Challenge: To respond to local community concerns and crises through direct support
Ensuring communities have access to affordable, healthy food is a critical element of our business purpose, but we also rely on the resources and skills we find in our local communities to help us operate our business.
We can have a significant opportunity to support these communities in times of need, through the jobs we provide, the skills we help local people develop and by providing access to our technologies and know-how. In response to local crises, including events such as flooding in Maharashtra, India in 2020 and 2021, we are able to draw on the power and commitment of our team to support the local communities in need.
During 2021, we recruited 164 employees into our PIC and ABS production sites. We also enhanced our range of placement and employment opportunities for students and apprentices. Internships and graduate programmes continued to bring new talent into Genus. For example, in the United States, ABS brought in 28 interns (including 19 women) with three already progressing into full-time roles. In the UK, we recruited 10 graduates, including 4 women.
Our goals
Our goal is to apply our local knowledge and reach to better understand and respond to community need in areas where we work.
Our performance
Encourage support for charities close to the local businesses and aligned with our mission.
Our Targets
We will monitor and respond to local community crises (including those related to climate change and development of techniques to reduce the global impact of animal diseases such as the PRRS virus).OUR PERFORMANCE IN FY21
In response to the Maharashtra floods in India in July 2021, ABS India again supported the community with direct support, providing 'learning packs' to ensure continuity of in-school education, supporting the re-building of local homes and ensuring continuity of supply of genetic material to farming sites important in meeting demand for milk products locally. Following the flood of 2020, we developed business interruption plans and stores of essential equipment which allowed us to operate through the floods with minimal business impact. Our programme to confer PRRS virus resistance in pigs is progressing as planned. In FY21, we completed live animal challenge trials, with our pigs demonstrating 100% resistance to both Type I (US and European) and Type II (US and Asia) PRRS virus. We have also continued to engage constructively with regulatory agencies in various jurisdictions in order to seek marketing approval for our PRRS product. |
We will recruit into local farms and develop valuable and transferable skills and competencesOUR PERFORMANCE IN FY21
We recruited 164 new employees at our production sites and further invested in the development of new skills, qualifications and knowledge at the local level. This has included 28 internships at ABS (USA) and 10 entries to our graduate scheme in the UK. The UK scheme has included a structured programme to build sustainability skills and project work which has in turn made a contribution to our sustainability strategy. |
We will encourage support for charities close to the local businesses and aligned with our missionOUR PERFORMANCE IN FY21
Through our chosen charity, Sendacow.org, every farmer helped pledges to ‘pass on’ the gift, by donating one of the cow’s offspring to another family. Research shows that for every person they help, ten more go on to benefit. Employees in our ABS EMEA region have supported the charity by sharing their skills, fundraising and matching customer donations. To date, we have raised equivalent funds to send 86 cows to Africa.
|
TRAFFIC LIGHT KEY:
