CSR Reports

In partnership with the Erb Institute, Innovation Forum recently hosted a conference in Detroit that delved into the best ways to assess materiality, build a business case and deliver impact at scale.

These are exciting times, when technology is creating a new platform for innovation. There's a bridge between every barrier and breakthrough, every challenge and its solution.

Today, Points of Light opens The Civic 50 survey, an annual initiative that recognizes the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States. Now in its seventh year, The Civic 50 serves to recognize stronger corporate commitment to community through engagement, volunteerism, and social impact strategies.

I’m particularly cognizant of this today as we launch our 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Report. This is a big change from the first CSR Report that I stewarded and co-authored in 2005. Like any first-generation product, there was a great room for improvement. However, every year as we meet a goal and work towards the next, as we expand existing partnerships and establish new ones, as we uncover new ways our technology can be leveraged to benefit our world, we have a stronger story to tell. Here are highlights of where we’ve come, and where we are going.

Our company can better prosper if we reflect the diversity of the customers and communities we serve. That’s why we’ve launched initiatives to significantly increase the gender and ethnic diversity of U.S. associates and to boost our spending with minority and women-owned suppliers by 25 percent.

Our distribution facilities receive, and thousands of Sysco trucks deliver, a vast assortment of food and nonfood items – including refrigerated and frozen products. That presents a big opportunity to drive environmental efficiency at every step. We’re committed to reducing the carbon footprint of our fleet and operations and expanding the use of renewable and alternative energy sources. We’ve also pledged to divert 90 percent of waste from landfill.

As a major purchaser of fruits and vegetables, Sysco plays a leading role in improving agricultural standards among growers, processors and distributors. Now we’re doing more: doubling the availability of Sysco Brand organic produce and expanding our sustainable agriculture program to include five fresh crops.

Too many of our neighbors, many with children, struggle to get food on the table each day. Sysco has the scale and capacity to make a meaningful difference. That’s why we have pledged to donate 200 million meals and $50 million to local communities.

From palm oil to seafood to animal protein, how products are sourced is vitally important to consumers and those who serve them. Today, we’re doing more to advance responsible sourcing. Our objective is to be as proud of how the products we deliver reach the table as we are of their quality and safety.

Sappi North America’s mill in Cloquet, Minnesota, reached a company milestone of over 2 million hours worked without a lost-time injury.