New Delhi, January 30, 2018: Monsanto Company today released its 2017 Sustainability Report, Growing Better Together. The report demonstrates Monsanto’s commitment to sustainability and details the company’s progress against all its goals including improving irrigation water efficiency which has the potential to save up to 80 billion gallons of water each year.
Monsanto has set a target of improving irrigation water efficiency of global seed production by 25% by 2020 and is more than half way to that goal. This represents just one of many advancements the company made on its environmental and social commitments in fiscal year 2017 (September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017).
“The agriculture industry faces one of the most significant challenges in its history. We need to produce 50 percent more food globally to feed an additional 2.5 billion people by 2050 on about the same amount of land being farmed today,” said Pam Strifler, Monsanto’s Vice President for Global Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement. “At Monsanto, sustainability is embedded in our values, and we are committed to advancing modern agriculture, which helps make farming more sustainable by providing innovations such as digital tools to grow food, fuel and fibre using fewer natural resources.”
The 2017 Sustainability Report is organized along the company’s Growing Better Together Sustainability Framework: Better Planet, Better Lives, Better Partner.
- Through innovation and collaboration, Monsanto delivered three years ahead of schedule on helping farmers use nutrients more efficiently and curb greenhouse gas emissions on 1 million acres. This was done in partnership with GROWMARK System, a leading agricultural supply cooperative.
- Offset its carbon footprint by more than 200,000 metric tons – marking progress toward achieving a carbon neutral footprint by 2021 through operational improvements, new products and working with farmers to advance and adopt climate-smart practices.
- Received the Wildlife Habitat Council’s Corporate Conservation Leadership Award for demonstrating “an exemplary level of corporate commitment to biodiversity and conservation education, and meaningful alignments with global conservation objectives.”
- Invested $5 million annually in honey bee health research since 2013.
- Benefited 200,000 people by investing $3.5 million in clean water, sanitation and hygiene projects both at its facilities and in surrounding communities since 2014 as part of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development WASH Pledge.
- Reached more than 18.4 million people with Off-the-Job safety messages through more than 3,000 in-person events and social media efforts.
The company also published progress against a suite of other goals for the first time, including:
- Establish sustainability and community engagement plans at 100 percent of breeding and production sites by 2018. The company has established such plans at 86 percent of these sites.
- Trained 1,750 company leaders in unconscious bias in 2017, bringing the total to 4,800 to meet the target of 5,000 by 2018.
- Enhanced the Supplier Code of Conduct to further focus on human rights and supplier diversity and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The company engaged 62,000 suppliers in pursuit of 100% implementation.
In line with its stated objectives, Monsanto achieved the following targets in India:
- Reached more than 100,000 farmers in 400 villages across India under Project SHARE 2 (Sustainable Harvest, Agriculture Resources and Environment), in partnership with ISAP (Indian Society for Agribusiness Professionals), an initiative to train farmers on sustainable agriculture, water management and integrated farming systems
- Recycled 9.6 million litres of water by installing water harvesting pits that collected rainwater at breeding and supply chains in Bengaluru and Hyderabad
- Made sanitary products more accessible by organizing sanitary napkin vending machines in government schools in rural villages and educating hundreds of students. Thus, reducing the risk of all reproductive diseases caused by poor menstrual hygiene
- Child labour has always been a major challenge for rural India. To meet the objective of eradicating child labour, each year, Monsanto employees conduct meetings with numerous stakeholders at the start of the growing season. This early intervention has helped convince many parents to enroll their children in schools to provide them education.
- Monsanto has been the first agriculture company to sign the WBCSD WASH Pledge. The company has also invested significantly in clean water, sanitation and hygiene projects both at their facilities and in surrounding communities between 2014-2017, with a focus on nine countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Guatemala, India, Malawi, Mexico and South Africa.
The company also published progress against a suite of other goals for the first time, including:
- Establish sustainability and community engagement plans at 100 percent of breeding and production sites by 2018. The company has established such plans at 86 percent of these sites.
- Trained 1,750 company leaders in unconscious bias in 2017, bringing the total to 4,800 to meet the target of 5,000 by 2018.
- Enhanced the Supplier Code of Conduct to further focus on human rights and supplier diversity and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The company engaged 62,000 suppliers in pursuit of 100% implementation.
The Monsanto 2017 Sustainability Report and highlight summary is available online at Monsanto.com/sustainability. Each year, the company publishes a sustainability report that fulfils its commitment to document progress against the 10 Principles of the United Nations Global Compact and demonstrates its alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This report was prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards.
The 2017 Sustainability Report is being released today in conjunction with the Monsanto 2017 Annual Report, “Sharing Value; Sustaining Innovation.”
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
