Sustainable Shipping

The global shipping industry is facing an increasingly challenging environment, with trade disruptions and regulatory uncertainty weighing on freight markets. At Cargill, however, we see this as an opportunity and we are adapting our ocean transportation business to transition towards a more sustainable future. Over the last 12 months, we have been able to achieve important improvements across several dimensions of sustainability and we continue to make this a priority. We believe that this is essential both for the longevity of our business and the health of global shipping.

Since publishing our first Corporate Responsibility Report for the 2017 period, we have made substantial headway in our highest-priority area of climate change and health, reaching a 12.1% decline in CO2  output per cargo-ton-mile across our time-chartered fleet since 2016. This keeps us on track to achieve our goal of reaching a 15% reduction by 2020.

We also exceeded our target of ensuring that 80% of our fleet is rated A through D by RightShip by 2020 and have already reached 82%. And, as 2020 approaches, we have committed to 100% compliance with the IMO Global Sulphur Cap, and are strongly advocating for implementation across the global shipping industry.

Our progress in other areas was encouraging, notably regarding safety, people and well-being. We improved the risk rating of our chartered fleet by 5% and created the position of Safety Officer to oversee the well-being of crews onboard our chartered vessels. We had zero incidents of corrupt practices and have implemented a Supplier Code of Conduct into our contacts. We also made some progress in terms of diversity and inclusion.

In 2017, Cargill completed its first materiality assessment specifically for its ocean transportation business. This enabled us to clarify the core areas of our operations which have an effect on the environment, people and communities in which we operate. These priorities were identified as:

• Climate Change and Health
• People, Safety and Well-being
• Diversity and Inclusion in our Workforce
• Ocean Health and Biodiversity
• Ethical Business Conduct and Compliance
• Ship Recycling

We believe that the topics identified in our original materiality assessment continue to be highly relevant to our business, but intend to review this materiality assessment in 2020 and update, if necessary.

We invite you to review our 2018 Corporate Responsibility Report to explore in more detail.