Acting authentically and ethically,
in constant dialogue with our stakeholders
Saint Louis Sucre is a human-scale company affiliated to a leading international group. Sustainability principles are an integral part of the strategic management of our company and of the Group as a whole. They are the levers for structuring a far-reaching transformation process, which must take place over time. They are based on the following pillars: our vigilance in terms of business ethics, our commitment to reduce our carbon footprint, and our demand for sustainable sourcing of raw materials.
ISSUE NO. 9
Business ethics
We share with the Südzucker Group a strong commitment to ethics, transparency and good governance. For several years now, the Group has setting up a compliance programme, covering all areas and laying down fundamental principles for acting in compliance with the law and regulations to promote fair and respectful working conditions.
100% of teams trained in business ethics each year (2nd college – excluding production – and 3rd college)
Governance
The Group has established a rigorous governance process:
- Südzucker “Code of conduct” shared and integrated into supplier specifications
- Identification of a “compliance officer”
- Anonymous process for launching alerts
Contractualization
Contracts with farmers based on a clear and transparent beet payment scale, drawn up in conjunction with the Value Allocation Commission (Commission de Répartition de la Valeur – CRV)
“Saint Louis Sucre, a responsible company historically attached to values of rigour and integrity, has fully adhered to the effective organisation of compliance by the Südzucker Group in the form of a set of rules covering business life and intended to guarantee legitimate behaviour both internally towards employees and externally towards customers, business partners and competitors.”
Isabelle de Lamotte,
Legal Director Saint Louis Sucre
ISSUE NO. 10
Reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
Objective:
> Contribute to achieve the Südzucker Group’s objectives, as validated by SBTi* :
– 50% reduction in scopes 1 and 2
– 30% reduction in scope 3
*Objectives validated to contribute to global carbon neutrality by 2050 and to achieve a global warming trajectory limited to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. SBTi: Science Based Targets initiative, which encourages companies to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in line with current scientific data on climate change.
Investing to decarbonise our activities
We are stepping up our investments and our teams are working on the continuous improvement of processes and equipment. These actions have enabled a 23% reduction in the CO2 emitted during the transformation of beet into sugar between 2018 and 2022. These results were achieved thanks to a strategy of reducing and decarbonising the energy used. In 8 years, 8 projects have been carried out at our two sugar factories in Roye and Étrépagny to reach this reduction.
Source: CO2 emissions ETS scope 1 in kg eqCO2/Tonne of granulated sugar 2018/2022
Promoting rail transport
At the end of 2022, Saint Louis Sucre became the first sugar producer in France to transport limestone by rail, which is essential for sugar production for our sugar factory in Etrapagny. This represents a saving of 10 tonnes of CO2 per train, or 235 tonnes per year.
Building on French biofuels
Decarbonising our transport involves optimising our flows and using fuels that emit less CO2. With this in mind, we are working with the Delisle group, which offers a range of biofuels based on French rapeseed for over 40% of our bulk transport to industrial customers. This biofuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 60% and fine particle emissions from transport by 80%, compared with diesel trucks. We keep studying additional solutions that will enable us to go even further in this direction.
ISSUE NO. 11
Ensuring traceability and moving towards ever more responsible sourcing
Committed to building responsible and perpetual supply chains, we ensure respect for human rights and the environment. In this way, we build and maintain long-term relationships with our suppliers: local farmers, industrial partners and trusted packaging suppliers. We are constantly evolving our practices towards greater transparency and traceability in our supply chain, recognised by various external certificates.
Particularly, Südzucker group is certified Ecovadis at the Silver level, which places the group among the top 25% of companies evaluated.
Our objective:
> reach Gold level in 2024.
100% of our cane sugar suppliers are audited to ensure compliance with good environmental, agricultural and social practices.
Golden beetroot!
At Saint Louis Sucre, our supplies are increasingly responsible: our beetroot is REDCert Gold certified, a standard recognised by the SAI (Sustainable Agriculture Initiative) platform, an independent organisation that validates the sustainability of agricultural practices and whose specifications are more demanding every year.
