At Devro, sustainability is integral to us and is part of our DNA. We act with honesty and integrity in everything we do. Conducting our business fairly and ethically throughout the world is at the heart of our strategy. We pride ourselves on our respect for the planet, our people and the communities we deal with. We manufacture across a global platform and we operate with care and commitment to our workforce’s wellbeing and with that of our local communities in all our regions. We are dedicated to the health and safety of our employees, which is fundamental to how we operate. We are continually reducing our environmental impact to benefit our business, communities, and future generations. As one of the world’s leading suppliers of edible collagen casings for food, we develop trusted and innovative products for our customers. Our primary product utilises a waste product from animal protein production, enhances production efficiency, reduces waste and provides cost saving benefits to our customers.
1Targets are purchased electricity, excluding combined heat and power generation
2Aligned to SBTi definition of Net Zero
We consider the results of our 2021 materiality assessment to have not significantly changed and have therefore continued to use this to ensure that our sustainability efforts are directed to be both important to our stakeholders and impactful on Devro. The materiality assessment process considered issues of internal importance as well as incorporating external trends shaping our business, thereby incorporating all issues that have the potential to impact our long-term success and the sustainability of our operations.
Material issues were identified with reference to the relevant UN SDGs for our business as well as multiple other sources including rating agencies and industry considerations. The views of a range of internal and external stakeholders (employees, shareholders, industry groups and NGOs) were incorporated into the analysis.
The results helped guide our sustainability strategy, decision-making processes, reporting and stakeholder engagement initiatives and the assessment continues to direct our actions in focusing on the issues that matter most to our stakeholders. Our sustainability framework is aligned with recognised standards and reference our performance to UN SDGs, which we also used as the basis to improve understanding of the scope of sustainability across Devro.
We continue to review and refine our priorities to respond to the evolving sustainability landscape.
Climate Focus – As an energy intensive operation our focus has been on reducing carbon emissions by improving energy efficiency, reducing heat loss through heat capture and utilising renewable energy both purchased from the grid and generated on site. We have good scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emission data from all our manufacturing sites to help understand our usage and focus on use reduction and decarbonisation.
Water Focus – As a business requiring significant quantities of water for cleaning and production, this is another focus area for improvement. We focus on reducing our freshwater use, re-use and clean-up of used water and wastewater discharge. We focus on our sites with highest water stress but also improved water utilisation elsewhere and support local community wastewater treatment.
Waste Focus - We have a focus on reducing our product waste as a priority but then ensuring any waste can be recycled or diverted to animal feed, energy production or fertiliser. We have taken significant steps to avoid sending product waste to landfill, ensuring all our packaging and redundant equipment is recycled and minimising our waste to landfill.
People - We look after the interests of the people who work for us, both internally and in our supply chain, providing good quality employment and opportunities that feed into the local community. We focus on the safety of all our employees and engage with them with respect that capitalises on our cultural differences. We support employee training and professional development, promote diversity, operate with respect for human rights and ensure equal opportunities throughout our business. We strive to make Devro a safe and fulfilling place to work. Our aspiration remains to become a Zero Accident Community.
Communities - Our operations contribute to the communities in which we are located both economically and, being a key employer in most of those locations, socially as well. We aim to be a well-respected organisation within our communities, supporting and encouraging the employment of local people into our businesses, utilising local business support services and engaging with the wider community where possible in educational and cultural activities. Furthermore, the product we make enables our customers to manufacture highly nutritious, tasty and affordable food products creating readily consumable nutritional units (a sausage) that utilises a lower cost nutritious raw material to make a high-quality nutrient-enhancing enjoyable product.
Our sustainability framework is aligned with recognised standards and references our performance to UN SDGs which we have also used as the basis to improve understanding of the scope of sustainability across the Group.
