Non-financial overview
Overview of non-financial performance
Tiger Brands has published a supplementary sustainability report in FY18, available on our website, with additional information and data for a broader range of stakeholders. We welcome your feedback (contact details here). For convenience, we have cross-referenced the summaries below to the sustainability report.
Highlights and challenges
| Safety | Challenges | |
| Safety and health |
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| Our people |
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| Our communities |
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| Environmental sustainability |
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Governance |
This section includes our approach to a number of industry-specific matters and global concerns.
Supporting global initiatives
Our collaborative approach to sustainability issues includes actively engaging with various forums:
- Participating in the annual climate change and water disclosures of the CDP
- Independently assessed against FTSE4Good criteria,
and satisfied requirements to remain a constituent of the FTSE4Good index - Member of the National Business Initiative (NBI), Strategic Water Partners Network and Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA)
- Member of the Consumer Goods Council South Africa.
Human rights
Our human rights policy was updated in the review period. It defines our commitment to respecting human rights enshrined in the bill of rights in South Africa's constitution, the UN guiding principles on business and human rights, the international bill of human rights, and the International Labour Organisation's declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work.
There were no reported cases of alleged human rights abuses in the review period.
Our approach to ethics
The board has ultimate oversight of our ethics, anti-corruption and anti-bribery policies, and compliance is monitored by the social, ethics and transformation committee. Confidential and independent facilities enable any stakeholder to report alleged corruption, fraud, human resources issues, human rights issues, theft and unethical behaviour.
For FY18, 54 whistleblowing reports were received: 45 were closed and nine are under investigation (FY17: 60 reports, all closed). After investigation, 12 employees were dismissed, two received final written warnings and 22 cases were registered with the SAPS, pending criminal proceedings. Seven successful prosecutions were reported in FY18 for cases registered in previous years.
Cyber security and protection of personal information
A three-year programme is under way to comply with the requirements of the Protection of Personal Information Act 2013 (POPI) and EU General Data Protection Regulation. This includes training and awareness campaigns for the top 1 000 employees in the group.
Sustainable agriculture
Our business depends on healthy ecosystems to produce sustainable supplies of wheat, maize, fruit, vegetables and other raw materials to create our iconic products used in millions of households daily.
Acknowledging the complex challenges facing the global food system and specific issues in South Africa, we are using our scale and presence, and expert input, to make a positive impact on the farms, communities and environment where our main raw materials are grown. Our smallholder producer programme is just one example. We are also actively driving change in our manufacturing processes and with our suppliers through our ethical sourcing policy so that sustainability becomes the accepted way to do business.
We are consolidating codes and practices across our business units into a group standard for sustainable agriculture and livestock farming based on key principles and best practices, including:
- Ensuring biodiversity by using environment-friendly chemicals, and crop rotation
- Selecting non-genetically modified (GM) cultivars for vegetable where possible
- Sustainable water management
- Animal welfare
Sustainable manufacturing
We are committed to running an environmentally responsible company and our operations adhere to all relevant environmental regulations. Managing operations in an environmentally and socially responsible manner – sustainable manufacturing – is therefore a business imperative.
Our procurement strategies focus on ethical sourcing and the long-term sustainability of our processes. Apart from our own initiatives, we collaborate with global and local bodies and experts to achieve our sustainability goals. We are also working with suppliers to ensure sustainable, traceable sourcing of key raw materials, such as palm oil.
An ethical sourcing policy was approved recently and will be implemented in 2019. It covers topics such as:
- Sustainable palm oil
- Sustainable cocoa sourcing
- Conflict minerals
- Human rights in the supply chain
Packaging
Packaging is vital in delivering our products to consumers in a way that preserves the integrity of the product while protecting consumers' health and safety, and minimising environmental impacts. Our packaging initiatives focus on:
- Optimising costs
- Lightweighting
- Innovative packaging that keeps content intact and protected from contamination and infestation
- Reduced primary, secondary and tertiary packaging
- Using recycled plastics where possible
- Investigating the use of biodegradable packaging
- Support reduce, reuse and recycle packaging principle
Lifecycle assessments evaluate the environmental impacts of all stages of a product's life from cradle to grave (ie from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling).
We are dedicated to helping consumers make better food choices so that healthy living becomes easier. In 2009, we voluntarily initiated the Eat Well, Live Well system that includes the guideline daily amount (GDA) table on all our products.
The GDA notes the five nutrients that have an impact on non-communicable and lifestyle conditions, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and some cancers, and allows the consumer to balance high-risk nutrients for the day, and make better food choices. This is complemented by the Be Nutrient Wise system on the front of each pack.
Nutrition – focus areas
| Issue | Reason | Our response | ||||
| Reducing sugar content | Compliance and healthy living | Reduced sugar by 11% or 12 000 tons across the portfolio in the past five years | ||||
| Reducing salt content | Compliance and healthy living | 100% compliance to current regulated targets 2 000 tons less salt used in milling and baking operations |
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| Portion size | Healthy living |
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| Nutritional value of our food products | Malnutrition affects a significant proportion of the populations we serve | We fortify staple foods like bread and maize meal, and cake flour with key vitamins and minerals. We voluntarily enrich certain breakfast cereals and instant porridges with micronutrients. Some products are developed to target specific requirements: Jungle Energy bars are enriched with B vitamins that assist in releasing energy; Morvite contains micronutrients to assist the immune system |
