SDG 8 Fair work and economic growth

We also aim to extend our influence through collaboration with other parties. On our own, our influence is insufficient.. We often cannot do this alone. We procure Class 2 fruit and vegetables, which actually constitute a kind of ‘bycatch’. In addition, the necessary risk spread ensures that we work with many different suppliers. As a result, our influence as Hoogesteger alone is often not sufficient to bring about a change. We have therefore set the goal of entering into discussions with at least two parties before the end of 2022 in order to increase our joint influence, or to participate in at least one working group in which this goal has been set.

Closer to home, we obviously also find it important for our own employees to feel good about themselves and to feel like they belong. In addition to our continuing focus on safety and personal development, we intend to focus on vitality and sustainable employability in the coming years. Above all production, where the employees work in shifts, places severe physical demands on our people. In view of the ageing of the population and the increase in the retirement age, it is important for our ageing employees to be able to find suitable work in the near future as well. We therefore aim to ensure that, by the end of 2023, 90% of our older workers will have reached their retirement age in good health and working.

SDG 12 Responsible consumption and production

The population is growing, the amount of available raw materials is decreasing and pollution is increasing. Within this SDG, our objective is to contribute to minimising food waste, reusing waste as much as possible and minimising waste through our end users. We hope that the results of our efforts will include contributing to the target of being 100% circular by 2050, as specified in the raw-materials agreement. The following are our own objectives that we have set for 2023:

To use our residual flows even more efficiently, with 80% being reused through human and animal consumption

We exceeded this target in 2021 by 89%;

• recycling 85% of our other waste. This target was not achieved in 2021. The total achieved was 83%.
• reducing the consumption of PET per bottle by 20% as compared with 2017. At present we have reached a reduction of 15%;
• using 50% recycled plastic (rPET). We exceeded this target in 2021, at 88%.

To provide information on 90% of our labels that contributes to sustainability, as with regard to the shelf life of the product and/or waste separation (depending on the customer and the country).

Currently, 90% of our customers’ labels contain waste segregation information;

To reduce our water consumption to 3.5 litres per litre of juice produced (as compared to 3.9 litres in 2017 and 4.2 litres in 2016). We just achieved this target in 2021.

In addition, we have set the goal of properly charting all CSR risks in the chain relating to responsible consumption and production within a year and including these risks as criteria in our code of conduct and audits.

SDG 13 Climate action

In addition to experiencing the effects of climate change (e.g. harvest failures due to drought or extreme rain or hail), we believe it is to make a contribution to the current number one challenge: climate control. It is therefore our goal to reduce our footprint from 2017 (see annual report) by 90% in the coming five years. In order to reduce CO₂ emissions within the chain, we have set a target of increasing the load factor of our transporters to customers by 15% by 2023, in addition to resolving to work only with transporters using at least Euro 6 engines. To this end, we will start by charting the current CO₂ policies of our transporters. We also intend to chart the CO₂ emissions for the rest of the chain (i.e. the ‘Scope 3 emissions’), so that we can use them as a base for expanding and refining our reduction objectives.

CSR Pillars

Based on the objectives stated above, we at Hoogesteger have formulated the following CSR pillars on which we will focus in the coming years:

• Energy and climate
• Contributing to a circular economy
• Human rights in the chain
• Vitality & sustainable employability

In addition, we ensure that our other CSR themes will receive attention and be in order as well.

Are there any CSR themes to which we pay less attention?

Perhaps you are wondering why you have not yet come across the term ‘biodiversity’, or why we do not produce exclusively organic juices. For the sake of completeness, we are happy to explain this below.

Biodiversity