Serving the Earth – putting our purpose into action: our commitment to decarbonization
Author
Jean-Philippe Puig
CEO of Avril SCA
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has published the results of its 2023 industry questionnaires: the results for Avril are encouraging, and reflect not only our ability to manage extra-financial risk factors, but also our commitment to transparency vis-a-vis our CSR performance levels and impact. They are also testament to our determination to take collective action for a sustainable future.
Given the ongoing proliferation of challenges involved, Avril opted to respond to three CDP questionnaires: Climate Change, Deforestation, and (for the first time) Water Security. For the Climate Change questionnaire, we retained our B grade. In Deforestation, we raised our grade from B to A-, an improvement that highlights our efforts to combat deforestation in our supply chains. This same positive trajectory was confirmed in our oleochemistry Business Unit, Oleon, which scored a B for Climate and improved its grade from B to A- for Forests. These results come in recognition of Oleon’s efforts with regard to traceability and certification procedures in its palm oil procurement, as well as its support for projects on the ground in Malaysia and Indonesia. Lesieur also made progress in the Climate Change questionnaire, increasing its grade from B to A-: a significant sign of progress illustrating the effectiveness of its climate strategy.
The CDP’s evaluation noted the drop in direct emissions from our industrial sites in 2022. It also highlighted the robustness of the action plans established for the decarbonization of indirect emissions generated by the Group and its Business Units. We have set an ambitious goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 30% in scopes 1&2 between 2019 and 2030. This commitment to emissions reduction has been validated by the SBTi (Science-Based Targets initiative), in response to the Paris Agreement.
Energy efficiency and the use of decarbonized energy are the two main levers being activated in pursuit of these goals. For example, over the years we have been installing biomass boilers at our production sites, some of which have now been in operation for a decade, and which run on byproducts such as sunflower seed shells and olive pulp.
While we can draw satisfaction from these results, we remain fully focused on the next steps of our journey to achieve the commitments made in accordance with the Group’s stated purpose: Serving the Earth. All in all, we are on the right track.
Each day at Avril, some 8,000 staff are actively committed to innovating and developing solutions to help address the challenges of the agricultural, food and environmental transitions. Our CDP score comes in recognition of these efforts, but also stands as a reminder of the importance of pursuing and intensifying our efforts.