The range of food options
available to consumers
around the world
continues to grow. Every
food show around the world is
promoting new products, or old
products marketed in ever more
sophisticated ways to highlight
their attributes to consumers.
The expectations of discerning
consumers remain high. They
want to feel good about their food
choices. We need to demonstrate
that we produce our food in a
sustainable way.
Silver Fern Farms’ vision is to
become the world’s most successful
and sustainable grass-fed red meat
company. Having a ‘Sustainable
Chain of Care’ is fundamental to
achieving this vision. Our Sustainable
Chain of Care is a programme which
has been driving positive change in
the business across eight material
sustainability issues.
A materiality
A SUSTAINABLE CHAIN OF CARE
IN THE RED MEAT SECTOR
process helped us to define goals
and targets to ensure sustainability
was an integral part of what we do.
These issues include our energy
use, the water we use, how we
manage wastewater, and waste. Our
material issues extend across our
high standards of animal welfare,
food safety and quality standards,
our care for our 7000 staff and the
communities in which we operate. It
is underpinned by goals for us and
our shareholder suppliers to achieve
sustained financial performance.
Partnerships have been important to
helping us develop our Sustainable
Chain of Care programme. Our
membership of the Sustainable
Business Council, and the Climate
Leaders’ Forum have supported a
primary sector focus to their wider
work, as well as an external peer
review and assessment of our
progress.
We also support other organisations
where their goals align with our
strategy and vision. A great example
of this includes our support for the
Trees for Bees programme which
encourages landowners to protect
and plant vegetation to enhance
year-round food sources for bee
colonies to preserve their critical
role in biodiversity. Another example
is our foundational support of the
recently established Meat the Need
charity, which is putting food into the
hands of those who need it most via
foodbanks and charities around the
country.
A topic which has been top of mind
with customers and consumers
domestically and internationally is the
global response to climate change.
We believe we need to take steps
to reduce emissions over time, and
our customers and consumers are
interest in the actions we are taking
to manage and reduce our own
carbon footprint.
In conjunction with our partner
Toitū Envirocare, 2019 saw Silver
Fern Farms become the first red
meat processing and marketing
company in New Zealand to publicly
verify and report our emissions.
The CarbonReduce certification
meets the globally recognised
ISO 14064-1 standard and helps
us to show we are committed to
measuring, reporting and reducing
our emissions.
You can read more about our
approach to sustainability at:
silverfernfarms.com/our-company/
our-sustainable-chain-of-care/.
CREATE CLEAN
Justin Courtney, head
of communications and
sustainability
8 JUNE 2020
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