SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 3 | OUR STRATEGY: | ||
CEO message | 3 | NURTURING GROWTH | 20 | |
Overview | 5 | |||
NURTURING OUR ENVIRONMENT | 21 | |||
Strategic geographic location | 6 | |||
Overview | 22 | |||
Our purpose, drivers and sustainability priorities | 7 | |||
Sustainability performance highlights 2022 | 9 | The Business We Do - sustainable food production | 23 | |
- Our role | 23 | |||
OUR SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH 10 | - | Soil resilience strategy | 24 | |
- | Soil resilience and plant nutrition | 25 | ||
Board leadership | 11 | - Optimising productivity - nitrogen use efficiency | 26 | |
Stakeholder engagement | 13 | - Digital innovation | 28 | |
Materiality | 15 | - Innnovative and integrated plant protection | 30 | |
UN Sustainable Development Goals | 18 | - BioSolutions and beyond | 31 | |
The Business We Do - supporting outdoor | 34 | |||
space regeneration | ||||
- Amenity solutions - carbon sequestration | 35 | |||
- Amenity solutions - green roofs | 36 | |||
Enhancing Biodiversity and | ||||
Protecting Natural Capital | 37 | |||
- Biodiversity through sustainable agronomy | ||||
and BioSolutions | 37 | |||
- | Wildlife Corridors | 37 | ||
- Tree Protection | 38 | |||
How We Do Business - our operations | 40 | |||
- Environmental Management system | 40 | |||
- FY2022 performance | 40 |
Climate Change | 41 |
- Commitment to Science-Based Targets initiative | 41 |
- Scope 3 assessment | 43 |
Reducing Water Usage and Water Stress | 44 |
- Water use efficiency | 45 |
- Sprayer operator training | 45 |
Waste Reduction | 46 |
- Waste to landfill | 46 |
- Plastics and packaging | 46 |
Collaboration and Comprehensive Research | 47 |
- Yen Zero | 47 |
- Field of the Future | 48 |
NURTURING OUR SOCIETY | 49 |
Introduction | 50 |
Empowering our people | 52 |
- Integrated Group people strategy | 52 |
- Employee engagement | 55 |
Implementing our Health, Safety and | 57 |
Well-being Roadmap | |
- Health and safety performance | 58 |
- Diversity, equality and inclusion | 62 |
- Hybrid working principles | 64 |
Sustainable Land Use | 66 |
Local Community Engagement | 67 |
HOW WE ORGANISE FOR IMPACT | 69 |
ESG Governance Framework | 70 |
- Conducting business with integrrity | 70 |
- Origin code of Conduct | 70 |
- Anti-bribery and corruption | |
- People | |
- Human rights and Labour | |
- Wage and hour practices | |
- Discrimination and harassment | |
- Freedom of association | |
- Data protection | |
- Community relations | |
- Supplier code of Conduct | 71 |
Reporting and Transparency | 72 |
- EU Non-Financial Disclosure Directive | 72 |
- Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures | 73 |
- Ratings | 73 |
CEO Message
Our level of employee engagement outperforms the sector average, (89% favourable score) with significant improvements, 83-85%, across Diversity and Inclusion, My Manager, Teamwork and Collaboration
Welcome to our 2022
Group Sustainability Report.
Last year we announced our long-term sustainability strategy to 2030 - Nurturing Growth - which draws together the Group's environmental, social and governance ambitions and reflects the Origin core values - People, Partnerships, Innovation, Integrity and Community.
With the support of our Board, who have given us a clear mandate, in 2022 we strengthened the foundation of our 'Nurturing Growth' strategy. Central to this was informing our decisions by continuing to engage with our stakeholders through a 'Pulse Check' of their views. To ensure our progress is measurable and understood, we identified the right goals and metrics and we also established effective reporting across the Group.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have tested the resilience of our people and highlighted the susceptibility of the global food system to supply and price shocks. Providing safe, nutritious food to a growing population cannot be achieved without also driving positive environmental outcomes, fostering equality, diversity and inclusion, and supporting the ongoing sustainable production efforts of the farmers, growers and amenity professionals we serve.
Origin supports the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. We are committed to continuing to use the UNGC and its principles, making it part of our strategy, culture and day-to-day operations. We are also committed to engaging in collaborative projects which advance the broader development goals of the United Nations, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The future of food
Agriculture plays a crucial role in providing safe food that meets the nutritional requirements of the world's growing population. In meeting these needs, increasing productivity on existing agricultural land will be crucial to meeting the growing demand for safe, nutritious food. Origin is well positioned to play a meaningful role in supporting the transition to more sustainable land use in the agriculture, amenity, landscaping and ecology markets where we operate.
In this regard, our principal areas of focus are:
- Building and maintaining customer-centric,market-leading business models in provision of technical advice and integrated solutions to deliver value add solutions that improve efficiencies.
- Transitioning our product and services portfolio to optimise yields sustainably with specific focus on BioSolutions, speciality nutrition technologies and digital technologies
- Accelerating Origin's participation in environmental and ecological markets within and beyond agriculture.
To support this approach, in FY2022 we created a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) focused on soil health, nutrient use efficiency and biodiversity, which will be aided by innovation, data analytics and partnerships and be grounded in science.
Environmental impacts approach
We continue to adopt a strategic approach to reduce our environmental impacts on air, land and water. During the year, we commenced the development of a formal Environmental Management System aligned to the ISO14001 standard. This is being adopted in all Irish and UK business units initially and will be extended across the rest of the Group's operations in a phased approach.
With the drive for more sustainable food systems and the pressing need to reduce the environmental footprint of our food, we believe sustainability is the roadmap to security, stability, and progress.
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Our ambitious environmental targets will be aided by innovation, data analytics and partnerships and be grounded in science.
In November 2021 I signed a letter of commitment on behalf of the Group, to begin the process of setting Science Based Targets (SBTs) for Origin. Our targets are under development pending validation and we are committed to building a path towards a Low Carbon Plan. Setting SBTs will ensure that we continue to track the progress of the emission reduction activities in our operations, as well as supporting us when engaging with our supply chain partners to help decarbonise our value chain.
In addition to ongoing initiatives, we conducted an extensive project to identify potential climate related risks and opportunities, which continues to inform our approach in adopting the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.
Focus on our People
I am pleased to report solid progress with our People Strategy in
2022. The results of our employee opinion survey show a continuing positive trend across the 13 categories which we use to measure our employee experience, with strong gains since 2021. Importantly, we maintained a high level of employee engagement, an essential measure of our progress and we have seen significant improvements in the Diversity and Inclusion, Manager Effectiveness, and Teamwork and Collaboration categories. Overall, there is a strong sense of inclusion across the Group and we continue to build on the strong team culture that already exists within the business. In support of our long-term People Strategy, during the year we also developed measurable KPIs and targets for Health and Safety and Diversity and Inclusion.
Listening to our stakeholders
Origin undertook its first Materiality exercise with stakeholders in 2019 and is committed to a formal review every four years. Recognising the rapid pace at which environmental and social themes are evolving within the agriculture and amenity sectors, we undertook a materiality Pulse Check in July 2022. This reinforced our material themes and identified a new theme 'enabling people and communities', which we have now integrated into our business strategy. We will undertake a full materiality assessment refresh in 2023, with the output informing our approach going forward.
Sustainability is fundamental to Origin's business model and future growth. At our Capital Markets Day, we outlined our ambition
to optimise the sustainable use of land through innovation and integrated solutions. In recognition of our potential to positively contribute to addressing global environmental challenges, we have aligned our strategic priorities to focus on a model of sustainable land use that underpins food security, combats climate change, and restores biodiversity and ecosystem services. In line with our strategy to broaden Origin's offering within the emerging nature economy,
in March we announced the acquisition of Envirofield Limited in the UK, an expert independent field-trials company specialising in agricultural and environmental research. More recently, in October we announced the acquisition of Keystone Environmental Limited, a UK- based ecology solutions provider specialising in the design, planning and delivery of complete ecological solutions. These acquisitions strengthen our services in sustainable land use and will improve our environmental impact through the research, development and delivery of innovative solutions.
We are supporting our corporate strategy through our ambitious Nurturing Growth plan, built on innovation and integrated solutions. Our people are central to the delivery of this strategy. I want to thank all of our colleagues across the Group for their ongoing commitment to 'The Origin Way' and also our customers and partners for their continued support as we seek to make our business more sustainable.
Yours sincerely,
Sean Coyle
Chief Executive Officer
Overview
Origin Enterprises plc is an international Agronomy-Services group, providing specialist advice, inputs and digital solutions to promote sustainable land use.
Crop | Integrated |
Nutrition | Agronomy |
Amenity | The Business We Do | Digital | ||||
Solutions | Agronomy | |||||
Our Brands | Our Offer | Our Channels | Our End Users | |||||||||||||||||
Products | Advisory | Services | Business-to-Business | Farmers and Growers | ||||||||||||||||
Plant Protection | Agronomy | Digital | Agronomists | Amenity Professionals | ||||||||||||||||
Products | and Landscapers | |||||||||||||||||||
Seed | Turf Agronomy | Laboratory | Direct-to-Channel | |||||||||||||||||
Crop Nutrition | Environmental | Trials | ||||||||||||||||||
Biologicals | Urban Greening | Training | ||||||||||||||||||
Green Infrastructure | ||||||||||||||||||||
Solutions | ||||||||||||||||||||
Feed | ||||||||||||||||||||
Poland | Romania | Ukraine | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Origin Enterprises plc published this content on 26 October 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 26 October 2022 14:07:01 UTC.