Sustainability at Cefetra
Cefetra Ltd is actively continuing to develop its sustainability policies and initiatives. We understand the importance of safeguarding the planet and are aware of the significance of preventing climate change.
We also understand the importance of environmental protection and we are consistently looking to improve our sustainability practices within our supply chains.
Our aim is to promote the responsibility of creating a balance between people, planet, and profit throughout the supply chain.
We believe in ensuring business is undertaken in an ethical manner. More information on our approach to ethics can be found in our Slavery Statement and Supplier Code of Conduct.
In order to understand where we are as a business and – more importantly – where we can improve, Cefetra Ltd complete several sustainability assessments annually, including audits by EcoVadis and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
Cefetra Ltd has also been certified by RSPO and ISCC, passing audits to demonstrate that we meet their requirements to handle sustainable products under these schemes.
We work with our customers and suppliers to help them meet sustainability and ethical commitments – our Supplier Code of Conduct can be viewed here.
Our Sustainability Journey
Cefetra continues to integrate new sustainability practices and accreditations into our business. Our focus is on continuous improvement and we benchmark our performance through sustainability assessments.
Sustainability Assessments and Certifications
Cefetra have achieved an EcoVadis Gold medal award. This places us in the top 5% of companies assessed on their environmental, social and ethical performance.
Cefetra Ltd undertakes the Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA), Sedex’s social auditing methodology. This enables us to gain a clearer understanding of the ethics within our sites and supply chains.
Each year we submit comprehensive sustainability data as part of the BayWa group. We are proud to say that as a group, our 2023 score was ‘A-’ which placed us above the average for Europe and showed an improvement on our previous CDP climate score of ‘B’.
ISCC covers the entirety of the supply chain and verifies the product as compliant with the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive.
Cefetra Ltd has recently received an RSPO certification to trade sustainably sourced palm kernel expeller.
Certified Responsible Soya (CRS) is the sustainable soya offering from Cefetra. For more information, please see below and the CRS website. The CRS standard was among the first six soy standards to be successfully benchmarked against the (updated) FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines 2021.
In 2023 Cefetra achieved certification against the ISO 14001 Standard for Environmental Management, underlining our commitment to responsible management of our environmental impacts.
The Gafta Sustainability Pledge is given to Gafta members with public recognition of their commitment of sustainable business practices.
TASCC RED: We are certified under the TASCC RED (Renewable Energy Directive) scheme to trade sustainable products produced on UK farms.
Certified Responsible Soya (CRS)
Cefetra started auditing and certifying farms in South America in 2008 and we were able to offer CRS certification along with our physical soya to our customer base from 2009.
Crucially, since its inception in 2008, CRS certified farms must adhere to zero-deforestation (with a cut-off date of May 2009), making us pioneers in the marketplace for this criteria.
In addition to zero-deforestation, the CRS standard covers a range of indicators, including legal compliance, labour conditions, land rights and social and environmental responsibility, as well as good agricultural practices.
Uptake for the CRS standard has accelerated over the past few years and now the majority of the soya we supply is covered under the standard.
In 2021, the CRS standard was among the first of six soya standards to be successfully benchmarked against revised FEFAC Soy Sourcing guidelines.
POLY4
Cefetra Ltd has partnered with Anglo American’s Crop Nutrients to distribute the environmentally friendly crop nutrition product POLY4 in the UK, Ireland and 33 countries in Europe.
POLY4 is a multi-nutrient, low-chloride fertiliser derived from a naturally occurring polyhalite mineral. With no chemical processing and low carbon footprint during manufacturing, POLY4 is organically certified and offers season-long crop nutrition by supplying four essential nutrients – potassium, sulphur, magnesium, and calcium – in one product. This balanced nutrition, backed up by years of global agronomic data, will help increase yields, improve crop quality, and enhance structure and nutrient legacy of soils.
The mission is to help farmers to increase crop production by improving their efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility, and sustainability – the four cornerstones of POLY4 – to support growers in maximising crop productivity while safeguarding their soil.
In parallel, Anglo American and Cefetra Ltd are conducting a five-year trial with a number of farmers on soil carbon sequestration. The aim of the research is to understand possibilities of capturing carbon in the soil, measuring carbon storage potential as well as the crop nutrient uptake. The outcome of this project will help to enhance a roadmap and support more sustainable farming practices in the future.
Yield Enhancement Network (YEN)
Premium Crops – a division of Cefetra – is a member of the Yield Enhancement Network (“YEN”) which is focused on improving crop performance by contributing to a dataset which helps farmers better understand their crops.
The focus on increasing yield while monitoring other aspects of the growing process promotes more efficient farming while supporting farmers in developing best practice. This allows farmers to maximise their yields and minimise the amount of resources used.
Sustainability Assessments
Cefetra Ltd undertakes several sustainability assessments each year.
In January 2022 Cefetra Ltd received the results of our first sustainability assessment from EcoVadis which measured our environmental, social, and ethical performance. We initially received an EcoVadis Silver Medal, placing us in the top 25% of companies assessed. In subsequent years we are proud to have improved upon that result, achieving consecutive EcoVadis Gold medals, placing us in the top 5% of companies assessed.
We also undertake the Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA), Sedex’s social auditing methodology. This enables us to gain a clearer understanding of the ethics within our sites and supply chains. Ethical business is important to us and we encourage the other actors within the supply chain to meet the standards outlined in our Supplier Code of Conduct and Anti-Slavery Policy.
Each year we submit comprehensive sustainability data as part of the BayWa group. This data is assessed by CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project), an environmental reporting system that helps us to understand how we can better reduce our impact. We are proud to say that, as a group, our 2023 score was ‘A-’ which placed us above the average for Europe, and showed an improvement from our score in 2022.
For more information on the CDP and their disclosure process, please visit their website here.
Developing Sustainability at Cefetra
Cefetra Ltd contributes to the overall sustainability reporting by the CDP as part of the BayWa group.
As a Group, BayWa has identified 7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to guide our sustainability strategy. Please find the full BayWa Sustainability Report for 2023 here.
BayWa also joined the UN Global Compact Initiative in 2021.
We are proud to be certified by several accreditations. We undertake several sustainability assessments annually in an effort to benchmark and target areas for continuous improvement.
BayWa’s Key UN Sustainable Development Goals as defined by our parent company.
Newsroom and Updates
Section of updates on sustainability at Cefetra Ltd.