Environment, Social & Governance: creating lasting impact for a better future
Cawood’s purpose is to serve the needs of society by supporting sustainable food production and a safer, healthier planet. As a responsible business, we are committed to transparency across all areas of environment, social considerations, and corporate governance to help us understand the impact we have throughout our operations and beyond.
Our Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) policy sets out how we act ethically and responsibly on both global and individual levels. We take care of people and environments, including our colleagues, our clients, the communities in which we work, and charitable causes, to challenge everyone to seek more sustainable ways of working and safeguard our world for future generations.
Our ESG committee provides a clear structure of responsibility. The committee’s decisions and governance help us operate to truly sustainable business practices, minimise our impact, protect the rights of our team members, support inclusivity, and ensure continuous improvement. Earning and maintaining the trust of our people, our suppliers, our customers, and our communities ensures we are ready to travel on this sustainability journey together.
Committing to a safer, healthier planet
Following thorough risk assessments, we found our greatest environmental impact areas to be energy, water, waste, and transport. Coupled with our culture of continuous improvement, careful strategies have been developed to reduce our emissions and waste, monitor our carbon footprint, and mitigate any unpreventable impacts through thoughtful best practice and regular reviews.
We have implemented a holistic approach in reducing not only carbon emissions but all the resources we use in our operations. We are installing solar panels, measuring fuel consumption of our vehicles, gauging our carbon footprint, and reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. We are working proactively with our suppliers on our sustainability journey, sharing our best practice standards and policies to ensure socially responsible supply chains.
Protecting rights and supporting inclusivity
We actively support the rights of people, including our team members, our supply chain, our customers, and the wider community. This involves protecting human rights, safeguarding mental health, and championing inclusivity.
Looking after our people is the foundation to our success, and so our activities promote human rights in all that we do. We treat our colleagues with respect, with considered policies, ongoing training, and a safe and happy workplace. We protect their physical and mental wellbeing and foster development to help them flourish in their careers. We also strive for positive impact upon our wider community by contributing to charities which align with our values and help to bring about progressive change in the world.
Earning and maintaining trust
Taking leadership in sustainable business practices and social impact is very important to us. Our ESG committee is helping us integrate accountable, progressive practices into our overall business strategy. As the driving force behind our environmentally and socially responsible actions, it is responsible for all new and existing initiatives, and meets regularly to update and maintain our action plan and to discuss new opportunities and challenges.
Our policies, based on industry regulations, best practice and experience, underpin our actions and inform our governance structure. Our management systems guarantee the highest levels of service and quality, ensure we are up to date with all legislative responsibilities, and monitor and audit corporate risk to reinforce our robust business strategy.
Our sustainability journey
Through leadership, strategy, and desire to do the right thing, we are on a successful journey to become a truly sustainable organisation.
We have undertaken a range of actions to limit our impact on the environment, including:
- Phasing out all non-LED bulbs
- Reviewing the makeup of our transport fleet
- Continuing to calculate our carbon footprint as part of our commitment to net zero
- Identifying waste that can be recycled or reused to reduce the amount sent to landfill.
We are also planning to implement water management plans following surveys at all our business units.
Boosting team member engagement and issuing best practice guidance are important supplementary steps we take, such as encouraging turning off lights and water when not in use, accurate waste management protocol, and improving driving habits to help reduce mileage and emissions.
As we are keen to work with businesses which align with our values, we are consolidating our registers to build upon current activity in vetting existing and new suppliers. We also use local, ethical suppliers wherever possible to lessen our environmental impact by minimising travel and to boost the economy of our local communities.
A new HR system is in the works to provide further transparency of the structure and composition of our workforce. This will allow us to address inequality and further support inclusivity throughout the business.