Environmental performance
Syngenta is committed to continually reduce the impact of its operations on the environment. We look for ways to improve energy efficiency and prevent waste by reducing, reusing and recycling more materials.
Our Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Policy
and Standards set clear guidelines for managers on the strict environmental
standards they must meet. We are also developing third party guidelines
to ensure consistent environmental standards in our supply chain.
We encourage all of our sites to set ambitious targets to reduce environmental
impacts at the same time as cutting costs through a range of programs.
These include conservation and waste minimization plans such as SynEnergy
and Syn*3Rs, and a tool to help site managers monitor trends in energy
and waste.
In 2008, most of our key performance indicators (KPIs) increased as a
result of increased production to meet unprecedented demand for our products.
To enable a fair comparison over the years, we measure our environmental
efficiency per dollar of operational income before interest and tax and
special charges (EBIT). On this basis, despite an increase in absolute
terms most KPIs demonstrate a trend of improved efficiency over time.
Both absolute and relative data are provided in the environmental performance
pages on specific issues.
Beyond improving our operational efficiency, we also strive to reduce
the environmental impacts of our buildings. For example, our seeds operation
in Minnesota, US, is moving into a state-of-the-art new building designed
to be very efficient in its energy and water use.
As well as focusing on reducing our own impacts, we develop products and
provide training to help farmers reduce the impacts of agriculture on
climate change, water quality and biodiversity. For more information,
see climate
change, water
protection and conservation
agriculture.
