Responding to climate change

The impacts of climate change are already affecting us. For example, unpredictable weather patterns caused by rising global temperatures can affect our supplies of raw materials. Extreme weather, including ice and snow, floods, and tornados, have directly disrupted our operations, and wildfires and droughts in California have created water shortages. We have successfully managed disruptions without impacting our customers, yet we are expecting and preparing for an increase in the frequency and severity of such events.

Reducing our carbon footprint

We’ve taken steps to reduce our carbon footprint. This action includes replace all lighting with energy-efficient LED lights throughout our sites and three-quarters of which work on a timer system. Our energy efficiency initiatives and operational changes have resulted in a 24% reduction in energy use since 2018.

Our facilities are strategically located close to our customer base and the region of many of our primary sourced ingredients, including rice. We continue to explore ways to reduce transport miles and associated emissions and monitor the emissions from our transport and third-party logistics.

We’re planning for what’s next, starting with gathering all the information needed to identify precisely what our current footprint is and working with our suppliers so that we can understand emissions across our whole value chain. We are evaluating solar infrastructure options to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels for power and working with our utility companies to understand the fuel mix of the energy they supply us so that we can track improvements in the future.

Preparing for the future

Our sites are certified to ISO14001 which gives us a good foundation in sound environmental management including mitigating our impact on climate. We are also focused on adapting to the impact climate change has on us, particularly our physical operations. As part of our business continuity planning, we are building a climate-risk map into our business models to prepare for the disruption climate change is bringing through the frequency of severe weather events and changing weather patterns.