“At George Weston Foods, our intention is to always do the right thing by our people, customers, supply chain, the environment and our communities. Through our food and food related businesses in Australia and New Zealand we believe we do good every day. CSR initiatives are run at the business unit level and aligned centrally under five key platforms.”
– Stuart Grainger
The report highlights the many achievements that our businesses have achieved in the sustainability space over the last few years – and the challenges ahead.
GWF and our businesses have worked diligently over many years to reduce our carbon footprint and make a positive difference in people’s lives. Countless energy efficiency, packaging reduction, and water conservation projects, along with long standing community support programs, ethical and sustainable sourcing, and nutritional improvements to our food, all continue to make a difference.
But in these rapidly changing and challenging times GWF believes we can and must do more.
GWF is different from many Australian and New Zealand food companies. While GWF is the registered entity, it’s our individual business units that select and drive the future agenda. The role of GWF is to create an environment for our businesses to grow and thrive.
This sustainability report highlights our efforts to date and outlines the future pathway GWF and our businesses are developing for a more sustainable future.
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Our commitment is to provide a safe and inclusive workplace, where people can be themselves at their best
‘Safe’ is a core value having an equal voice in all business decisions. We’re committed to building a strong safety culture, where continuous improvement and the right behaviours are rewarded and where the people who do the work are involved to ensure we do it safely.
GWF is striving to move beyond the performance limitations of a ‘compliance’ culture to a more sustainable and high performance ‘commitment’ based safety culture driven by engaged people at all levels.
Following a safety incident in our DON business, we have had significant learnings which we shared at a seminar in 2021. If you’d like to hear more about our learnings, you can view the educational footage below.
Our people policies support and enhance our values – including our Code of Conduct, to standards of Workplace Behaviour, to our Flexible Workplace Policy, to help our people balance work and other commitments. Physical, mental and general wellbeing programs are other examples.
For further information about our culture, click here
Our commitment is to always provide safe, high quality products and to pursue improvements to nutrition, enjoyment and customer satisfaction.
GWF’s food businesses have removed over 510 tonnes of salt from Australian diets since 2007. Further reductions in salt, sugar and artificial additives are planned to ensure our brands continue to meet and exceed the changing demands of Australian and New Zealand consumers.
Packaging that communicates Health Star Ratings, Country of Origin, allergen contents and packaging recyclability are examples.
GWF actively contributes to multiple organisations that provide expert advice such as the Australian Food and Grocery Council’s Committee of Health, Nutrition and Scientific Affairs, New Zealand Association of Bakers and the Allergen Bureau.
As the manufacturers of many household brands, we work hard to ensure our products reach consumers in their optimum condition. All our manufacturing facilities are certified to local regulatory requirements, with some facilities achieving internationally recognised standards, and our dedicated quality and operational teamwork every day to achieve our strict quality standards. We are a member of the Global Food Safety Initiative.
Our commitment is to only buy from ethical, responsible and sustainable sources, to consider the people in the supply chain, and to comply with local and international standards in animal welfare as a minimum.
We require our suppliers to comply with our Responsible Sourcing Code of Conduct, capturing our expectations regarding ethical labour standards, modern slavery, anti-bribery and corruption and sourcing of ingredients and materials.
George Weston Foods has made a commitment to the responsible sourcing of palm oil. Since 1 January 2015, our policy is to only source and supply products that include Certified Sustainable Palm Oil.
Our owned piggeries in Australia have been sow stall free since 2010, with directly owned and supplier owned piggeries in Australia certified by the Australian Pork Industry Quality Assurance (APIQ) Program. For additional information visit www.apiq.com.au/. Pork which we source from overseas suppliers in Europe and North America is produced at least to the minimum regulatory standards in those regions. Suppliers are regularly audited and expected to undertake continuous improvement in welfare standards.
We are committed to transitioning to 100% cage-free eggs for our brands and products by 2025.
The achievement of a safe transport and warehouse traffic management environment is a collective responsibility. We have an independently audited Chain of Responsibility management system for supply chains across our national business.
We have a certified Vendor Assurance Program, where suppliers are audited against relevant regulatory, industry and customer standards.
Our commitment is to support the local communities that support us, and those most in need.
Food Bank is the largest hunger relief organisation in Australia and acts as a conduit between the food and grocery industry’s donations and the welfare sector’s needs. They distribute food to over 2,500 charities and community groups and over 1,000 schools around Australia. GWF’s primary contribution is through significant product donations – 1.79million meals and growing.
The Nourish Our Kids / KidsCan initiative focuses on helping New Zealand kids who experience hunger and poor nourishment. Working directly with schools as well as charitable organisations, Top Top donates over 100,000 loaves of bread every year to help those in need.
GWF operates in over 60 sites all around Australia. We proudly support many local community programs including YMCA School breakfast in NSW and Qld, Salvation Army (Vic), Ronald McDonald House Charities (VIC) and many other local programs aimed at helping those most in need.
Our commitment is to progressively reduce our environmental impacts and use natural resources more efficiently.
GWF is on track to achieve its goal to reduce water consumption per kg of goods produced by 20% by 2020. Initiatives include water recirculation, more efficient cleaning practices and rainwater harvesting.
By 2025 our packaging will be designed to be 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable to help “close-the-loop”. This shall be progressed through the continuous reduction of packaging volume, innovation, improved design and minimising waste material.
GWF is a member of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO). We are also a partner of REDcycle in Australia and the Soft Plastics Recycling programme in New Zealand. These schemes are directed at recovering post-consumer soft plastic food packaging for reprocessing into products such as benches; bollards; decking and fencing.
The GWF Australian Business has achieved a decrease in reportable greenhouse gas emissions of more than 28% since 2008/9.
Our approach focuses on reducing energy use and emissions while preparing for ongoing shifts in the regulatory and physical environments.
From LED lighting and co-generation to solar energy projects, GWF continues to take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through more efficient energy solutions, greater operational focus, the transition to lower emitting fuel types and the integration of renewables into our energy mix long-term.
GWF is on track to reduce the amount of material sent to landfill by 40% by 2020. This has been achieved through improved separation and segregation of waste streams, better awareness around the waste management hierarchy and greater accountability.