In conversation with adm Group's Chief Sustainability Officer & MD of Operations

What are the key achievements outlined in your sustainability report?

Firstly baselining our GHG Emissions across Scopes 1, 2, and 3. For a business where over 99.9% of our emissions are Scope 3, and 76.7% is Purchased Goods and Services, reaching a baseline was an achievement in itself. Secondly, I’d have to say implementation of our Green Design Tool. This tool has been bespoke developed for our sector and goes further than most on the market to provide some great metrics and it will play a key role in our emissions reduction roadmap. When we began 2022, they were the two big objectives we knew we needed to nail.

Where can we improve as a business?

Everywhere! It’s great to have a foundation, to have targets and a strategy, but it’s about being action-orientated and having real impact. That’s what we want to be known for. Hopefully that comes across in our report. It was pleasing to see our absolute emissions reduced 13% in 2022, but there is much more we can and need to be doing collaboratively with clients to drive emission reductions, reduce water consumption, encourage biodiversity, protect human rights, and support diversity in the supply chain.

How do we make some of those things a reality?

Well, embedding the GDT is critical. The brief, concept & design stages are your best opportunity to avoid unnecessary emissions, so we need to work with clients to encourage behaviours that support this change. And ensuring everyone knows the emissions of products they’re buying will impact decision making at the point of purchase.

Incentivising stakeholders is another key aspect. We’ve taken the step to make group performance on key sustainability metrics a contributing factor in everyone’s bonuses at adm. This is a development we expect to see across business in the coming years as a triple bottom line approach grows.

Changing commercial mechanisms is also critical so it rewards the right behaviours for both parties involved and works towards reducing emissions whilst increasing the effectiveness of marketing materials. And there are lots of tactical initiatives which can be implemented in the supply chain with enough planning. That is where collaboration across the value chain is key.