Impact Season: COFCO International employees step up their action on sustainability
Collective action is the way forward to achieving a more sustainable world and promoting global food security. That’s why COFCO International is engaging all its partners and employees to fulfil its vision to meet the growing demand for food responsibly. The company is acting on the social and environmental issues where its stands to make the greatest difference – within its operations, supply chains and communities. Its first Impact Season provided an opportunity to further engage employees in its sustainability strategy, empowering teams to take action for impact at a local level.
COFCO International is forging ahead with its commitment to help feed the world responsibly, collaborating towards sustainable agriculture and taking action for impact locally. This both responds to stakeholders’ needs and is integral to its future business success. Importantly, employees will play a major role in reaching the company’s ambitious Meeting Tomorrow’s Demand sustainability strategy. To further engage employees and help inspire its teams to act in their local communities, COFCO International has held its first Impact Season, focusing on the global UN-led Sustainable Development Goals of achieving zero hunger (SDG 2) and promoting responsible production and consumption (SDG 12).
Leaders representing all major areas were at the forefront of encouraging employees to act and explaining why sustainability is increasingly part of its core business. Meanwhile, the company’s 190-strong Sustainability Ambassador network enabled employees to get involved on the ground, inspiring both individual and group sustainability efforts.
“In this decade of action towards 2030, we are committed to tackling the global challenge of achieving food security while building climate resilience, promoting biodiversity and protecting natural resources,” says COFCO International’s Head of Sustainability, Julia Moretti. “Every action counts, and we will only achieve our goals with the full support of our employees. Our first Impact Season provided employees with a great opportunity to live their values and make a positive difference, and demonstrates that many small actions can deliver real impact.”
The inaugural campaign delivered impressive results, with more than 800 employees taking part in a month of local activities and events across 16 countries.
The activities included 50 group actions from beach cleaning to supporting community gardens and planting orchards. Overall, employees provided 800 meals to underprivileged people within employees’ communities and planted 1,670 trees in areas surrounding COFCO International sites.
Additionally, using a specially devised Action for Impact app from JouleBug, employees also took action to adopt more sustainable behaviours at home, such as saving energy and water, preventing food waste or not eating meat for a day. In total, 26,215 individual endeavours were recorded through the app. Collectively, they diverted more than 18 tonnes of CO2 emissions, avoided 1,486 kg of waste and saved 167,000 litres of water.
The teams demonstrating the greatest impact and best employee engagement will now compete for company funding to further develop their efforts in 2022. The company also recognised the top three countries and top ten employees participating in the Action for Impact app.
“We’ve been delighted by the response to our first Impact Season and look forward to expanding our local impact in the coming years,” continues Moretti. “I’d like to congratulate our winning teams and thank everyone who participated for their enthusiasm and dedication.”
COFCO Impact Season 2021 winners
The following four group actions were selected as winners.
Black Sea silos
Teams at our Myshuryn Rih, Talalaivka, Denisovka and Smirnovo silos in Ukraine and Kazakhstan planted 1,500 fruit and walnut trees within and around their sites, including an orchard open to the public.
São José do Rio Preto, Brazil
Colleagues from our local offices supported an agroforestry project to create environmental, economic, and social benefits for the local community. The project is promoted by a partnership between Raíz Nova and As Valquírias, an institute assisting socially vulnerable children.
Standerton, South Africa
Employees planted fruit trees and installed a greenhouse and 10,000-litre water tank in a local community garden, benefiting 500+ underprivileged people with access to food.
Timbués, Argentina
Encouraged by local Sustainability Ambassadors, COFCO International employees helped to clean a 1000-metre stretch of a local riverbank.
COFCO International invites all our partners to collaborate and help make a difference. If you’re interested and want to learn more, please contact us at: [email protected]
Learn more about COFCO International’s sustainability ambitions.
