b'S U S T A I N A B I L I T YS C G R O U P C O M P A N Y Fyffes Creates Roadmapto All-Encompassing ESG PolicyFyffes, one of the largest and oldest global fruit, produce, and distribution brands operating in Europe, North, Central and South America, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation in 2017. As both companies operate under a shared commitment to increase sustainability management, Visions spoke with Julie Cournoyer, Global Director of Sustainability at Fyffes, to gain a comprehensive look at the groups Global Sustainability Strategy, its long-term objectives and four areas of focus: Stewardship for thePlanet, Healthy Food for Healthy Lives, Enriching Peoples Lives, and Responsible Business Principles. Above, Julie Cournoyer,Global Directorof Sustainabilityat Fyffes To start, can you share a brief overview of how Fyffes came toCan you further elaborate on the long-term timeline to 2030 and how this overarching strategy? What efforts did the company putthe initial three-year roadmap will help get Fyffes to that place?forth to make this initiative possible? J.C.: The initial three-year roadmap was designed to gather the baseline Julie Cournoyer (J.C.): In 2017 and 2018, Fyffes reviewed its overallinformation and data needed to set measurable goals and identify approach to sustainability with the goal of accelerating efforts to be- where to focus our supply chain efforts. Projects like our Corporate-wide come a sustainable business, remaining relevant and successful whileHuman Rights Impact Assessment, life cycle assessment, or GHG quan-addressing urgent environmental constraints, increasing stakeholdertification project, for example, allowed us to have this information and requirements, a shifting global economy, and evolving consumermake informed future plans. preferences.We are a small team with limited resources, so we want to identify the Fyffes conducted 182 internal and 14 external stakeholder consul- areas where we can make the most significant impact.tations through workshops and one-on-one interviews, as well asThe goals and targets to 2030 will be measurable targets in each of the benchmarking and research. This work allowed us to identify ourfour focus areas. Examples include GHG emissions and water reduction materiality matrix, encompassing areas of concern for stakeholderstargets, an increase in number of employees benefitting from Gender and issues that directly or indirectly impact Fyffes ability to create,Equality Programs, or number of people improving their health to in-preserve or potentially erode economic, environmental and socialcreased access to nutritious fruit. As previously mentioned, these targets value for ourselves, our stakeholders, as well as society at large. are in the process of being developed.When was the strategy founded, and why is this comprehensiveWhat methods did Fyffes employ to zero-in on the sustainability plan essential right now?areas of focus and the actionable steps that will support their J.C.: The aforementioned work resulted in the Global Sustainabilityimplementation?Strategy, which we first published in 2019 and has a long-term time- J.C.: The consulting firm that Fyffes worked with to establish the sus-line to 2030 in line with the United Nations Sustainable Developmenttainability strategy based their approach on ISO 26000, which provides Goals (UN SDGs) but with an initial three-year roadmap (2019-2021).guidance on social responsibility management. The key process was to With the end of this three-year roadmap approaching, the Globalconsult internal and external stakeholders in order to identify our materi-Sustainability Steering Committee (GSSC) is now working on develop- al issues, based on our four key areas of focus (pillars).ing clear and measurable goals and targets for the next 5 to 10 yearsDoes all ESG reporting go to the same department or group? which we will announce in Fyffes first-ever sustainability report to be published in March 2021. J.C.: The GSSC is made up of a cross-section of people from across our Having a comprehensive sustainability plan is essential to tackle ourvarious markets and departments. We have farmers, shipping and logis-material sustainability issues, manage sustainability risks but alsotics people, packaging, compliance, marketing and sales. Each member build on opportunities as well as meeting and exceeding our stake- of the GSSC contributes to the realization of the goal-setting, strategy, holder requirements. and implementation in addition to their day job.8 visions Fall 2020'