Greencore is a major employer in the food and ingredients industry with approximately 7,000 employees. We constantly focus on attracting, developing and retaining high quality people throughout the organisation. Greencore aspires to offer exciting roles, competitive salaries and benefits, career development opportunities, and safe, attractive working environments.
Colleagues
The Group has a
Learning and Development Strategy, which maps
out initiatives that support the development of our people at all levels.
The key elements of the strategy are:
PRIDE: our performance management programme, that sets personal development plans and maps delivery against Greencore values as well as personal and business objectives.
Lean Greencore Leadership Academy: a company-wide programme that provides a holistic approach to building food manufacturing capability in our people through recognised lean manufacturing tools and world-class standards.
Emerging Leaders Programme: a programme which identifies future senior leaders within the business, providing necessary training and development over an 18-24 month period.
New starter induction and training: an induction programme for all new starters ensuring that they have the right qualifications and food hygiene training required to do their job and to maximise their potential.
In 2009 our PRIDE performance management process was cascaded
to colleagues on the shop floor. As a result approximately 90% of our total UK Convenience Foods workforce now participates in the programme. 250 people have participated in the Lean Greencore Leadership Academy in the past year, bringing the total number of Greencore participants to more than 1,400 since the Leadership Academy was established in 2006.
Greencore has been selected as a finalist in The John Sainsbury Award for Learning and Development, part of the
2009 IGD Foods Awards, for its Lean Greencore Programme. These awards celebrate best practice in the food and grocery industry and recognise real commitment to people development.
Some other highlights of our commitment to the development of our people are the following:
- Greencore is working with Improve, the Sector Skills Council for the Food and Drink Manufacturing Industry in the UK, to support employees develop basic skills including literacy and numeracy
- All colleagues in the UK who do not have English as their first
language are offered ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) training. In 2009 more than 100 colleagues received ESOL training
Finally, a number of UK colleagues have relocated to the US to support the development of the Greencore business in North America and to ensure the transfer of skills from the well-established UK businesses.
Health and Safety
The health, safety and well-being of our people as well as visitors to our facilities is of paramount importance to Greencore. We pride ourselves on working to the highest safety standards and constantly monitor the structure and processes in place to achieve this.
In order to maintain high standards, all of our business categories have dedicated risk managers who report both to the local site management and to the Group Health and Safety Manager.
Ongoing training and further education programmes are in place for all of our risk managers through internal and external classroom based training, practical training and distance learning. A number of our risk managers are taking BSc’s and MSc’s in health and safety management in conjunction with local universities.
We conduct unannounced health and safety and machinery safety
audits across our facilities to ensure continuous improvement. The past twelve months have seen a complete review of the way risk assessments are conducted across the business, with an enhanced standardised process now in place. These processes have been assessed and agreed with the HSE, our insurers and the leading
accreditation body in the UK, SGS.
A programme of external audits and certification is also in place for our
business categories, with Food to Go, Prepared Meals and Frozen Foods upgrading their current OHSAS 18001 1997 certification to the stricter OHSAS 18001 2007 standard – the international industry standard for effective management of health and safety.
All of our locations have onsite occupational health support, which has been standardised across the UK with a single provider to drive best practice.
As a result of all these activities our overall Group-wide accident rate has seen a further 12% decline in the past year – these figures are not simply based on reportable accidents to the HSE but all incidents however minor.
Greencore continues to play a leading role in improving industry health and safety standards and works closely with trade and government bodies to develop, pilot and support new initiatives aimed at driving continuous improvement across the industry. Examples of this include Greencore’s engagement with the HSE via FOILE (Field Operations Intervention for Large Employers), and piloting Behavioural Safety at Greencore Grocery and Point of Use Risk Assessments at Prepared Meals. Consequently the Greencore Food to Go site in Park Royal was selected as a best practice facility for a local health and safety PR campaign on slip accidents in London last spring. Greencore was also one of the first major food manufacturers in the UK to sign up to the HSE Pledge: a public expression of commitment to maintain the highest health and safety standards (for more information on the HSE Pledge click on the picture below).
Our Group health and safety manager, Tom Chambers, is Vice Chair of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Group Management Committee and also represents the Chilled Food Association at the Food Manufacturers Forum, a consultee for government legislation and other initiatives in the UK.
Environment
Greencore is committed to growing its business in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner.
Our environmental policy aims to develop Group best practices in the following key areas:
- Environmental Management
- Carbon Footprint
- Waste and Recycling
- Water and Effluent
- Environmental Information and Awareness
Environmental Management
Our facilities continue to develop their Environmental Management Systems. During the past year Greencore Food to Go at Manton Wood has maintained certification to ISO 14001, and Greencore Grocery has maintained BS 8555 phases 1-3 certification. Our comprehensive environmental audit programme has continued, with a number of sites re-audited and all showing steady improvement in environmental performance compared to 2008.
We continue to work with and support a number of industry and sector environmental initiatives, with our Group Environmental Manager, James Cherry, an active participant on the FDF Environment Committee and Utilities Panel, the CFA Sustainability Working Group, and the IGD’s Sustainability and Carbon Footprinting Working Groups in the UK.
Carbon Footprint
For the first time we have calculated our direct Group carbon footprint. The exercise has been completed following the guidelines and principles of the WBCSD/WRI Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The footprint covers our Scope 1 & 2 emissions, incorporating fossil fuels, transport fuel, refrigerants and electricity related emissions. All data has been reported in tonnes of CO2 equivalent, and conversion factors have been taken from the 2009 guidelines to Defra/DECC’s GHG conversion factors for company reporting.
The scope of the footprint covers all Greencore operations.
All data is presented as tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), and covers FY09.
Greencore is currently working on a number of projects and initiatives to actively reduce both our absolute carbon footprint and our relative carbon intensity. It should also be noted that we routinely measure and review a range of environmental KPIs in addition to carbon, covering areas such as water, waste and effluent.
In June 2009 we signed up as a partner to Carbon Action Yorkshire, and will be working with them to promote their aims of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
We have continued to invest in energy efficiency and carbon reduction projects at our facilities. Greencore Grocery has taken significant further steps to improve the efficiency of its steam systems, to such an extent that it has successfully withdrawn from the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS), by reducing its thermal input rating by 20%, and is now below the 20MW threshold.
Waste and Recycling
The focus on waste management in Greencore is still strongly aligned with the principles of the waste hierarchy striving to eliminate and minimise waste at source. Where this is not possible we encourage segregation to maximise opportunities for re-use and recycling, and in the last year have actively sought alternative disposal options to landfill. During the year our proportion of waste sent to landfill has reduced from 56% to 34%.
By September 2009 three of our larger sites no longer sent any waste to landfill.
We have continued to work with our customers under the Courtauld Commitment to deliver reductions in packaging, and from 2007 to 2009 delivered a reduction in primary packaging weight of 2.4%. We are currently involved with WRAP and other signatories to Courtauld in developing a new scheme to run beyond 2010.
Water and Effluent
The lean hygiene programme that was introduced during the year has delivered environmental benefits through improvements in water efficiency for cleaning operations, and optimisation of cleaning chemical usage that in turn reduces the impact on effluent discharges. In August we completed the installation and commissioning of a new effluent treatment plant at our Cakes and Desserts facility in Hull. The new plant meets all of the requirements of BAT (Best Available Techniques) and is already delivering significant improvements in the effluent discharge from site (97% COD removal and 99% Suspended Solids removal).
Please click here to read the IGD report on understanding, assessing and managing water in grocery supply chains.
Environmental Information and Awareness
This year we have launched our lean environment module, with pilot programmes at Park Royal and Selby. The programme involves supporting small teams at each site to help raise awareness of environmental issues and to deliver real environmental improvements.