ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY

Our impact on our environment is one of our major investment priorities as we strive to reduce any adverse effects that our activities may have on the environment.

Our strategic approach not only seeks to do the right thing but recognises this can bring internal cost efficiency and produce external revenue opportunities. We seek to operate all activities in a sustainable manner, and all colleagues are actively encouraged to consider and minimise the environmental impact of their actions.

Our aim is to become a carbon neutral business, coupled with a sustainability strategy which supports our farmer customers to become more efficient in the production of food.

Sustainability Leadership Team

As an evolution of the current sustainability-related activities, a new Sustainability Governance Structure has been developed in 2024, with the aim to build better cohesion throughout the Group.

A new Sustainability Leadership Team (SLT) has been formed. The SLT has overall responsibility for sustainability activities across the Group (internal and external). The SLT composition is a subset of the Group board of directors and Executive Committee. Initiatives driven by the SLT in 2024 include the setting of interim roadmap targets along the journey to carbon net-zero by 2040, focus on embedding climate risk with the Group’s risk management strategy, considering the role of innovation in onward product procurement, and on-farm activities.

Streamlined Energy and Carbon Report (SECR)

We measure and report our energy and carbon data across the whole Group, giving comprehensive data to measure the environmental impact of the Company.

Our SECR statement includes all emission sources required under the 2019 regulations for the financial year ended 31 October 2024. As this is the fifth year of reporting, we shall be comparing this year to the previous 2022/23 year, however the benchmark 2019/20 year is shown in the table.

Wynnstay Group used 12,608 (13,881 2022/23) carbon dioxide equivalent tonnes (tCO2e) of energy during the year. 32% (30% 2022/23) of energy was used in producing compound and blended feeds in our production plants. A further 57% (61% 2022/23) was used by our fleet of vehicles, this percentage decrease being driven by an absolute fall in the litres of road fuel used. Both production and transport efficiency are key to our energy savings plans, as we continue to seek efficiencies in factory throughput and miles achieved per litre for road fuel respectively.

The carbon intensity ratio we have chosen is the best reflection of our total activity across all our operations based on the total tonnage traded of agricultural inputs and grain. Our carbon intensity ratio for the year ended 31 October 2024 was 6.96tCO2e (7.37 2021/22) per 1,000 tonnes of agricultural inputs and grain traded. For future periods we shall set reduction targets for our carbon emissions to enable us to begin the measurement of energy efficiency along with financial performance.

In order to calculate the carbon emissions, we have used the emission factors from the UK Government’s GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting 2024. One of the requirements of the SECR regulations is to report our total UK energy use in kilowatt hours (kWh); for this we have used the 2024 conversion factors. The Scope 1 and 2 emissions reported are for all operational facilities under our control and for which we have direct management responsibility. Scope 3 emissions are for employee mileages in own vehicles only.