ESG Report 2022-2023

Growing our sustainable future

Overview

Our 2022-23 ESG Report details our progress towards growing our sustainable future through creating the environment and opportunities to enable and empower our people to excel, making a difference in the communities in which we live and work and achieving our 2030 strategy.

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Years of delivering our promise

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Colleagues Around The World

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Billion Packs of Produce Supplied

Message From Guy W Shropshire

“Our commitment to the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit is central to our strategy. As progressive growers, we make a difference by developing our people, caring for the environment and supporting local communities, while supplying quality fresh produce that delights our customers every day. We are here for the long term, with sustainability at the centre of our decision making.”

Guy W Shropshire, G’s Group CEO

A Year of Impact

In our 70th year the world is facing increasing disruption from war, inequality and the impact of climate change, our ambition is to improve our resilience and sustainability across all our operations. The video below celebrates the role our champions have taken in driving these activities during the last year.

Our Approach to ESG

Our ESG strategy is fully embedded into our business strategy; by 2030 we aim to have mitigated 45% of GHG emissions from our own operations since 2020 and improved our soil health & biodiversity.

Our Four Pillars of ESG

Our Four Pillars of ESG – 2023

The four pillars and our key priorities guide our ESG progress and are used as a management tool to ensure we are making progress against our commitments on an annual basis.

Our Champion Model

Our Champion Model – 2023

The champion’s model is a grass roots movement of colleagues from across our businesses who facilitate and support business change and learning focused on our ESG objectives and targets.

Our Journey So Far

Our Journey So Far 2023

Our approach to ESG has evolved from a CSR strategy that was followed over the preceding 10 years and a fundamental business culture to do things better. Our strategy looks forward to 2030 and our Target State.

Our Progress in Numbers

A Great Place to Work For All

Food Waste

Regenerative Agriculture & Biodiversity

GHG Emissions Reductions

Impact Stories

Good Place to Work Spain

Great Place to Work for All

Charles Shropshire Biodiversity

Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms

Regenerative Farming

Tim Young Onion Grower

Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

International Womens Day

International Women’s Day

Nightingales on Norfolk Farms

Nightingales at Norfolk Farms

Spain Planting

Ethical Employment

Careers & Community Engagement

Sowing Seeds – G’s España

Open Farm Sunday

2023/24 Priorities

In order to ensure our ESG workstreams are fully integrated into our Group 2030 strategy, through 2023 and 2024 we will FOCUS the time and efforts of our champions on four key priorities.

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ESG Priorities:
Champion Coordination

  • 1

    Great Place to Work

  • 2

    Regenerative Agriculture (water)

  • 3

    Biodiversity

  • 4

    GHG emissions reduction (data and circular economy)

We will continue with our established activities in: Food Waste goal to achieve 50% reduction by 2030 Community, where every business sets its own objectives eg Open Farm Sunday

3

Key Actions:

  • 1

    Build commitment through the organisation

  • 2

    Set quantifiable goals

  • 3

    Build a trackable plan to hold ourselves accountable

Governance

In our devolved business structure, our governance is overseen by our group management board and is rooted in our Promise, Philosophy and Values. Our internal system of practices, controls, and procedures allows our businesses the independence to make effective decisions, comply with the law, and meet the needs of our stakeholders.

Great Place to Work for All

Throughout our business we promote a culture based on trust, empowerment & engagement​. By 2030 our aim is for all G’s businesses to be officially recognised Great Place to Work for All.

In December 2022 G’s España as a total business in Spain achieved Great Place to Work certification. The first produce business in Spain to achieve this certification.

Sonia Rosique,G’s España HR Director

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms

Over the Past 8 years we have driven to create habitat to enable wildlife to flourish.
Our approach has been simple.

There is clear beneficial evidence that shows, a clear-cut line of – Is the land productive for food? YES we farm it, if NOT it goes to wildlife.

Charles Shropshire,MD Cambs Farms Growers

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

Regenerative Farming

Over the past eight years we have been developing and testing regenerative agricultural practices and our 2030 strategy embeds regenerative agriculture across all our farms.

Whilst globally, regenerative agriculture is well established in broad acre arable, this is not the case in horticulture and vegetable growing where there is no established road map and there will be far greater challenges in the transition.

Gareth McCambridge,MD G´s España Farming

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

We try our hardest to look after the crops we grow but sometimes we get tripped up. Loads of great #onions left here for #gleaning but too many suffered from the extreme 40+ degree heat meaning we can’t store or sell them.

Original video filmed on X

Tim Young,G’s Growers Onion Grower

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

International Women’s Day

There are many benefits to having a gender-balanced workforce, both financial and societal,
leading to a better working environment for all. Increased gender diversity, with varied
opinions and approaches, has been shown to improve productivity and innovation, build a
more stable workforce that better reflects our consumers, and lead to greater profitability.

Lourdes Sánchez Vera, Comunicación & ESG

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

Nightingales at Norfolk Farms

The Biodiversity areas at Rosedene Farm host one of the largest populations of Nightingales in the UK. These birds overwinter in the Gambia (just south of our farm in Senegal). The British Trust for Ornithology study these annually. Tags have shown that about 50% return not just to the same farm every year, but to the same hedge.

Martin Hammond,GM G’s Norfolk Farms

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

Ethical Employment

We are committed to detecting, disrupting and preventing modern slavery throughout our businesses and supply chain, whilst leading and maintaining human rights standards in the workplace.

Lynsey Gill,Ethical and Compliance Manager

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

Careers & Community Engagement

Our Careers and Community programme provides support to a wide range of school, college and university careers activities, informing and inspiring young people about careers and opportunity in the food and farming industry.

Charlotte Downing,Head of Talent & Early Careers

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

Sowing Seeds – G’s España

Through our Sowing Seeds programme, we have been able to talk to students and demonstrate the preparation and planting of a range of fresh salads, whilst also planting different flowers and explaining the importance of biodiversity. We have also been able to demonstrate the use of water and the importance of looking after the soil as well as the more general opportunities for developing a career in agriculture.

Janine Abram,Marketing Product Manager

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

Open Farm Sunday

G’s have been hosting Open Farm Sunday at Barway since 2006 and each year the event attracts visitors from across the region and beyond.

This year our event attracted almost 9,000 visitors and was supported by a range of G’s customers, suppliers, industry, and environmental partners, making the G’s event one of the biggest in the Open Farm Sunday calendar.

Emma Shropshire,Community Manager

Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning

A Great Place to Work For All

Throughout our business we promote a culture based on trust, empowerment & engagement​. By 2030 our aim is for all G’s businesses to be officially recognised Great Place to Work for All

We believe A Great Place to Work is built upon Trust. This means openness, respect, and teamwork, in a safe, ethical environment.​

Our ambition is to build High Performance Teams across G’s, who never stop learning, take pride in excellent results, and in which Leaders are credible and individuals are treated with respect.​

G's España 100% GPTW Certified

In December 2022 G’s España as a total business in Spain achieved Great Place to Work certification. The first produce business in Spain to achieve this certification.

All UK businesses participated in the GPTW Survey

In October 2022 all UK businesses participated in the Great Place to Work Survey with six business units achieving certification in the first year.

100% Independent Safety Audited

A Great Place to Work, starts with being a safe place to work. 100% of our businesses have an annual independent Health & Safety audit.

Inaugural MSIN Conference

G’s are a founder member of the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN) and in June 2022 hosted the launch of the organisation at
a conference attended by c. 200 members of the industry. www.msin.org.uk

Food Waste

We are targeting 50% reduction in food waste by 2025, in-line with the Courtauld 2025 targets and UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. Since 2017 we have achieved a 40% reduction in our food waste volumes, measured back to the field.

Precision agriculture techniques and growing enhancements across our farms are enabling us to maximise yields and reduce waste through embracing new technology.

Our teams work closely with customers to optimise specifications to ensure more of the crop is utilised and stays fresher for longer.

When an unavoidable food surplus does occur, we have worked with customers to enhance processes to facilitate redistribution and donations of edible and nutritious produce to those who are most in need.

-40% Reduction

Since 2017, we have reduced food waste back to the field by 40%.

3M Meals Donated

G’s has Leading Food Partner Status with Fareshare and has donated the equivalent of 3m meals since 2017 through our UK operations.

>16,000kgs donated

Our European businesses (Spain, Czech and Poland) partner with Caritas, Bancos de Alimentos and Cuiavia SPOiW.

Regenerative Agriculture & Biodiversity

Over the past eight years we have been developing and testing Regenerative Agricultural practices and our 2030 strategy embeds Regenerative Agriculture across all our farms.

We have defined 6 principles building on the generally accepted principles of Regenerative Agriculture that will underpin all our farming practices.

  1. Minimise Soil Disturbance
  2. Maintain Living Roots
  3. Maximise Diversity
  4. Keep Soil Covered
  5. Integrate Livestock
  6. Recognise Context

Regenerative Agriculture supports the biodiversity habitat management plan by increasing diversity in our fields which are the spaces between our habitats. To improve biodiversity on our farms and landscapes, we will improve our habitats in area, number, quality and connections. 

Farming will be based on regenerative principles

This is an approach to farming which feeds and protects organisms in the soil, which in turn feed plants and maximise their photosynthesis. This heightened biological activity allows farmers to produce the greatest yield at the lowest cost.

Habitats: Quality and connectivity scored mapping across all farms and sites 

Project undertaken by champions to map all habitat features on farms / sites and to score the features on quality, (diversity and condition) and connectivity within the landscape.

Improving soil health is central to regenerative farming

Biological diversity wins! Building a dynamic symbiosis between: plants and microbes, and microbes and microbes. Creating a large diverse and active soil food web. Increasing diversity above and below ground.

Biodiversity Competition

The 1st G’s Biodiversity competition introduced to encourage knowledge transfer between operating sites.

GHG Emissions Reduction

We have set an ambition of Net Zero across our own operations (Scopes 1 & 2) by 2035. This includes all of our own farming operations as well as processing and packing.

We are committed to setting ourselves stretch targets, aligned with science backed 1.5 degree pathways and approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative.

By ensuring the impact on GHG emissions is part of daily business decisions, we are reducing emissions throughout our operations and empower our colleagues to create positive impact on the future of the business and the environment.

Net Zero by 2035

In January 2021, we set our ambition to being a Net Zero business within our own operations (Scopes 1 & 2) by 2035.

Carbon Trust

Through the past year we have worked with the Carbon Trust to complete a GHG inventory of Scope 1, 2, 3 emissions across our operations.

Data captured for SBTi

Through the year we have gathered data from across our businesses to establish our 2019/20 base line. This data was submitted for SBTi validation in August 2023.

65%

Fuel, fertiliser, packaging and transport account for 65% of our emissions. Reducing these emissions will be dependent on technological developments.

A Great Place to Work For All
Food Waste
Biodiversity
GHG Emissions Reductions

Our Four Pillars of ESG

In January 2021, we revisited and relaunched our ESG strategy across our businesses under four ESG pillars, aligning with the UN SDG’s where we believe we will have an impact.

The four pillars and our key priorities guide our ESG progress and are used as a management tool to ensure we are making progress against our commitments on an annual basis.

Our Champion Model

Key to enabling G’s ESG programme is our champion’s model.

The champion’s model is a grass roots movement of colleagues from across our businesses who facilitate and support business change and learning focused on our ESG objectives and targets.

Alongside their core roles, our Champions have volunteered to get involved in projects, challenge the status quo and take a positive role in growing our sustainable and inclusive future.

We have over 100 ESG Champions working cross functionally to support our ESG ambitions through networking and knowledge sharing both internally and externally.

Our Journey So Far

2010 to
2020

G’s sustainability commitments managed through a CSR approach and energy reduction KPI

2021

ESG Framework formally launched Champions model introduced

2021/22

100 ESG champions recruited from across the G’s Group V1 ESG plans developed

2022/23

Launch of 2030 strategy main-streaming our ESG ambitions.

Focus on GHG emission reductions through establishment of SBTi approved value chain footprint.

30% of colleagues working within GPTW accredited business units

1st Annual ESG Report Published

2023/24

4 ESG PRIORITIES
– Great Place to Work
– Regenerative Agriculture
– Biodiversity
– GHG Emissions Reduction

3 KEY ACTIONS
– Build commitment through the organisation
– Set quantifiable goals
– Build a trackable plan to hold ourselves accountable

2030

TARGET STATE All our businesses are rated Great Place To Work for All. All our farming is based on regenerative principles. We use our seed-to-shelf capability to deliver the highest standards of integrity. We have mitigated 45% of GHG emissions since 2020.

Our Journey So Far – 2024
Our Four Pillars of ESG – 2024
Our Champion Model – 2024
Our Four Pillars of ESG – 2023
Our Champion Model – 2023
Our Journey So Far 2023

Report 2023

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Biodiversity 2024
Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water Usage & Conservation
Tackling Modern Slavery
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
Great Place to Work for All
Biodiversity at G’s Cambs Farms
Regenerative Farming
Tackling Food Waste – Gleaning