GOOD PRACTICES
We provide livelihoods and economic empowerment to rural families and communities, and we are responsible for stewardship of the landscape and our natural capital. Our products are essential ingredients in the world’s supply chains. We know how important sustainability is. We also know how difficult it is to balance choices in complex global markets and supply chains to achieve sustainability goals. We are proud of our efforts to measure and manage our sustainability impacts robustly and responsibly. We have worked hard to improve and maintain our sustainability credentials. We have listened and responded to our stakeholders – our results and performance speak for themselves.
The European beet sugar sector has the technical skills, commitment to social and environmental excellence and a strong agricultural tradition that will ensure our sustainable contribution into the future. We have a well-established framework of collaboration between beet growers and sugar manufacturers which has enabled us to deliver sustainability improvements over recent decades.
The EU Beet Sugar Sustainability Partnership is our sector’s commitment to creating further positive sustainability outcomes for years to come. One of our most important activities to this end is the establishment of the EU BSSP Good Practices. We developed the Good Practices to illustrate the sustainability practices in place in beet cultivation, sugar processing and our combined approach to social responsibility and dialogue with stakeholders.
We are encouraging our members, colleagues and collaborations to learn more about how we view our sustainability challenges and responsibilities and how we are working to address the significant expectations our stakeholders have - for quality products, a sustainable and eco-efficient industry, and for responsible supply chains, to which we contribute every day, around the world.
WHAT THE GOOD PRACTICES DELIVER
We developed the Good Practices to:
- Give our industrial customers an understanding of and confidence in our approach to sustainability – fully compatible with their own commitments and strategic goals,
- Give leading sustainability advocates the tools to assess our performance in managing our impacts on the environment and on society – to track how our sector has changed for the better,
- Provide our sector members, from beet growers to workers to sugar manufacturers, a coordinated platform and voice of the sector on sustainability – strengthening and enabling our commitment to sustainable performance,
- Support our regulators and policy makers in bringing about a sustainable and reliable industry with the resilience to change in response to new social, environmental and economic imperatives,
- Help consumers and the public make informed choices about the products and industries they support through their daily purchases.