Interview

CSR strategy: mobilising

all our energies to deliver

a sustainable transformation

It was in 2023 that we launched our ambitious CSR

strategy with a roadmap setting out f ive key commitments

and a series of quantif ied targets. Since then, we’ve begun,

completed and accelerated many projects. They all ref lect

the innate character of our business throughout its history:

committed products and a commitment to people and

places. We catch up with Group Director of Sustainable

Transformation Benoit Jimenez for an update on progress.

What were the key steps of the Group CSR strategy

rollout in 2024?

As part of our commitment to help in the fight against

climate change, we’re working hard with particular focus

on achieving a greener energy mix. We commissioned a

number of important new installations in 2024, including

“Our aim is to onboard all our

activities by helping them to extend

their own initiatives to every link in

their value chain.”

a photovoltaic plant that will meet 5% of Group electricity

demand over 15 years.

We also made significant progress in setting out a

trajectory and an action plan for Scope 3 emissions, which

effectively extends our Group decarbonisation plan to

include our value chain.

Across the board, we’re being increasingly successful at

combining eff icient fertilisation with the use of fewer raw

materials, delivering an overall benef it not only in terms of

carbon emissions, but also for water, air and soil quality.

How has the commitment to offer customers

increasingly sustainable products been translated in

practice?

Our aim is to onboard all our activities by helping them

to extend their own initiatives to every link in their value

chain. In 2024, we provided them with new tools (life cycle

analysis software and databases and specif ically designed

criteria, as well as launching a series of cross-functional

projects, with particular emphasis on responsible

purchasing. As a result, a number of activities can boast

tangible successes. I’m thinking particularly of Phosphea,

whose

Hum

IPHORA product, which combines precision

nutrition with reduced phosphorus emissions in livestock

bedding, is now enjoying signif icant commercial success.

And Packaging is well on the way to achieving the target of

25% recycled raw material content by 2025.

Do you think that your teams are now taking

greater ownership of the CSR strategy?

Yes, and we’re doing a lot to make sure that happens. The

introduction of working groups has allowed us to provide

all our subsidiaries with a best practice guide to our

training commitments and local community partnerships.

The guide has given them all the resources they need to

act independently and ensure that we hit all our targets

together. We also launched a Group partnership policy

during the year and introduced skills sponsorship on a

test basis. Lastly, we introduced an e-learning programme

on CSR strategy, and set ourselves the ambitious aim of

having all our employees complete that programme within

two years.

What are your priorities now for increasing the

impact of the Group CSR strategy?

Implementation of our Scope 3 emissions reduction

trajectory and the associated action plan means securing

the active involvement of more customers and suppliers in

the process of decarbonising our value chain. So that’s one

of the major projects in the pipeline. Another is to take the

work already done around responsible purchasing a step

further by bringing all our activities together to address

this issue. We also have to take action on the regulatory

changes introduced by the European CSRD.* It’s important

that we see this as an opportunity to question our

priorities and practices from the perspective of a model

that requires a more systematic approach to information

around managing sustainability challenges.

*

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

Benoit Jimenez

Sustainable

Transformation

Director

Non-Financial Performance Statement 2024 11