Press Release

Leading agri-business Olam International was today recognised by global benchmarking body CDP[1] with an award for the ‘Best performance across programs’. This award “recognises companies who have responded to CDP’s climate change, water, and forests questionnaires in 2017 and achieved the best scores across the three programmes”. Olam was a joint winner with Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL for Hong Kong and South East Asia region.

Olam’s commitment to tackling climate change, protecting forests and reducing water consumption is embedded in operations across 70 countries. The company consistently promotes Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) in its indirect supply chains and has significantly improved its carbon and water footprints – respectively 29%[2] and 31%[3] improvement per tonne of product produced in 2016.

Sunny Verghese, Co-founder and Group CEO of Olam, said: “Changing weather patterns are already having profound effects on crops and communities. And so it is ironic that agriculture is actually a major contributor to climate change. As we approach this year’s UN Climate Talks[4], I see 3 imperatives for Olam – identify short-term fixes; look beyond our boundaries and engage with suppliers; and, finally, be bold enough to re-imagine agriculture to find solutions that take us far beyond incremental improvements.”

CDP is an independent not-for-profit organisation driving greenhouse gas emissions reductions and improving water management by asking almost 6,000 of the world’s largest companies to measure, disclose, manage and share their climate strategies, GHG emissions, energy use and water information in a standardised online format. It is the seventh year that Olam has participated in the CDP.

The company’s score is released in CDP’s Hong Kong & South East Asia Report 2017.

Read about Olam’s commitments and progress on climate change, land use and water.

[1] Formally known as the Carbon Disclosure Project
[2] FY 16 vs. FY15 for own operations
[3] Irrigation and process water intensity FY16 vs. FY15 for own operations
[4] COP23 in Bonn