What sustainability means to Czarnikow – Annual Review 2020

June 2, 2021

Adeoti Ogunsola

Another year, another Annual Review. But this year’s is a little different.

We continue to scrutinise the development of sustainability frameworks, emerging legislation and other current initiatives related to non-financial reporting. This year’s report includes a new structure which presents non-financial reporting alongside more traditional, financial statements. We recognise the efforts made by various bodies to help improve transparency and comparability in this area, and we are committed to reviewing and adopting emerging practices.

In this extract from the full report, CEO Robin Cave shares what sustainability means to Czarnikow.

What sustainability means to us

At Czarnikow, sustainability means all round long-term value creation. As a business we have always believed that successful long-term financial performance cannot be achieved without considering the key non-financial areas that are important to our stakeholders: client service, food safety, employee welfare, ethical conditions in our supply chain and, increasingly, environmental impact.

As illustrated on P15, non-financial elements (alongside financial ones) are already embedded in our four corporate goals, which embody our holistic business approach. And our purpose demonstrates unequivocally the importance we place on the interrelation between environmental, social and economic influences (planet, people and profit) along our supply chains.

We hold a unique position in our supply chains. With no major assets in growing, refining or manufacturing, we can use our neutral position to address bigger supply chain challenges and, increasingly, we aim to adopt a leadership position wherever we can. Our presence at every stage of our B2B supply chains, for example, means we can influence sustainable improvements for our clients, including ethical sourcing, farming, product manufacturing, freight handling, shipping, financing and packaging practices to achieve sustainable commercial success.

A project that exemplifies our approach is our first fully sustainable raw sugar trade and shipment completed in August 2020. As well as assuring ethical and environmental standards at the farming, milling, shipping and procurement stages, we were also influential in negotiating ‘green’ finance to fund this deal – the first of its kind in our sector.

To help manage the verification of some elements we rely on our sustainability programme, VIVE, which is now in its sixth year of operation. With VIVE, we are currently working on similar sustainable projects, replicating our learnings in other product areas.

We have more to do. A recent review of our external corporate reporting identified an improvement area in how we convey and report on risks and opportunities relating to climate change. In this year’s Annual Review we have brought our environmental thinking and impact data together to raise awareness and galvanise action internally as well as respond to the increasing demand from clients, governments and end consumers for clearer disclosure. We hope this makes it easier for all stakeholders interested in this high-profile topic to better understand our commitment and direction. I look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year via our website communications.

You can read more about sustainability, and how we are implementing it into our overall business strategy in the full Annual Review 2020. We publish this report on a voluntary basis; it complements our statutory Directors’ report and consolidated financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2020, which is available to view on our website.

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