Published at 2018, March 15th
Every year, businesses prepare and publish their CSR reporting, always seeking to improve. The relevance of the information highlighted, meeting targets, responding to the ever increasing and higher expectations of stakeholders… sustainable development reports keep on coming, but never stop changing!
At Bonduelle, this drive for continuous development was rewarded in 2017 with the first prize for “best environmental reporting”, recognising the excellent environmental section within our CSR report. Let’s go behind the scenes to find out the secrets of this success with Mathilde Goussault.
A long-standing culture of CSR reporting and transparency
Recording our environmental impact has always been part of the culture at Bonduelle. Since 2003, an official CSR policy has been firmly in place, bolstered by a dedicated reporting and CSR data management tool implemented in the year 2014.
Today, more than 110 indicators are collated, of which 80 are published. CSR reporting covers a wide variety of areas, including:
- agronomy, in particular how we respect the planet alongside our partners (91% of farmers renewed their contracts with Bonduelle in 2017);
- human resources, specifically how we measure the frequency of accidents in the workplace (6.19 for 2016/2017);
- natural resources, for example, how we’re monitoring water use and our energy mix consumption (50% less water in the last 10 years and 11.2% current renewable energy use);
- quality, with more than 63,000 food safety analyses and 97% of Bonduelle sites holding at least one quality accreditation;
- transport, for example, how we’re monitoring CO2 emissions (saving 8,215 teqCO2 over the year);
- purchasing, by monitoring the CSR performance of our suppliers.
Today, within the Bonduelle teams, more than 200 contributors speaking 9 different languages are helping to collect and process the necessary data.
All this information allows us to inform international experts, investors, clients and the general public of our progress in terms of sustainable development. Thanks to the engagement of all our employees involved in reporting, we can also obtain and share information that responds to the needs of our distribution and restaurant clients. In this respect, Bonduelle has chosen to comply with the ‘core’ level of GRI standards from the Global Reporting Initiative to prepare our CSR report. This hallmark of quality, achieved thanks to the quality of reporting as a whole, is also a driving force for continuous improvement. Finally, all the information published in our CSR report is audited by an independent third-party, a real pledge of transparency and data accuracy.
See the Bonduelle Group’s CSR report.
CSR reporting at Bonduelle, a performance management tool
Environmental reporting provides the necessary information for managing our plants and improving how well they perform. It also improves communications between colleagues, helping them become more aware of how much they’re consuming.
As an example, monitoring waste helps us develop new recycling procedures. As such, waste from celery trimmings at the Rosporden plant are now part of a partnership with a local farmer, who uses them to feed his cattle.
First prize for environmental reporting, national recognition
The ‘Business and Environment’ competition has been organised over the past 30 years by the French Ministry of Environment and ADEME. This award recognises actions taken and exemplary projects carried out by companies in relation to the environment.
In 2017, a winner was named in each of the award’s five categories: the circular economy, the fight against climate change, biodiversity and business, innovation in technology and economic models and, finally, new for 2017, the best environmental reporting.
This new prize category recognises companies who effectively communicate their environmental reports, informing all stakeholders of the direct and indirect impact on the environment as a result of their operations.
These communications also make it possible to assess company strategies in terms of considering the environmental issues around their operations, with a particular focus on topics identified as part of extra-financial reporting: climate, the circular economy, food waste and biodiversity.
This reporting work is essential, as it allows companies to continuously improve.
“For the Bonduelle Group, receiving the award for best environmental reporting is well-earned recognition for the great deal of effort we’ve put into our CSR reporting in this area, including agronomy, using natural resources and transport. We will continue to seek out continuous development with our CSR reporting, which allows us to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow, such as climate change, the energy transition, protecting our water supplies and the circular economy”, explains Christophe Bonduelle in the internal announcement informing employees of their success.
