2021-03-18 PRESS RELEASE FROM DELAVAL
At DeLaval we strive towards our vision by addressing animal welfare, reducing the environmental impact, improving working conditions and boost profitability in everything we do, both on farms and in our own operations.
Overall, we continue to look at sustainability from three main perspectives; Environment, Food and Animal Welfare, and we have identified 10 priority areas that we are focusing on.
Waste and recycling, Emissions to air, Water use, Energy efficiency, Product development, Food safety, Animal welfare, Diversity and inclusion, Employee engagement and wellbeing and Profitability.
In the Sustainability report 2020 you can read more about what we do in each priority area.
The UN Agreement requires climate neutrality by 2050 in order to prevent global temperatures rising above 1.5 degrees. This has led to us measuring all direct and indirect emissions throughout our supply chain operations. That is, we have included scope 1, 2 and 3 of the greenhouse gas protocols in this measurement. This accounts for the vast majority of emissions in our business. Our biggest emissions are in direct materials. Our use of metals and plastics are the areas where we emit the most. A working group was established in 2020 and has been able to find several areas where reductions can be made immediately. We will initiate additional activities in 2021 based on these results, to help reduce emissions.
Externally, we are striving to reduce the environmental impact of every litre of milk produced. This is by far the greatest contribution we can make to achieving the UN goals on climate change. In practical terms, it means developing products and solutions that improve efficiency and milk yield on farms.
For several years, we have developed products and solutions with a series of sustainability criteria in mind and this work continues. In the earliest development phase of any product, we look at factors affecting all aspects of sustainability, as shown in the illustration below. Many of our products have shown proven benefits in terms of increased and more efficient milk production, reduced energy consumption and improved animal welfare.
We continuously release new products and solutions with specific sustainability benefits. Below are a couple of examples from 2020.
Food safety is critical for all parts of the dairy value chain. We work with food safety through stringent compliance controls. A healthy animal provides more milk, at a better quality and for more years. We provide technologies that support good animal welfare. When farmers provide good conditions, they can improve the animal’s health and longevity while at the same time maintaining or improving farm profitability and reducing their environmental impact. As a company we are fully committed to following the globally established ‘five freedoms’ of animal welfare.
Animal welfare also has a direct effect on several other aspects of our sustainability approach, such as long-term profitability for farmers and food safety. There are four specific areas where we support animal welfare in the herds of our customers:
Social sustainability includes respecting and advancing human rights as they are defined by the UN. Economic sustainability is how we create long-term economic growth without negatively impacting social or environmental sustainability. Our Corporate Governance framework, including the Code of Business Conduct, guides us in this work. Through innovation we provide solutions to dairy farmers to make their lives easier and their farms more profitable whilst lowering their environmental impact.
Our goal is to have 25% female employees by 2025 and 30% by 2030. The percentage of female employees at DeLaval in 2020 and 2019 was 21%. The percentage of female managers is at 23%. Our gender distribution remains imbalanced and we need to improve significantly. The female managers ratio is improving gradually year on year.
Following on from our diversity inclusion strategy we have initiated and developed several activities These include:
Flexible working policy review in key countries.
These groups are working to support equal opportunities and room to grow with a focus on female employees.
Employee Engagement & Wellbeing includes occupational health and safety, the working environment, employee satisfaction and engagement, income and psychosocial work environment.
Occupational Health & Safety remains a high priority. DeLaval operates in an industry that is challenged with many potentially dangerous situations. Not only in our industrial operations but also for our sales staff, installation teams and service technicians on farms who often operate in remote and challenging conditions. DeLaval has a clear ambition to achieve zero incidents and accidents. We have safety procedures in our own facilities that are under constant review and we adjust whenever improvements are apparent. We follow all the legal regulations of the country in which we are present. We receive regular audits and in addition use external partners to provide extra consultation and auditing.
We continually measure Employee Engagement and will run a new Survey in May 2021.
Contact information and assets for download to be found on www.delavalcorporate.com