Corporate Sustainability
Corporate sustainability is a method used by companies as an approach to creating long-term value with stakeholders using business strategies that focus on areas such as social, environmental, and economical of doing business. For an organization to accomplish corporate sustainability, there have to exist the following concepts: transparency, stakeholder engagement, and thinking ahead. Transparency concept explains that having a transparent engagement between a company and the community it operates within, it will increase the overall performance of the company and its revenue generation. Stakeholder engagement allows the company to educate its employees and stakeholders, such as suppliers, on how to act on the company’s corporate sustainability, such as waste management. Finally, thinking ahead concept has a future company vision that enables the company to come up with new ideas for implementation, which in return will reduce the production cost, increase revenue generation or improve the image of the company to the society. Therefore, this paper will focus on one of the corporate giants, Chr. Hansen ltd and the corporate sustainability they are undertaking and how it impacts the community.
Chr. Hansen company was ranked as the world’s most sustainable organization in 2019. Their sustainability approaches were aimed at improving food production sustainability, reducing food waste, and removing antibiotics. The company focuses on the following areas that they can have the highest impact. These areas include better farming, good health, and less waste. Better farming is aimed at helping feed the increasing population by using sustainable agriculture, such as their silage inoculant and their natural plant health solutions. At Chr. Hansen company, they address significant agricultural challenges with microbial solutions. They have come up with microbial plant health solutions used by farmers around the world and support sustainable agricultural practices. These plant solutions are used on crops, and the soil they grow on and, in some cases, leads to an increase in crop production by 10%. The bacteria products also help strengthen the crops’ root system and help the crop adapt to harsh weather conditions and diseases and pests.
The company also improves health through great taste. This is achieved by using good bacteria to reduce sugar levels in yogurt. High sugar levels and consumption has caused health issues such as diabetes and obesity. To avoid this, companies such as Chr. Hansen have established methods of reducing sugar levels in food. One of the innovations the company has come up with is Sweety Y-1, a culture solution that reduces the level of added sugar by 1 gram per 100 grams without affecting the taste. The culture solution is created from milk and allows the creation of natural sweetness. A health study sponsored by Chr. Hansen has shown that using probiotics can reduce the cost of flu diseases. The study demonstrates cost saving in terms of having fewer sick days, visits to the hospital, prescriptions, and lost workdays. This result of the study helps understand the power behind the use of probiotics in supporting the health and improving the immune system of people.
Finally, the company also focuses on sustainability in reducing food waste using nature’s resources. The UN estimates that one-third of the food produced is wasted every year from the farm to the consumers. At Chr. Hansen, the use of good bacteria to reduce or prevent the growth of unwanted bacteria in food helps extend the shelf life of the food and ensures the food leaving the farm ends up to the consumer. Innovations such as FreshQ are some of Chr. Hansen’s cultures have bioprotective properties and can be used to delay spoilage in dairy products such as yogurt and cheese. In return, it increases the company’s efficiency and reduces waste, hence increasing production.