10 February 2023
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New report reveals achievements and targets to date.
McCAIN Foods recently released its Sustainability Report, demonstrating how the company is responding to climate change challenges, its work to enhance soil health and how its grower partners are transitioning to more regenerative practices.
Working with its grower partners, McCain is providing technical assistance and financing opportunities to help tackle climate change on yields and crop quality. It launched its second Farm of the Future in South Africa and achieved its water-efficiency target, three years ahead of schedule.
The report states that it also made marked improvements in CO₂ emissions reductions and enhanced its usage of renewable electricity while significantly supporting communities where it functions through donations and volunteering.
“Environmental and social stewardship are part of our DNA at McCain,” said Max Koeune, President and CEO of McCain Foods. “The escalating climate and nature crises illustrate the fragility of our global food system with wide-reaching impact on consumers, growers, the land and communities. We believe agriculture can and must be transformed to safeguard our future and we are encouraged by the progress we are seeing in our sustainability journey. While much work remains, we are determined to continue to advance on our commitments.”
In the past year, McCain launched Farm of the Future Africa, where it will test regenerative farming in a Southern Hemisphere environment. The first crop of potatoes has been planted at the farm in Lichtenburg, South Africa. McCain has also implemented its Regenerative Agriculture Framework to support farmers and measure adoption of regenerative farming practices in priority regions, established financing partnerships for regenerative farming in France and Canada, achieved an 8% reduction in CO2 emissions per tonne from potato farming, storage and freight and improved water-use efficiency by 11% in water-stressed regions.
McCain’s use of renewable electricity is now up to 18.5% of its total electricity use with absolute CO₂ emissions reduced by 6% from 2017 (Scope 1 and 2) and a 17% reduction in CO2 per tonne of product produced. Also, 98% of McCain’s paper packaging and 90% of its plastic packaging is now designed for recycling.
In 2022, McCain developed strategic partnerships with plant-forward food producers Strong Roots and The Simple Root while strengthening its partnership with innovative vertical farm GoodLeaf. All of McCain’s facilities are now GFSI certified, there has been noted sodium reduction and artificial ingredients removed from key products and McCain has achieved 100% voluntarily implementation of Nutriscore in France, Belgium and Germany and Health Star Rating in
Over the course of 2022, McCain donated the equivalent of 10.9 million meals to food banks and NGOs, supported more than 1,200 staff in 19 countries in providing 6,432 volunteer hours and reached 2,921 new beneficiaries through community projects and partnerships.
“We have made marked improvements through action and collaboration and will continue to embrace climatic challenges as opportunities to innovate and make meaningful change to the food system,” said Charlie Angelakos, Vice President, Global External Affairs and Sustainability at McCain Foods.
