According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) there is an urgent need to ramp up food production in the face of a growing global population estimated to hit 10bn by 2050. In order to meet this incredible demand, responsible and sustainable food production alongside equitable distribution and low carbon delivery will have to be embedded in any meaningful strategy. Ukraine has an opportunity to benefit from this trend as its agricultural sector is generally credited with high potential, becoming a breadbasket for Europe and the world. As part of BDO’s sustainable agriculture spotlight our Partner for Corporate Sustainability Solutions, Henning Dräger, speaks today to Deanna Bratter, Sr. Manager of Corporate Sustainability at American WhiteWave Foods Company (whitewave). WhiteWave is a NYSE listed food and beverage company which manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells branded plant-based foods and beverages, coffee creamers and beverages, and premium dairy products. Their prominent suite of brands include Alpro, Silk and Provamel. ******************** Henning Dräger: What does Sustainability mean to WhiteWave and why did you decide to embrace it? Deanna Bratter: At WhiteWave, our mission is to change the way the world eats for the better. Sustainability here is bringing to life this mission through better products, processes, and packages, while reducing our costs associated with resource use and operations. Together, these drivers inspire our employees and our leadership to make decisions that benefit our customers, consumers, our environment and our business. Henning Dräger: Sustainability efforts among the majority of medium sized companies in the US and internationally are far behind the big multinationals. Red tape and costs are often quoted as main barriers to engage with sustainability. Being a medium sized company what is WhiteWave’s business case for embracing sustainability? Deanna Bratter: In order to know what improvements look like, an organization needs to have tools in place to help measure and track its progress, and knowing is half the battle. There is often a perception that engaging with sustainability has a high cost, but especially for those just starting out, this is not always the case. There are many ways to increase awareness and engagement in sustainability - beginning with employee education and awareness, smaller projects with immediate cost savings and later on, engineering for sustainability and building programs that deliver both cost savings initiatives AND sustainability initiatives that have the return on investment you are seeking. Henning Dräger: Being a listed company how to you balance shareholder value with your sustainability mission? What do your investors think about your activities? Does your business strategy link financial and more than financial performance? Deanna Bratter: We have a consumer base that votes with their dollars, and a supply chain that seeks to reduce costs with both short and long term vision and planning. Demonstrating our awareness of the issues facing our supply chain, and communicating how we engage our supply chain in efforts to manufacture products while managing the impacts of our operations is part of our strategy to achieve strong performance in both business and sustainability. Reducing our impacts on the environment are a core component of our overall company strategy, meaning progress in this area is a core to meeting our objectives each year. Henning Dräger: What do you consider the biggest challenges and opportunities integrating sustainability into everyday business practices? Do you any top tips especially for small and medium sized companies starting out on their sustainability journey? Deanna Bratter: For any company I would recommend starting with a comprehensive materiality assessment to get a core understanding of what is most material to your business in terms of sustainability and identify where you should focus efforts and programs. Should a data company who uses large amounts of energy start with a water conservation program? Likely, not. They should start with energy - what makes the most sense, where you can have the largest impact to your business and the environment. The biggest challenges I have observed come from companies who are focused on the wrong issues, those not material to their business, and from those dont try to find the and… Sustainability in business is about smart business AND smart sustainability. When you can successfully integrate those concepts, you can make significant progress. If you try to tack on sustainability to a program or strategy and especially if it comes with a cost, as opposed to savings, it is much harder to get buy-in and support. Henning Dräger: What is your view on assurance of CSR/Sustainability reports and does it enhance credibility or is it still considered a “nice to have” option? Deanna Bratter: We believe third party assurance does enhance credibility and made the decision to audit our GHG inventory as our initial engagement with the formal sustainability auditing process. As you note, we also have many other certifications across products and programs and feel that those, the use of the GRI G4 framework, in addition to the internal governance and controls processes we used for developing the report, gave us great confidence that we provided a clear, accurate and informative report. Henning Dräger: Thank you very much for your time. ****************** For more information about WhiteWave Food’s pioneering work and mission to change the way the world eats for the better BDO recommends reading its latest CSR report which can be found here: whitewave/csr/20122013_WhiteWaveCSR_Report.pdf BDO is Ukraine’s most experienced sustainability and CSR provider. We provide solutions across all Ukrainian industry sectors including agriculture. For more information please contact BDO’s Partner for Corporate Sustainability Solutions Henning Dräger by email: [email protected]
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:23:13 +0000
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