Sustainability, innovation, cows, milk and reporting

As I prepare for my favorite event of the Sustainability Reporting year, this time coming up in London on 23rd February 2016, the edie Sustainability Reporting Conference, I always like to get to know some of the companies and speakers who will be taking part in the discussion and enriching our insights into the optimistic yet complex world of sustainability reporting. Coming up this year, our fifth, a fabulous line-up of speakers (again!) from GRI, WSBCD, CDSB, UNGC, Unilever, Nestle, Diageo, Novo Nordisk, Sky, BP, Whitbread, the Crowne Estate, Aviva, Biffa Waste, McNicholas Construction and Aurora Organic Dairy. Don't forget to drop me a note for a 15% discount on registration.

I'll be particularly pleased to welcome Craig Edwards, Corporate Sustainability and Innovation Manager, Aurora Organic Dairy, all the way from Boulder, Colorado. Aurora is the leading producer and processor of retailer brand organic milk and butter in the U.S., operating organic dairies, heifer and calf farms and an organic dairy processing plant. Employing around 550 people, Aurora raises close to 30,000 organic cows, calves and heifers and cultivates more than 10,000 organic acres for fodder crops. In addition, Aurora sources from more than 120 independent farmers who cultivate fodder crops on 70,000 acres of organic farmland. When you think that an acre is roughly the size of a football field, you can imagine that 80,000 football fields makes for quite a lot of organic farmland. If it were not used for farming, I bet it could house quite a few organic ice cream factories. 

Craig will share his experience as a first, and now second, time reporter and those early and never-so-easy steps on the reporting journey. You can read a little about that on the edie.net website in an article about Aurora Organic Dairy from the edie newsroom .

Aurora Organic Dairy was the overall winner in the First Time Reporter Category in the CRRA15 Reporting Awards  for its 2012 Corporate Citizenship Report published in 2013, and has since published a no-less impressive report in 2015. 

In Aurora's 2015 G4 core option report, targets and progress against targets are clearly laid out.

And there's a really interesting life-cycle analysis of organic milk.

Each half gallon of Aurora organic milk generates 4kg of GHG emissions. Cows generate 26% of these emissions.

Craig was kind enough to respond to a few more questions from me. Read on, his insights are refreshing.

How long have you been in your role? What is your background prior to taking this role? 

Craig:  My career is rooted in analysis and strategy, primarily in the financial services sector. After joining Aurora Organic Dairy (AOD) several years ago, I was asked to periodically assist with data and analytics around the company’s long-standing sustainability commitments. My informal involvement soon evolved into a new role, exclusively focused on sustainability and innovation.

What motivates you most?

Craig: Collaborating with passionate colleagues to address complex issues- and knowing that we are uncovering additional opportunities during the process- is incredibly motivating. As we explore potential solutions to achieve AOD’s CSR goals, I find inspiration in the fact that we are also working toward something bigger and unifying on the most fundamental level. 

Your title is "Corporate Sustainability and Innovation Manager" – what's the connection between sustainability and innovation in your view? 

Craig: In our experience, innovation has helped bridge the gap between “business as usual” and true progress. We’ve found that openness to exploring new methods and ideas is an essential element of our CSR journey. Often, innovative thinking within the organization is the first step forward, but we’ve long recognized that we don’t necessarily have all of the answers all of the time. This is why we value our ongoing tradition of partnering with universities, start-ups, and forward-thinking companies. Along with state-of-the-art technology, innovative solutions from these organizations help us continuously improve the sustainability of both our milk plant and farming operations. These sustainability benefits come in the form of greater efficiency and conservation of resources. 

What is your prime motivation for reporting on sustainability? 

Craig: Sustainability has been an important foundation of our business since AOD was founded in the late-1970s as a conventional dairy operator. Our CEO and founder, Marc Peperzak, always held the belief that we must care for our animals, respect our people and conserve our natural resources for future generations. Then we converted to 100% organic in 2003, and at the same time strengthened our commitment to responsible farming practices, animal husbandry practices and employee care programs. For AOD, sustainability reporting is partially about putting our practices, goals and results on paper and sharing them with our stakeholders. But more importantly, during this process of producing each of our reports, we thoughtfully revisit many important aspects of our relationship with our animals, people, and planet- a process that has led to continuous improvement. Finally, we find the reporting process to be an opportunity to listen. We incorporate stakeholder input, through which we discover other opportunities to further improve our overall CSR efforts. Over the years, we have learned that continuous improvement in our practices and transparency in our communications have been the most positive outcomes, and motivations for, publishing our CSR reports. 

What were the key challenges in delivering your 2015 report? How long was the reporting cycle from start to publication? 

Craig: Since our 2015 publication was our second report, we were already familiar with some of the basics. For example, similar to our report published in 2013, we were readily able to disclose our impacts - supported by primary data and standard accounting methodologies. However, one of the key challenges of our 2015 reporting process was related to the fact that it was the first time we were communicating progress versus our 5-year goals. The most challenging aspect was reporting on those goal areas where we were not demonstrating meaningful progress. Priority quickly shifted away from delivering the report itself so that we could instead focus on developing a more effective approach to address these goal areas and drive results. Another aspect of our 2015 report to note was the incorporation of GRI-G4 standards. Formally meeting the additional requirements was clearly beneficial for our company and stakeholders, but certainly demanded considerable planning and preparation. We report every two years. While our data tracking is ongoing, and we update the CSR information on our website annually, we typically spend approximately 9 months on actual CSR report preparation. 

How was your experience of transitioning to G4? Did this cause you to do any things differently? 

Craig: Of course, our transition to G4 necessitated additional planning, and it lengthened the reporting process, but it ultimately resulted in a more meaningful report and will help drive better CSR performance. For example, after formalizing our stakeholder engagement process and conducting a structured materiality assessment, we felt the need to add a new goal area around Worker Health and Safety. 

Who has taken an interest in your report? Have you actively shared it with stakeholders? 

Craig: We share our reports with our stakeholders via a master e-mail list, in meetings and presentations, and through publicly announcing the release of our reports. We have received positive feedback from our stakeholders and the CSR community on both our 2013 and 2015 reports. In fact, formally involving our stakeholders in the G4 reporting process generated considerable positive feedback from the stakeholders themselves- including retail customers, bankers and financial institutions, and suppliers. 

What makes a great sustainability report in your view? 

Craig: In my view, sustainability reports are defined by their substance. The best reports are able to tell the organization’s story while delivering a credible representation of their CSR efforts. I believe credibility is established through a balanced evaluation of measurable results and through clear disclosure of the plan for moving forward. Adhering to a protocol, such as GRI-G4, to transparently communicate the context of efforts and goals is essential to proving the efforts are meaningful. Of course, if the story and substance are present, attention to visual appeal is also appreciated.

I am looking forward to hearing more from Craig at the edie Sustainability Reporting Conference. Hope you will be able to make it.  

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of Understanding G4: the Concise Guide to Next Generation Sustainability Reporting  AND  Sustainability Reporting for SMEs: Competitive Advantage Through Transparency AND CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices . Contact me via Twitter (@elainecohen)  or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm).  Need help writing your first / next Sustainability Report? Contact elaine: info@b-yond.biz  

G4 goes MAD with Netafim

Why do we love our work? Because we get to help companies like Netafim tell their story. In this case, we all went a little MAD. That's not MAD like crazy cuckoo but MAD like Mass Adoption of Drip Irrigation. The more you know about drip, the more MAD you become. It's compelling, it's an imperative, it's the present and it's the future. Drip irrigation is about sustainable agriculture, efficient use of resources, water conservation, improved yields and quality of food crops and improved livelihoods for millions of large growers and smallholder farmers around the world. Drip irrigation is synonymous with Netafim Ltd, a group of thousands of dedicated, passionate individuals who come together with a collective mission to make the entire world MAD. (Nothing new here - Netafim has been the leading world pioneer of drip irrigation since 1965, check out Netafim's legacy website).

We love Netafim and we love MAD. And this is the report that we helped create for Netafim, describing the sustainability impacts of this MAD-oriented company.

Netafim 2013 Sustainability Report: At the heart of the food, water and land nexus

Netafim's 2013 Sustainability Report is written in accordance with GRI's G4 guidelines at core level. It presents both Netafim's 2020 sustainability strategy and most material impacts and the stakeholder engagement process that led to defining both. The report also presents many case studies showing how Netafim is driving it's MAD strategy and the impacts that MAD has at individual and community levels. If you want to skip straight to the stories, the report has a hyper-linked highlights page that will whiz you off to India, Croatia, Brazil, Kenya, Cyprus, Australia and the U.S. and more, to meet with growers and farmers that have gained benefits through adopting drip irrigation, becoming just a little bit MAD.

Or you might prefer to navigate straight to Stockholm. Stockholm holds special significance for Netafim as last year, in 2013, Netafim was awarded one of the highest levels of recognition in the industry for its impacts on water sustainability and sustainable water management at Stockholm Water Week, the Stockholm Industry Water Award (SIWA). This year, in 2014, Netafim presented its spanking new strategy and report in Stockholm. 

You can read on the blog of Netafim's Chief Sustainability Officer, Naty Barak, a staunch MAD propounder, as you might expect, about his experiences in Stockholm, and view Netafim's electronic poster presented at Stockholm 2014 Water Week here.  

But let's get back to drip and being MAD about MAD. Many of you might not know much about drip irrigation and why it is so crucial as a contributing solution to many of the worlds feed-energy-water-land scarcity problems. If this applies to you, you can find a brief explanation of how drip drips in Netafim's report. 

Following extensive consultation with stakeholders, both ongoing as part of Netafim's active participation in many of the leading global collaborative platforms that have water security as their prime focus, and as part of a targeted engagement program to support the preparation of the company's strategic approach and materiality definition, Netafim presents this new report under the theme: At the Heart of the Food-Water-Land Nexus. 

We are hearing more and more about The Nexus these days, especially in the context of the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. It's not just one nexus. Sometimes it's the Food-Energy Nexus, sometimes, the Water-Energy Nexus. Netafim's MAD solutions have the biggest impacts in advancing food, water and land security and these are the three nexus elements that are predominantly relevant for Netafim. The nexus view considers not only each challenge as an individual challenge, but considers all of them as part of one Big Thing. The points at which these challenges interact are the points which offer the greatest global and local opportunities for leveraging smart solutions that deliver the greatest benefits for us and the planet. That's what drip irrigation does and that's why Netafim is totally all about MAD. 

In the run-up to the 2013 Sustainability Report, we helped facilitate stakeholder engagement at two levels: a large round-table discussion with a diverse group of stakeholders based in Israel where Netafim is headquartered, and a series of discussions with global experts in the sustainable agriculture and sustainable business fields. Experts such as Carlo Galli, Technical and Strategy Advisor, Water Resources at Nestlé, Gavin Power, Deputy Director, United Nations Global Compact, Alejandro Litovsky, Founder & CEO, Earth Security Initiative and Pasquale Steduto, Deputy Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, FAO  provided their expert input and guidance about MAD and other aspects of Netafim's contribution, and you can read some of their comments in the report.

The result of these consultations and management deliberations was a strategic framework for 2020 and a set of most material impacts around which the 2013 Sustainability Report was structured. These topics and themes will guide and support Netafim's ongoing contribution to global sustainability in the coming years.  

One of the things that we love most about our work at Beyond Business is seeing the personal change and transformation that comes through sustainability culture and practices. Most Sustainability Reports describe what a "company" is doing and how managers and employees take action in the course of their roles. This is great, of course, but there is something special about seeing how the concept of sustainability extends beyond the workplace and into the consciousness of people and other facets of their lives. That's why my favorite part of this report is a piece from Netafim's Marketing Manager, Rachel Shaul. Rachel selected a project related to the impact of drip irrigation as part of academic studies at university, and she shares her insights after having interviewed women farmers in the Indian State of Gujarat. Rachel's perspectives are not just about advancing Netafim's irrigation business, they are about the personal change she experienced in engaging with women farmers, and the way their lives have improved. In the report, Rachel shares some of the comments that she recorded in her interviews, reminding us that sustainability is more than a project or a product or a business, it's about people and life in general. 

I recommend (of course !) that you take a look at the Netafim report and (of course!) give feedback. Maybe you also might become a little MAD.


elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of Understanding G4: the Concise guide to Next Generation Sustainability Reporting  AND  Sustainability Reporting for SMEs: Competitive Advantage Through Transparency AND CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices . Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen   or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

Sustainability with Passion

The Novus International 2012 Sustainability Report, the fifth annual report of this billion $ privately-owned company was published recently online. 

 

Novus International, Inc. is a provider of health and nutrition solutions for livestock, poultry, pets and people, headquartered in St. Charles, Missouri, U.S.A., employing more than 800 people in over 50 countries and serving more than 3,000 customers worldwide in over 100 countries. Novus operates facilities including corporate offices, research and development laboratories and manufacturing operations, as well as smaller offices with field staff in most local markets. Working from a strong base of scientific understanding and technological innovation, Novus has brought more than 100 new products to market over the past decade, contributing consistently to sustainable animal agriculture production and global food security while growing revenues and global presence. The Novus pledge is a Triple S Bottom Line – Solutions, Service and Sustainability.

 

I am particularly happy to blog about Novus, because (here it comes... disclosure >>>) Novus has been my client for some years now and I have been involved in developing and writing the 2012 report, as well as prior reports for 2011 and 2010. In preparation for the report, I interviewed around 50 Novus executives (including the CEO who is directly involved and passionate about Novus's sustainability journey) and many staff all over the world, and some external stakeholders, and collected data from over 10 manufacturing, offices and research sites. The thing that always impresses me each year about working with Novus is the absolute clarity that all the people in the organization have about their company's mission and purpose, and the passion with which they talk about their role in advancing the mission. When I asked Thad Simons, the President and CEO of Novus, about his major achievements as CEO over the past few years, without hesitation, he talked about creating an organizational culture that supports the sustainability mission - "building Novus with a sense of purpose and passion and a service culture". A CEO who leads a sustainable culture is a CEO who creates a sustainable business. Novus has grown year on year and makes a significant contribution to advancing sustainable food and improving food security in many ways. This approach is paying off!

 

The highlights of the Novus 2012 Sustainability report are to be found in the approach to reporting as well as in the data and information presented. For the first time, Novus includes a description of the organization's value chain, which shows where and how Novus generates triple bottom line impacts. Also for the first time, each section of this report is presented personally by the managers and staff who lead the organization. In each section, a Novus person tells her or his story, in her or his own words. For example, the Human Resources VP and Director talk about how they are advancing this prized organizational culture, and different managers talk about their experience in nurturing partnerships to advance sustainable solutions, while EHS Managers talk about sustainable design of offices and working spaces (Novus has a LEED Platinum certified HQ which has won several awards). The insights shared by Novus people  - the narrative is what they actually said,  not professionally copy-written texts  - are what makes up the Novus story: information and data combined with the personal contribution, leadership and drive of all the individuals. Supplementing the written narrative are several short videos, prepared specially for the report, which give you, report-users and stakeholders, a chance to see the faces behind the names and experience the passion beyond the written word. 

 

At GRI B level, GRI-checked Sustainability Report, Novus is not short on transparency either, and this report includes evidence of good performance. For example, energy consumption in production operations reduced by 5.7% in 2012, and safety performance continues to be well above industry averages with an injury rate of 0.48 per 100 employees (compared to a rate of 3.8 in all sectors in the U.S.).

One of the highlights in helping prepare the report for me is the Novus employee wellness program - see insights from Judith Thelwell who manages the program. For years, Novus has been demonstrating leading practice with one of the most comprehensive and highly engaging employee wellness programs around, that offers practical benefits for employees, and financial benefits for both employees and the company. This is a vibrant program which enables employees to engage in health and fitness related activities and earn benefits for doing so, beyond the personal benefit to their own health. In my discussions, I chatted with Andy Critchell, who works in IT Systems at Novus, (read his insights, too, in the same section), and his story was very moving. Diagnosed with diabetes, Andy had to make some serious life changes. The accessibility of Novus wellness benefits helped Andy take control and actually terminate medication for his condition. Without me even having to ask, he confirmed that this actually makes him a more productive employee. This conversation brought home to me, once again, the massive impact companies have on the lives of individuals, and the force for good that companies can become.

Another inspiring part of this report is the section on Valuing Partnerships. Novus works in partnership in almost every area the company is involved in. In fact, partnership development is a core competency of Novus, whether this means global partnerships to effect major transformation - such as the collaboration with the International Egg Commission (IEC) to advance the consumption of eggs as a low-cost, highly accessible source of nutrition (read Joanne Ivy's insights - she's President of the IEC), or specific local partnerships, such as a multi-stakeholder public-private partnership in Chad, to help build a $50 million industrial poultry production facility which will provide around 30 percent of the country's poultry needs and contribute substantially to food security in that country. This partnership includes the Chad government as well as a Novus customer, Globoaves, and a financing partner, working together to provide affordable, wholesome food for the Chad population and improve the quality of their lives. Read insights from Luis Azevedo about how all this came about. Partnerships are at the heart of sustainability. Companies who know how to collaborate in the true spirit of partnership are the ones that will be around for many years to come.

Please take a look at the Novus report and as always, give feedback.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, winning (CRRA'12) Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of Sustainability Reporting for SMEs: Competitive Advantage Through Transparency AND CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen   or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

Dripping Sustainability

I was pleased to read a great article by the fabulous sustainability writer @LeonKaye on the Guardian Sustainable Business Water Hub about how water stewardship provides a return on investment and that The Campbell's Soup Company has gained competitive advantage from investing millions in water management projects. You can read the article here.

This is the sentence that caught my eye :

"The company urges the growers of its top five agricultural ingredients – tomatoes, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and jalapeno peppers – to adopt more efficient practices such as drip irrigation and the construction of retention basins to curtail rain runoff."

You may not realize it, but this sentence demonstrates an exemplary approach in supply chain management by a food manufacturer who is zooming in right to the basic building blocks of the company's value chain to encourage more sustainable practices at ground level. In this case, driving a change in agricultural practice to include drip irrigation represents a major shift in the way such crops are grown and yields major environmental benefits and productivity gains. This leads to greater and more efficient food supply, far beyond the direct benefits to Campbell's Soup. Drip irrigation is currently used only in about 4 - 5 per cent of world irrigated fields. Moving the agri-sector to drip is truly a step towards advancing sustainable food production for a 9 billion world.

Quick course in drip irrigation.

What is it: Drip irrigation is an irrigation method which saves water, fertilizer and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either above ground or sub-surface, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing (driplines), and drippers.

Why it saves water: Most agricultural irrigation is done using furrow or flood irrigation. Essentially this means that water is pumped or transported to the fields and is allowed to flow along the ground among the crops. Flood irrigation is inefficient as too much water gets to certain parts of the field and not enough to others. In fact, about half the water doesn’t actually reach the crops. The drip irrigation method channels water directly to the crop, and using specialist technology, ensures that the crops get exactly the right amount of water, no less, no more, and at the exact time they need it.

Amount of water saved:  Depending on the method, drip irrigation can be up to 100% more water efficient, though a general average would be 50 – 70% water saving versus traditional methods.

Why it saves fertilizers and chemicals: Chemigation and nutrigation work on the same principles. By drip-dosing fertilizers and nutrients to crops, none is wasted, doses are accurate and far smaller quantities are used. As much as 50% of chemicals can be saved using this method.

It is probably not necessary for me to explain why all this is so important, but I will.

Drip irrigation is a truly sustainable method for agriculture which minimizes water consumption, minimizes energy use through efficient operations, minimizes use of chemicals, delivers improves yield quality with low crop waste levels and in general offers many farmers a cost-effective solution to develop a viable agri-business, thereby enhancing local community development and quality of life. In developed markets, this can be of major assistance in reducing the burden of resources required by the demands of our consumer society. In emerging markets, it can mean the difference between poverty and a respectable livelihood for many local farming communities.

It probably is necessary for me to tell you why I am so interested in this, so I will.

Netafim Ltd. is a client of my company, Beyond Business Ltd. Netafim has been a world leader in drip irrigation technology and application since its founding in 1965 , delivering drip solutions to thousands of farmers in over 100 countries. The more I learn about drip irrigation and the different technologies involved, the more I find it fascinating. I won't go into too much detail here (you will have to wait for Netafim's first Sustainability Report to be published in 2012 :)), but a one example to give you the general idea:

Netafim has developed a Family Drip System, which is perfect for the small farmer for use in plots of up to 2000 sq. meters. It works on gravity with no pump or other energy requirements in open field or greenhouse crops. Being a relatively simple system, it is low cost making it accessible to most small farmers. This system is now used widely in Africa and other emerging markets.

Take a look at this short clip about how this system has transformed the lives of a settlement in Kamale, Kenya. The livelihood of everyone living in Kamale depends on farming. Prior to using an irrigation system, the women of the settlement would wake at 5 am to fetch water from far-away sources. One women tells how she was not able to breastfeed her child because she spent so many hours per day just fetching water. Incredible!.  

So the question remains, when the world is crying out for water efficiency and when the food security of future generations is already under threat, why is this seemingly perfect solution used only for 4-5 % of global irrigated fields? Why is this not an absolutely no-brainer? In Israel, Netafim's home base, over 75% of crops are grown using drip irrigation. In the past 30 years, agricultural output in Israel has increased fivefold without any increase in water consumption. "Greening the desert" has been both a necessity and a major achievement, as only 20% of Israel's land is arable. Today, more than 50% of Israel's crop exports come from semi-arid areas such as the Arava desert.

Despite major advances using drip irrigation in recent years, there seems to be two main reasons for the lack of uptake at mainstream level. First is that irrigations systems require an initial investment, which given the often small scale of farms, may be too hefty for family farmers to afford without government assistance or NGO support. Second, so I've heard, is that the farmers are by nature a conservative and tend to use methods which have been taught through generations and unwilling to risk a crop in the hand for two in the bush.

This is why the Campbell's initiative is so important. By making sustainable farming methods a condition of supply, and by partnering with farmers to help them adopt new technology, major sustainability changes can be achieved. This approach offers incentives right throughout the value chain: Campbell's get a more cost-enviro-efficient raw material, farmers get better yields and access to customers and markets, we all get higher-quality, less chemicalized food, and more if it, and Planet Earth lives on to support our descendants.

By the way, as an ice-cream addict, I am thinking of having Netafim make me a special drip-irrigation system to deliver ice cream to my spoon at a constant rate 24/7. Bet they didn’t think of that one! (ahem.. my patent, please).

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my business website www.b-yond.biz/en  (BeyondBusiness, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)