Sustainability and Limiting Environmental Impact
ESG is recognised as one of the major investment priorities for the Group as it strives to reduce any adverse impact that its 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. The Group seeks to operate all activities in a sustainable manner, and management are actively encouraged to consider and minimise the environmental impact of their operations. The aim is to become a carbon neutral business, coupled with a sustainability strategy which supports our customers to become more efficient in the production of food.
Energy usage is recorded across the Group and reported centrally for monitoring, with individual departments tasked with efficiency improvement targets on a unit productivity basis. During the year the Group continued to implement improvement opportunities identified from the audit conducted to comply with Phase two of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme managed by National Resources Wales. Further LED lighting schemes have been installed in several locations, and a number of refurbishment projects were completed in depots to improve the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings in those buildings. Capital expenditure on environmental and water management projects at Carmarthen mill has been ongoing, and at the Llansantffraid mill continues to operate an Environment Management System (EMS) under the Green Dragon environment accreditation scheme. Recycling processes operate across the Group for plastics, paper, cardboard, metal, wood, electrical equipment and used oils. Fuel efficiency is paramount in vehicle investment decisions, and mileage management is a key task for all fleet responsible personnel.
Internal Activities & Priorities
| Production Plants | |
| Maximise production efficiencies through investment. | |
| Exploit alternative energy opportunities. | |
| Operate within our EMS at all sites | |
| Logistics | |
| Reduce our cost to serve by improving vehicle utilisation and exploiting end user capacity, but not at the cost of customer satisfaction. | |
| Exploit alternative fuel technology in both the truck and car fleets. | |
| Continuous development in system efficiency via process control. | |
| Maximise supply chain efficiency working with all stakeholders to meet set targets and goals. | |
| Seek most efficient factory to end user supply routes. | |
| Purchasing | |
| Take a balanced view of product procurement in terms of net return coupled with environmental protection and sustainable sourcing. | |
| Exploit GNFT (Goods Not For Resale) opportunities across the group. | |
| Ensure we have full visibility of supplier ESG and Sustainability policies. | |
| Develop efficient supply chain systems exploiting supplier support and funding. | |
| Implement anti-slavery and supply chain labour standards. | |
| Encourage the use of recycled plastic wherever possible. | |
| Enhance supplier relations for the benefit of the business. | |
| Merchanting | |
| Exploit alternative energy solutions. | |
| Implement store optimisation plans. | |
| Target a 100% recycled packaging policy. | |
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| General | |
| Initiate sustainable working practices for staff utilising technology i.e. home working. | |
| Seek to reduce energy waste and improve water management policies. | |
| Monitor carbon foot-print to manage reduction with a net zero target for 2040 or sooner. | |
| Monitor air emissions to improve quality. | |
| Supporting the customer with Environmental and Sustainable strategies | |
| Use the business diversity to offer sustainable and cost competitive ingredients to the feed production sites. |
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| Support customers with sustainable production initiatives. |
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| Support customers with environmental compliance. |
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| Develop outlets for recycling plastic. |
(SECR) Statement
We measure and report our energy and carbon data across the whole Group, giving comprehensive data to authenticate 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 2022. As this is the third year of reporting, we shall be comparing this year to the previous 2020/21 year, however the benchmark 2019/20 year is shown in the table.
Wynnstay Group used 12,832 (2021: 12,466) carbon dioxide equivalent tonnes (tCO2e) of energy during the year. 32% (2021: 31%) of energy was used in producing compound and blended feeds in our production plants, which saw the addition of Humphreys from April 2022. A further 58% (2021: 56%) was used by our fleet of vehicles, this percentage increase being driven by an absolute rise in the litres of Derv used again reflecting the addition of the Humphrey business. 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 31st October 2022 was 7.24tCO2e (2021: 7.62tCO2e) 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 2022. 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 2022 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.
Streamline Energy and Carbon Reporting
| Carbon emissions (tCO2e) | Current (2021/22) |
Previous (2020/21) |
Benchmark (2019/20) |
| Scope 1 Emissions | 9,682 | 9,197 | 9,086 |
| Scope 2 Emissions | 3,127 | 3,249 | 3,582 |
| Scope 3 Emissions | 23 | 20 | 42 |
| Traded tonnage of agricultural inputs and grain | 1,772,821 | 1,635,788 | 1,560,895 |
| Carbon intensity ratio (tCO2e/1000t traded) | 7.24 | 7.62 | 8.14 |
| Total UK energy usage (kWh) | 57,910,122 | 54,499,274 | 53,320,243 |