World class recognition.

Corporate Social Responsibility remains important right across the supply chain all the way from on-farm to consumers. Westland is committed to being transparent in our sustainability journey and is already making great progress towards our targets. This is proven by the retention of our silver medal in 2022, awarded by international corporate social responsibility auditor EcoVadis.

The award shows Westland has achieved a high level of compliance with various corporate social responsibility components and puts Westland in the top 25% of companies that have completed the assessment. Several of our major customers and other major international companies have completed EcoVadis assessments or utilise EcoVadis during the sustainable procurement process including Danone and Friesland Campina.

“Westland’s participation in the EcoVadis assessment arose from a growing international demand from many of our customers to have a holistic understanding of our corporate social responsibility position. These customers require us to have completed this type of audit so that they can, in turn, demonstrate to their customers that they meet sustainable procurement standards. The EcoVadis audit is an internationally accredited assessment that helps us evaluate our compliance with various global standards and, just as important, where we need to make improvements,” explained Environmental Manager Chris Pullen.

“The assessment is incredibly thorough. We can’t just claim we are meeting the requirements; we actually have to submit proof that we are doing what we say we are.”

Ecovadis looks at the following themes & criteria when making an assessment:

Environment: Operations - Energy Consumption, Water, Biodiversity, Local & Accidental Pollution, Materials, Chemicals & Waste. Product - Product use, Product end of life, Customer Health & Safety, Environmental Services & Advocacy.

Social: Human Resources - Employee Health & Safety, Working Conditions, Social Dialogue, Career Management & Training. Human Rights - Child & Forced Labour, Diversity, Discrimination & Harassment, External Human Rights issues.

Ethics: Corruption & Bribery, Anti-Competitive Practices, Data Security.

Sustainable Procurement: Supplier Environmental Practices/Performance, Supplier Social Practices/Performance.

Westland managed to improve on last year's score, making particular strides in the ethics and sustainable procurement aspects of the assessment. An action plan of improvement areas has been developed with the purpose of achieving a gold medal in the future.

“It is a great achievement to be able to maintain this medal for the 5th year in a row, with the award highlighting our commitment to meeting not only our customers’ requirements, but also supporting the communities and environments we operate in,” said Chief Executive Richard Wyeth. “Westland has always been committed to doing what’s right, but since the launch of our first CSR strategy in 2021, this activity has been revitalized with all staff right across the business understanding the importance of incorporating CSR right from on-farm activities to the production and distribution of our high-quality end products.”