Consistent with our vision, strategic pillars and core values: healthier produce, healthier people and a healthier planet
We believe that conducting business is not just for profit but also for the betterment of people and stewardship of our planet. Sustainability is one of the strategic pillars in our long-range plan as a testament to our commitment to sustain our future through our sustainability goals.
Our Board of Directors, together with the leadership team, oversees Del Monte’s sustainability strategy. Our sustainability goals are developed by a cross-functional team, each of which implements and manages the programmes, addressing material priorities to achieve the sustainability goals. This brings to life our vision - Nourishing families. Enriching lives. Every day.
Understanding stakeholder transparency, we strive to ensure that Del Monte adheres to the highest governance standards in doing business.
"Our vision of a sustainable future will only materialise through action taken today.”
Achim Steiner, UN Environment Programme
“The evidence shows that long-term financial success goes hand in hand with social responsibility, environmental stewardship and good governance.”
George Kell, UN Global Compact
We believe that conducting business is not just for profit but also for the betterment of people and stewardship of our planet. Sustainability is one of the strategic pillars in our long-range plan as a testament to our commitment to sustain our future through our sustainability goals.
Our Board of Directors ultimately oversees Del Monte’s sustainability strategy, which is developed together with our management team. The Board meets with management to review sustainability objectives and performance, which encompasses environmental, social and governance factors affecting the Group. Understanding stakeholders’ requirement for transparency, we strive to ensure that Del Monte adheres to the highest governance standards in doing business. For more information regarding our governance principles, please go to our website at www.delmontepacific.com/corporate-governance.
Our sustainability strategy is developed by a cross-functional team composed of the leadership team and experts in different functional areas. Each functional team implements and manages the programmes to address the key material priorities of the Group to achieve the sustainability goals. This brings to life our vision to nourish families, enrich lives, every day.
We completed an independent materiality assessment process to identify and assess our priorities with respect to products, people, the environment, governance, business and our stakeholders. We engaged the services of an independent global consultant, a sustainability specialist firm, to ensure the independent process of assessment.
Our materiality assessment had the following objectives:
1. Identify the sustainability priorities, drawing on our knowledge of our internal and external resources, to compile a list of issues specific to the food industry.
2. Determine 30 environmental, social and governance priorities across six categories to frame our discussion.
3. Conduct a survey with internal stakeholders, i.e. employees, regarding the business impact of sustainability issues, which includes the scope and breadth of the issue, possible risk and magnitude of its impact, current regulatory and statutory regulations, and concerns from consumers, customers, communities and the government.
4. Send a similar survey to key external stakeholders including business partners, customers, suppliers, lenders, government, industry and trade associations, certification bodies, non-government organisations, academe, and investors to determine the issues they would like Del Monte to address.
5. Map the issues for the Group to prioritise and address the most important issues.
Our material priorities based on the independent assessment are as follows:
Aside from these priorities, we also included in our report some emerging issues – soil management, talent management and data protection, privacy and cybersecurity. Moreover, the Group provided a section in this report on climate change adaptation, energy efficiency, plant breeding, corporate social responsibility and philanthropy as these are essential to our operations. In addition, we highlighted our response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Our sustainability journey begins with our stakeholders. We nurture meaningful relationships with our stakeholders to provide a better understanding of the Group’s operations, strengthen collaboration and engagement, improve communication and transparency, and identify and resolve stakeholder concerns.
The following outlines our key stakeholders and the manner in which we engage them and how they impact our operations. These stakeholder groups were identified according to their level of influence, interest and impact to the organisation.
The Group needs to engage to be more transparent, to respond directly to stakeholder concerns, to identify potential risks and improve performance.
How We Engage Our Stakeholders
We follow best practices and international guidelines in reporting our sustainability performance. The Group uses the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting guidelines as reference.
The Group has integrated the sustainability strategies and embedded them in the long-range plan. Our Quality Policy, Code of Conduct, Code of Business Ethics and Sustainability and Environmental Policies enable us to comply with the standards set by the GRI. This is closely monitored and reported, as illustrated throughout this report.
The Group’s companies are members of several sustainability-related organisations. For example, Del Monte in the United States is affiliated with the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Programme, Food Waste Reduction Alliance and Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Both US and Philippine companies are members of the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange.
We focus on building the long-term resiliency of our business as we deepen our understanding of the global business environment while remaining mindful of the impact of our activities on the future of our planet.
We are guided by our vision, values and goals to provide health and wellness, environmental stewardship and employee welfare.
Fully acknowledging our responsibility towards the future, the corporate sustainability team leads our efforts to increase sustainability advocacy among our stakeholders. Key leaders have been oriented on sustainability.
Each business unit has identified its material sustainability issues by location which may differ from the Group’s material issues given the business model employed by the business units. As an example, our company in the Philippines does the cultivation, planting and harvesting of pineapples, while our US subsidiary uses contract growers to source its fruits, tomatoes and vegetables.
This Sustainability Report covers our financial year FY2020, from May 2019 to April 2020. We have excluded our Indian joint venture business from this report since its contribution to the total business is not material. Any US locations closed during FY2020 were removed from our data.
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Del Monte Careersc/o 17 Bukit Pasoh Road Singapore 089831 Tel: (65) 6324 6822 Fax: (65) 6221 9477