GNT has earned its first EcoVadis gold medal for environmental and ethical activities, ranking the company among the top 3% in the food manufacturing industry.
GNT creates EXBERRY® colours from fruit, vegetables, and plants and has set out a commitment to lead the food coloring industry on sustainability. It has used EcoVadis, a globally recognised provider of business sustainability ratings, to verify its performance and identify areas for improvement since 2017.
After achieving a silver medal last year, GNT has now secured a gold ranking for the first time. EcoVadis awarded a total of 78 out of 100 points, placing GNT in the 97th percentile among food manufacturing businesses to have undertaken the evaluation.
EcoVadis assessed GNT’s performance across four key areas. It gave the highest scores for Environment and Labor & Human Rights and also increased its ratings on Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. The key factors in the gold ranking included:
• Transparent reporting, including an independent Greenhouse Gas Verification Statement
• New initiatives to support employee training, health and safety, and working conditions throughout the value chain
• A new Code of Conduct and policy to support whistleblowers
Rutger de Kort, Sustainability Manager at GNT Group, said: “We are delighted to have earned our first EcoVadis gold medal. This is an important industry benchmark that is used by many of the world’s leading companies to assess their suppliers’ sustainability credentials. Securing gold is a powerful statement as only 5% of assessed companies achieve this status and our score puts us in the top 3%. This will help us demonstrate to manufacturers that our plant-based EXBERRY® colors meet the very highest sustainability standards.”
In 2022, GNT set out 17 sustainability targets to optimize its environmental and social impacts over the course of the current decade. Its successes so far include a 22% reduction in carbon intensity at EXBERRY® factories since 2020 and a 13% improvement in water efficiency.
In addition, the contract farmers working as part of GNT’s supply chain have all received training in sustainable agriculture, with 74% achieving a minimum of Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) silver standard.
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Editor, International Confectionery
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