GNT has earned its first EcoVadis gold medal for environmental and ethical activities.
GNT creates EXBERRY colours from fruit, vegetables, and plants and is committed to leading the food colouring industry in sustainability. The award has made the company among the top three percent in the food manufacturing industry.
Since 2017, it has used EcoVadis, a globally recognised provider of business sustainability ratings, to verify its performance and identify areas for improvement. After achieving a silver medal last year, GNT has secured a gold ranking for the first time.
EcoVadis awarded GNT 78 out of 100 points, placing it in the 97th percentile among food manufacturing businesses that have undertaken the evaluation. Performance was assessed across four key areas. It gave the highest Environment Labour and Human Rights scores and increased its Ethics and Sustainable Procurement ratings.
Critical factors in the gold ranking included transparent reporting, including an independent Greenhouse Gas Verification Statement, new initiatives to support employee training, health and safety, working conditions throughout the value chain, and a new Code of Conduct and policy to support whistleblowers.
“We are delighted to have earned our first EcoVadis gold medal. This is an important industry benchmark used by many of the world’s leading companies to assess their suppliers’ sustainability credentials,” said Rutger de Kort, Sustainability Manager at GNT Group.
“Securing gold is a powerful statement, as only five percent of assessed companies achieve this status, and our score puts us in the top three percent. This will help us demonstrate to manufacturers that our plant-based EXBERRY colours meet the highest sustainability standards.”
In 2022, GNT set 17 sustainability targets to optimise its environmental and social impacts over the next decade. Its successes include a 22 percent reduction in carbon intensity at EXBERRY factories since 2020 and a 13 percent improvement in water efficiency.
In addition, the contract farmers working as part of GNT’s supply chain have all received training in sustainable agriculture, with 74 percent achieving a minimum Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) silver standard.
