Corporate Responsibility

 

Our CR commitments and targets for 2009/10

This section sets out some of our key commitments for the year and our targets against these commitments.

	Commitments	Targets
Workplace	Develop inspiring leaders	10% improvement in Employee Engagement Index
	Increase the safety of our employees	Accident Incident Rate below 1,775 per 100,000 employees
Community	Our employees to support and raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support	£300,000 to be raised by employees
Marketplace	Offer quality low fat choices: • Country Life Spreadable Lighter • Clover Lighter • Cathedral City Lighter	15% of total brand volume
	• 1% Milk	12.2 million litres
	Engagement with partners within the supply chain to drive continuous improvement to health and environmental credentials	Sign up our top 10 suppliers to an environmental/ethical supply policy
Environment	Reduce CO2 emissions Reduce water usage Reduce waste to Landfill	3% reduction 3% reduction 10% reduction

Managing CR

Dairy Crest is a responsible business. In our last annual report we reported that we had established a CR committee chaired by Carole Piwnica. We also reported that the committee’s mandate for the year was to review and implement Dairy Crest’s CR strategy. We are pleased to report that we have done this and this report sets out our commitment to corporate responsibility; our CR strategy; and how we manage CR within Dairy Crest. We summarise our commitments, targets and achievements. We will publish a full CR report, giving more details, on our website in summer 2009.

We have made considerable progress over the last twelve months ensuring that our CR strategy is absorbed into the fabric of the business. Our Group Solicitor, Caroline Slettengren, heads an internal CR committee which is made up of employee champions from across the business, and oversees the implementation of our strategy in four key areas: environment, workplace, marketplace and community.

In the coming year, we plan to make further strides and these will be regularly reported on our website. This will allow us to provide greater insight, such as our core commitment targets, and make our performance easy to follow and measure.

Having a CR programme that is fully integrated within the culture of the business offers a number of advantages. It ensures that everyone at Dairy Crest can be confident of working in a safe and respectful environment. It means that we attract and retain good people. It helps us add shareholder value and it helps us grow as a company and meet the expectations of all our other stakeholders – our consumers, customers, suppliers, employees and the communities where we operate.

Environment

Our aim is to be more energy efficient, carbon conscious and climate friendly.

Reducing carbon emissions
We have been measuring the amount of carbon dioxide released from our sites since 2002. The quantity released per tonne of milk processed was reduced by 24%* in the first five years. Continued efforts have led to a further 4%* reduction in 2009, as can be seen by the chart at the top of this page. We aim to reduce this by a further 3%* during the next year. We have also agreed specific carbon emission reduction targets with the Carbon Trust which will be met by 2020.

Throughout our sites we have invested in improved energy measurement systems on the principle of ‘what gets measured gets managed’.

We have updated our boiler control systems with more modern accurate versions to ensure the most efficient use of fuel.

Making better use of our water
Following on from our decision to join the Federation House Commitment in early 2008 we have continued to focus on reducing the quantity of water used to process milk as illustrated in our chart.

In the last year we have achieved an overall 8%* reduction in water used per tonne of milk processed by improvements in operational systems and efficiencies. During 2009 we intend to make a 3%* reduction.

Waste management and recycling
We continue to focus on reducing the solid wastes that result from our operations and where waste is unavoidable look for ways of diverting it from landfill by re-using and recycling it.

We now have systems in place to recycle plastic and cardboard at all our Household depots and at our manufacturing sites we have reduced solid waste to landfill by over 200 tonnes. We aim to have zero waste going to landfill by 2015, provided this is the best environmental solution.

Packaging
Our strategy is to Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. Therefore our first challenge is always to try to find better ways of reducing the amount of packaging we use.

In 2007 Dairy Crest was the first dairy company to sign the Courtauld Commitment, a voluntary agreement between WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and major grocery organisations and retailers to reduce packaging waste in the food industry. Through our initiatives such as our recyclable milk pouch and rHDPE polybottle, we are currently ahead of the targets set by the Courtauld Commitment for 2010.

In partnership with bottle manufacturer Nampak and recycler WES Greenstar, the company has developed the UK’s first recyclable plastic milk bottle. Bottles containing rHDPE can be collected from recycling centres and used in future bottle production. We expect that by the end of 2009 all our plastic bottles will include at least 10% recycled material.

Food waste
As well as working with WRAP on packaging reduction we also support their Love Food Hate Waste campaign. We continue to work to develop packaging which will allow consumer choice and eliminate waste without compromising food safety.

Workplace

The safety of our employees is paramount. We provide the necessary tools and training to maintain their understanding of health and safety and put it into practice throughout the working day.

Our new health and safety management and technical standards are designed to monitor compliance with relevant company policies and drive continual improvement.

Dedicated health and safety committees help raise awareness of work-related stress and other health issues.

Our Accident Incident Rate (AIR) in 2008/09 increased over previous years. We are not satisfied with this and are prioritising an improvement.

We recognise the importance of retaining our highly skilled workforce. This year we rolled out a new Leadership Programme to our top 150 managers. We have played a key role in the development of Project Eden, an industry training initiative, and look forward to identifying Dairy Crest employees to take part in the first intake at Reaseheath College, the appointed education provider.

We have also created a “Diversity and Flexibility” committee to oversee policy and approach and will be reviewing our ethical policy to ensure that its values are aligned with the company’s stated vision.

We listen to our workforce. In response to the 2008 staff survey we introduced two initiatives: Team Talk, a monthly briefing; and ‘the gardens’ a staff website. We also launched a Reward and Recognition scheme. 2009 saw the second Employee Engagement Survey in which everyone was invited to participate.

Marketplace and Community

We have also been busy in these areas and many of our achievements are reported in the Operating review on pages 10 – 21. We will collate these and report them more fully in our CR Report on our website in summer 2009.