commitment, in the performance contracts of Nutreco managers for 2010 sustainability action plans contribute to the variable component of their remuneration. By the end of 2010 there should be around 120 local sustainability plans in Nutreco.

At the end of 2009 a project began that will develop a process to facilitate the embedding of sustainability in Nutreco operations and deliver a lasting change. This is the Feeding the Future Sustainability Programme, reflecting Nutreco’s ambition to be a contributor in sustainably feeding the nine billion world population of 2050. The immediate challenges are to raise internal engagement, to create a structure within Nutreco with sustainability champions, training and knowledge transfer, and to identify indicators and tools to monitor progress.