Communicating sustainability with purpose - and with an umbrella! 

Presentations in any form can be taxing – be it live on air, during a webinar or presenting to a would-be customer. It helps if you are communicating about a subject you deeply care about as the ‘storytelling’ to your audiences becomes more authentic and you can speak about what you have done rather than just what you might do. 

The topic that fires me up is sustainability.   

So far, this year, I’ve had the opportunity to join two live panels to discuss climate change and sustainability: FT Climate Capital Live and the Economist Impact pact Sustainability event. The topics are ones I care about – not just as a FTSE 250 CEO but also as a parent, an employer and a citizen. Addressing climate change today is something no one person, business or organisation can do alone – so a collaborative debate with other bodies is exactly what’s needed.  

I didn’t have a visual aid to illustrate my comments but when it comes to sustainability, my passion for the topic means I naturally have company stories to tell to engage the audience.  For example, the narrative behind how Tate & Lyle's Sustainability Director, Anna Pierce works with Earthwatch Europe to improve regenerative agriculture practices – and livelihoods, for women and family-owned stevia farms in China (read more here). Like all farmers, they’ve been impacted by climate change and are seeking to improve crop resilience.  This partnership, together with Nanjing Agricultural University, provides in-person education and expertise to help ease the transition to different farming approaches and techniques.  It is working – the project life cycle analysis shows a 55% reduction in CGH emissions since it started (read more here).

Or, the story of our corn programme with Truterra, LLC, the sustainability business of Land O'Lakes, Inc., one of America’s largest farmer-owned co-operatives, in the U.S. The programme engages our suppliers and customers with regenerative agriculture interventions by farmers to decarbonise the corn supply chain. Through this programme and our procurement of sustainably verified corn in Europe, we continue to support sustainable agriculture equivalent to 100% of our annual corn procurement globally.    

More sustainability news to communicate   

Since these two events, I’m delighted we have had yet more sustainability news to share. We recently announced an agreement with Alabama Power for the provision of 100% renewable electricity at our McIntosh sucralose facility in North America. This means that the footprint of Tate & Lyle sucralose will be reduced by 20%. Read more here.

We built on this success by then announcing our long-term Purchase Power Agreement (PPA) in North America.  This means that 100% of purchased electricity in Tate & Lyle’s North America operations will come from renewable sources. This will also deliver more than an 80% reduction in our global annual Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and more than a 25% reduction in our global Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from the 2019 baseline. Read more here.

These announcements represent the next steps towards meeting our target of 100% of the electricity purchased for our operations coming from renewable sources by 2030. 

In May, we had announced ambitious new science-based emissions reduction targets in line with a 1.5°C trajectory, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the corporate climate action organisation that rigorously validates companies’ climate targets. Prior to this, Tate & Lyle was recognised on CDP's 2023 Supplier Engagement Leader board receiving an ‘A’ rating for supplier engagement on climate change strategy and action.    

Why this matters   

Not only do I enjoy speaking about sustainability, I also believe it’s my duty. Over a third of the world’s emissions globally derive from the food sector. There is also a huge shortfall between the amount of food we produce today and the amount that will be needed in 2050. According to the United Nations, we will need to produce around 60% more food than we do today. The scale of this should not be underestimated.  At Tate & Lyle we believe we’re placed right at the centre of the Future of Food, and that science and technology are the answer to how we feed a future population better AND more sustainably.   

To be most impactful, we need to align with the needs of today’s consumer – they want great taste, value, health, quality, transparency and convenience.  We help our customers create food which is accessible, tasty, nutritious – and sustainable.     

A recent online survey of over 1,000 consumers by Echo Research revealed that 79% said taste influenced their buying decision most, followed by price and value for money (65%) and then environmental impact (21%). When asked what they were most concerned about, 77 % said price with only 30% saying environmental issues.   

Our customer focus means we take this very seriously. The challenge for our customers, suppliers, business partners and policy makers alike, is for positive sustainability credentials to enhance the product the consumer already wishes to buy – so sustainability becomes a more integral part of their buying decision.   

No one conversation   

Communication around sustainability is not just my issue, but one for all of us.  We need a chorus of voices, speaking, presenting, feeding back. 

Collaboration is the future and I realised at these panel events, that the debates open up new opportunities for creative business collaboration.  Participating in a panel event could, for example, lead to a discussion about redesigning manufacturing processes to address climate change – leading to cleaner/greener food ingredient footprints and cleaner/greener consumer products on the supermarket shelf.     

Maybe I will take an umbrella as a visual aid to the next presentation about sustainability. In fact, some of the most engaging sustainability workshops have taken place in fields. And after all, increased rain and weather changes are a consequence of climate change – one that affects us all and one we can all understand.