With the effects of the climate and nature crisis visible across the globe - from floods to heatwaves - coupled with rising social inequality and division, everyone has a role to play to protect the planet and its people.

Companies in the agri-food sector, as well as the farming community, are feeling this pressure and acknowledge the need to take concrete action for the sustainability of the sector and our economy.

Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI) supports its network of 120 member companies to embed all critical aspects of sustainability into their operations and supply chain, to lower emissions, protect nature and improve social cohesion.

Our member network comprises semi-State bodies, large indigenous companies, as well as multinational corporations with a significant footprint in Ireland, across all sectors of the economy.

For 25 years, we are trusted advisers in all economic, environment, social and governance (EESG) aspects of sustainability, ensuring our network of businesses build capacity, ambition and leadership.

We are proud to partner with Danone, Dawn Meats, Diageo, Glanbia, Heineken, Ornua and Tirlán among our food and beverage and agri-food members, as well as major retailers and food distribution companies.

Through their membership, they have pioneered and progressed different aspects of the sustainability agenda within their companies and continue to benefit from their efforts.

Ongoing leadership and collaboration with members

Over the years, BITCI has seen increasing pressure on members from different quarters (investors, staff, customers, public opinion) to become more sustainable in protecting the planet and its people.

We work with members both individually and collectively to respond to these demands to ensure they embed responsible business practices into their operations, which in turn helps guarantee longevity and profitability and avoid ‘greenwashing'.

At an individual company level, our BITCI expert team upskill members across EESG through peer learning, workshops and high calibre in-person events. At a time of increased regulation and external demands, BITCI provides advice, training and resources on how to respond and adapt.

BITCI urges companies to strive for continuous improvement in their sustainability activities and this is behind our ambition to ensure companies go beyond compliance with current regulatory frameworks such as the corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD) by becoming certified with the Business Working Responsibly Mark. This mark is Ireland’s independently audited EESG standard.

While many companies are in scope for CSRD and find the journey challenging, our focus on demonstrating continuous improvement as opposed to pure data gathering showcases these companies as leaders in sustainability.

Within this sector, Heineken and Ornua have attained the Business Working Responsibly Mark and several others have used our framework to structure their management systems.

For an organisation to develop and pursue a more sustainable business model, it is important the management have the required capabilities and skills to accelerate the essential transformation to a low carbon economy and inclusive society.

Research published by BITCI, Skillnet and Maynooth University found a lack of clarity regarding the skills needed to drive sustainable change and effectively implement sustainable practices.

The findings highlight the need for a constructive and collaborative response from Government and industry bodies to ensure that all necessary sustainability transition upskilling and support mechanisms are available and effectively communicated to businesses including in the agriculture sector.

BITCI will progress the insights, learnings and recommendations of this report with our members and key policy makers.

Collective decarbonisation

Ireland has ambitious climate targets across scope 1, 2 and 3 and to achieve these requires collective action and businesses must play a lead role.

BITCI has pioneered this by developing sustainability strategies for member companies and establishing, in 2018, the low carbon pledge, which required signatories to set science-based targets by the end of 2024.

Building on this success and to highlight the duality of the climate and nature crises, our latest collective campaign to be launched in October is 'Accelerate, The Business Pact for Climate and Nature'. Signatories to this pact will be at different levels of maturity, but all are committed to developing climate transition action plans to guide the attainment of their targets.

Working collaboratively to establish sustainable supply chains is vital to the transition to a net zero economy.

BITCI is leading the way, having just concluded a first-of-its-kind supply chain decarbonisation programme, which included a number of SMEs in food and beverage and the agri-food sector.

Central to this was not only upskilling SMEs in carbon literacy and calculation, but also exploring how large companies can collaborate to support the decarbonisation of their supply chains across the island of Ireland.

The impact of climate change is already affecting SMEs in the agri-food sector through adverse weather conditions hampering crops and harvests. Responding to this is as urgent as ever. BITCI will scale-up this programme to benefit more of its members and their SMEs.

Addressing social inequity

Addressing a business’ carbon footprint and their social footprint, such as inclusivity and fair labour practices, is core to being a sustainable business. BITCI provides training on human rights and runs employment programmes for those who experience disproportionate unemployment, ie, vulnerable migrants – including asylum seekers, refugees and newly arrived Ukrainians, women returners, people with disabilities and members of the Traveller Community.

Our Elevate, the Inclusive Workplace Pledge, expects signatories to be proactive in creating inclusive workplaces. They do this by measuring (across different indicators of diversity), disclosing and profiling their workforce and taking action to remedy any gaps.

To date, 65 members spanning multiple sectors have signed the elevate pledge, including Britvic, Coillte and KSG catering.

The latest report found progress in gender representation especially at senior positions, increased recruitment across different ethnic backgrounds and improved disability data gathering.

While sustainability can be seen as a buzz word, it brings significant benefits to the companies, communities and planet. This holistic approach to sustainability is now a business imperative.

BITCI is proud to have collaborated, supported and challenged our members to be leaders in sustainability for the past 25 years. You can join us for the next phase. For more information, check out www.bitc.ie.