Sustainability at
Group Level
We are convinced that living sustainability is an interdisciplinary team effort, which is why we take an integrated cross-border approach and deeply engrain sustainability in our Group Functions: When national regulation and industry or customer requirements permit, we see value in establishing group-wide standards and common policies for all our business activities, particularly in governance-related issues such as compliance, information security and data protection, or human rights issues and supply chain responsibility. We also consider an inclusive approach to be useful when it comes to people responsibility as well as risk management and acquisition processes.
Business Development and M&A
Key Developments
At SARIA, we continuously strive to grow our business by expanding into promising sectors. Entering into partnerships with and acquiring companies that are a good match with what we do are two of the strategies we pursue to ensure consistent business development. To make sure an acquisition is in line with our objectives not only in economic terms, we analyze whether the target company matches our values and environmental standards. The impacts of the acquisition on our carbon footprint are crucial. To make these aspects an integral part of the acquisition process, we revised our Board Memorandum in 2023 by including the systematic consideration of sustainability criteria in decision making. To cover an even broader spectrum of topics, we also evaluate compliance as well as health and safety issues.
Recently, we invested in a startup that specializes in optimizing waste reduction and efficient resource utilization in slaughterhouses by means of artificial intelligence.
Project Highlights
Representatives from SARIA and TotalEnergies celebrate the official groundbreaking on the new facility in Grandpuits (France).
As part of our business development, including expansion into growth sectors, we established a partnership with TotalEnergies to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). SAF is a liquid fuel with the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80%. It is produced from a number of sources including used cooking oil, animal fats and organic residues. This means SARIA contributes the raw materials competence, core know-how and technical capabilities from existing business activities, while TotalEnergies provides its expertise in jet fuel production. On August 30, 2023, representatives from SARIA and TotalEnergies celebrate the official groundbreaking on the new facility in Grandpuits (France) where we will jointly produce SAF from mid-2025 onwards.
Devro is a prime example of one of our acquisitions during the reporting period. The company is one of the world’s leading suppliers of collagen-based films and coatings for food which its customers use in the production of a wide range of sausages and other meat products. As SARIA is a main supplier of natural casings, the two companies are a perfect match. This integration drives business growth and innovation to the benefit of our customers, employees and suppliers. Moreover, we share a common set of values, with sustainability at the core of our operations.
Compliance & Tax Compliance
Key Developments
Because the diverse regulatory frameworks we operate in are constantly changing, we continuously develop our compliance management to comply with the state of the art. For example, we revised our SARIA Integrity Line whistleblowing platform by modernizing the case routing and management to simplify usage across all our sites. We also initiated the development of a new whistleblowing policy entailing globally applicable principles and ensuring the protection of whistleblowers, particularly their anonymity.
Furthermore, we expanded our e-learning program, which is a major tool for raising awareness and training our employees in a variety of compliance issues. Against the background of stricter laws on human rights protection in the supply chain, one of our 10 compliance courses deals with “Fair Working Conditions” and is already available in five languages – with more to come. In the area of tax compliance, we conducted training courses for the relevant managers and employees as a vital element of our tax compliance management. What is more, the implementation of the Tax Compliance Management System at all our sites is largely complete and due to be finalized by the end of 2024.
To ensure compliance by our employees in their daily business, we developed a guideline on the acceptance of gifts and hospitality in Germany.
Project Highlights
A real highlight for us in 2023 was the implementation of a Denied Party Screening (DPS) in our Austrian and Italian entities which enhances our compliance and risk management process. As the DPS proves effective in preventing business with restricted or denied parties and avoiding potential legal and reputational risks, we will roll it out to more countries in 2024.
In December 2023, we conducted a tax compliance training course for selected employees at Bioiberica in Spain. Its ultimate goal was to ensure that all Bioiberica subsidiaries operate with a high degree of fiscal integrity and comply with all tax obligations in a structured and consistent manner. This will minimize risks and maximize operational efficiency at a global level. The course emphasized the importance of commitment on the leadership level to ensure acceptance by all employees, and elaborated on how to effectively communicate the considerable scope of tax compliance issues.
Data Protection & Information Security
Key Developments
On January 1, 2023, we introduced our new Data Protection & Privacy Policy on a Group level. It was developed in collaboration with the responsible managers from our national units to tackle the diverse legal requirements. We established a Security Operations Center as a central unit responsible for protecting our company against all forms of cyber threats. To support our employees in their daily work and enhance data protection, we implemented a password manager system at SARIA Germany, Austria and the Netherlands and will continue its rollout in the years to come.
In 2023, we conducted a comprehensive data protection review of websites in Germany, covering various categories including data processing, data transmission and security measures.
Project Highlights
Our data protection efforts at SARIA Germany focused on training employees' awareness of phishing attacks in 2023. To create a real-life simulation, every employee with a company email address regularly received fraudulent emails, also known as phishing emails. The simulation is accompanied by the provision of information material to increase sensitivity. We also introduced an e-learning program comprising various courses which include a final assessment. The first module is titled „An Introduction to Phishing“.
In 2023, we held our first SARIA IT Summit, bringing together 67 colleagues from different countries. Under the motto “Come Together”, we embarked on our journey, starting out by getting to know each other and understanding how the teams in the individual countries work. Based on this common ground, we discussed how cross-country collaboration could work best to create synergies, and exchanged best practices. To define the direction for our journey together, we developed a vision and mission for the participating IT teams from Spain, Italy, France, Poland and Germany.
Human Rights & Supply Chain Responsibility
On our annual International Procurement Meeting, we discussed the further roadmap for our sustainable procurement program.
Key Developments
In the reporting year, we further strengthened our sustainable supply chain management. The SARIA Supply Chain Integrity (SSCI) Committee we created in 2022 to address the implications resulting from the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act now meets on a quarterly basis. We also reviewed our Supply Chain Due Diligence Program for its helpfulness and effectiveness within our entire compliance organization, receiving positive feedback. In the area of sustainable procurement, we set up a 3-year roadmap that defines a strategy and goals as well as organizational responsibility. In 2024, we will follow up with supplier-focused measures, such as qualification and capacity building. To systematically track our performance and to increase transparency regarding our actions and outcomes, we will enhance our internal and external reporting.
A survey of compliance officers was conducted to identify potential improvements to the Supply Chain Due Diligence Program (SCDDP). A key finding was that the SCDDP is generally well known and understood (score: 2.4); the support provided by the SSCI Committee was considered helpful.
“In order to protect human rights and the environment in the supply chain, we need to collaborate across our entire Group. Thanks to our refined compliance organization, we can make a lasting contribution to sustainability in our supply chain.” (SSCI Committee)
Project Highlights
In line with our efforts to target and involve our suppliers, we launched our multi-purpose supplier portal. It enables us to demand prevention measures directly from high-risk suppliers and to provide support with their implementation at the same time, e.g. through e-learning programs. The portal also allows us to make our Supplier Code Of Conduct binding and have it signed digitally. By routing our high-risk suppliers to our supplier portal, we gain a good overview of our important partners in the supply chain and at the same time implement the preventive measures required by the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Law.
1,245 employees worldwide have received training on supply chain responsibility
60% of buyers across all locations have received training on sustainable procurement
Our Sustainable Procurement Program achieved continued success. Our EcoVadis “sustainable procurement” rating (one of four EcoVadis criteria) improved again in 2023. In our first rating in this category in 2016, we scored 30 out of 100 points, which marked the starting point for our sustainable procurement initiative. In 2022, the score stood at 50 points, while in this reporting year it increased to 80 points. We are proud of this remarkable improvement, which is down to our organizational setup as well as our strategic approach to sustainable supply chain management and our coherent measures in this area.
People Responsibility
Key Developments
In 2023, Group HR played a key role as a facilitator in internal organizational development projects. One core measure was the implementation of 15 development centers at cross-border level. They are an expression of our firm belief that taking the needs and skills of our employees into account is the key to long-term success and sustainable growth. Promoting talent is another cornerstone of our economic success and future viability, therefore we hired a Group HR Talent Manager to develop a program including talent identification and career path development.
In partnership with the Special Olympics, SARIA employees in France walked 1,542 kilometers to collect donations to finance access to sport for people with disabilities.
Project Highlights
In France, we launched an extensive program to promote gender equality in the workplace in 2023. It tackles a large variety of issues, such as remuneration and hiring. Our goal is to identify unjustified pay gaps and to ensure that women returning from maternity leave do not face financial disadvantages. We also seek to advance female careers by offering professional development programs for women. To facilitate work for women with children, we have extended teleworking opportunities as well as leave for family events.
In Germany, we rolled out our internal career site after careful planning. Since November 2023, all employees have been able to access this new platform via their desktop computers. To provide easy access for our operational workers, we also introduced a smartphone app. The site gives all employees the exclusive opportunity to apply for vacancies before they are published on our open-access career site. Through this privileged access, we want to put our employees in a better position to grow and develop within the group. Initial feedback rounds show that our employees greatly appreciate this opportunity to actively shape their own career development.