Cranswick’s Chief Financial Officer Mark Bottomley explains what CDP is and why it is a such a strong signal for our stakeholders.
“Transparently disclosing our environmental performance has always been a key focus of Cranswick’s Second Nature sustainability strategy. I’m therefore delighted to announce our latest CDP scores: grade B for Climate and Water Security, and grade C for Forests, which is a marked improvement on last year’s scores.
We’ve been disclosing our performance to the globally-recognised CDP system (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) for more than a decade. The CDP submission includes responses on governance, risk, disclosure, strategy, targets, emissions reduction initiatives and value chain engagement, and 2021 marks the first year we have been in a position to disclose on all three focus areas.
Our new grades reflect continued improvement within our operations. The food industry faces a great many sustainability challenges, and our CDP results send a clear signal that we’re taking our climate impact seriously.
Commercial agriculture, for example, represents the single largest cause of deforestation and forest degradation. We’ve responded to this by transitioning to 100% certified deforestation-free soya, and are working on exploring innovative sustainable alternatives.
Meanwhile, the UN warns that an impending 40% shortfall in global water supplies by 2030 represents the fourth greatest risk to society over the next decade. We are investing in several initiatives to reduce our impact, such as an effluent treatment plant for wastewater recycling at our site in Watton, and a reverse osmosis system for potable water at our site in Eye.
These are just some of the actions we’re taking to keep us on track to accomplish our ambitious Science Based targets – which has already seen us achieve carbon neutral accreditation across 14 of our manufacturing sites.
As important as it is to take this action in the first place, so too is it important that we share what we’re doing via transparent disclosures as it helps to keep the investment community aware of our sustainable activities.
Our new CDP scores are a testament to the efforts from the teams across the business and I would like to thank everyone for supporting us on our journey to become the world’s most sustainable meat business. We will continue to explore innovations and investments that reduce our carbon footprint, because we have an opportunity to make a real and meaningful difference.”