Corbion 2021
Annual ReportHallo!
After more than 30 years with Corbion, colleagues probably know Connie best for her research work in fermentation and microbiology. But many in Gorinchem also know she’s one of our SDG ambassadors, and she really never stops thinking of ways to contribute to a more sustainable world.
Connie and her colleague, Brenda, who works in Food Product Development, tried out the new Preserve What Matters volunteering platform in December. The project they initiated – CorBRINGon Sinterklaas (a national feast in the Netherlands) – created a sort of re-gifting hub for local employees – a place where people could bring items they had no use for, but which others might value. Tied to SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), the initiative helped find new, welcoming homes for a variety of goods – free of charge – just in time for the holidays!
The CorBRINGon initiative re-energized an existing internal social media group called Marketplace Corbion NL. Brenda says this is just what she and Connie had hoped. Members use the group to buy, sell, or exchange year-round, and she says most prefer it for gift giving or swapping. Shortly after the platform launched, a couple of colleagues joined, and constructive discussions began. Connie and Brenda hope the Preserve What Matters platform will stimulate even more interest in the social media group, and they plan to use it to promote opportunities throughout the year. For spring, they’re thinking about creating a garden plant or sprout exchange for people interested in growing their own veggies and trying new varieties.
Making choices that are better for the world is often a matter of just being aware of the better option, according to Connie. “Creating greater awareness is something we can all help each other with, and the new platform gives us a better way to do that,” she says.
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Clearly, there is no shortage of creativity and passion for making a positive impact in the local community at our Rayong site. Radaporn leads CSR and community projects and has been an SDG ambassador since November. She says the projects initiated through the new platform so far – a cloth tote bag drive conceived by Nongpan Kaewdunglek that will make it easier for people going home from local hospitals to avoid using plastic bags for carrying medications and medical supplies, and a blood drive for the Red Cross – are just the beginning of what the Rayong team has in the works.
Lab officer Khun Chananchida suggested that sugar leftover after testing in the lab could be of use to local farmers. Instead of being thrown away, it can be used to make fertilizer. Rather than purchasing goods from a supermarket (which usually come with plastic packaging or single-use containers) as New Year gifts from the company, Chalisa Pookang proposed ordering gift baskets made by locals from krajood, a grassy weed found in the east. The baskets are filled with fruit and organic eggs from local farmers.
Every year, employees at the site help purchase rice and other foods donated to school children or other members of the community suffering from hunger. The rice is often purchased directly from local farms. Senior Process Technologist Varunee Pimtong is also leading a project that may boost the productivity of local tapioca farms using biomass (by-product) from our operations in Rayong.
“The Rayong team has many great ideas we’re eager to share with our Corbion colleagues around the world, and we’re happy to have the Preserve What Matters volunteering platform to help us do it,” Radaporn says. “We also want to take inspiration from projects happening at other sites. Collaborating with our global team in this way will help us all achieve greater results.”
Hi!
Corbion’s active support of the community surrounding its North American Regional Headquarters goes back a dozen years. From the start, the local team’s cause of choice has been Harvesters Community Food Network, an organization providing food assistance to Kansas Citians in need for more than 40 years.
Before the pandemic, our Lenexa and Grandview sites teamed up annually for a “Pack It Up for Harvesters” event, preparing thousands of packages of food for area families who would not otherwise have a Thanksgiving meal. Food was purchased using employee donations collected throughout the year, in addition to funds supplied by the company.
Starting last year, however, there could be no meal-packing event due to COVID-19 restrictions. So the team shifted gears, continuing to support Harvesters by conducting a Virtual Food Drive. The online fundraiser lets employees “shop” and purchase the goods they want to contribute to the cause, or simply make a cash donation.
This year’s drive raised $7,368 in donations from Corbion employees, a figure that doubled when combined with company matching funds. With that money, Harvesters was able to provide more than 44,000 meals to our neighbors experiencing food insecurity.
“It’s obvious people at Corbion care,” said Christine Webb, who helps coordinate the Kansas City team’s fundraising efforts. “We show every year that one of the things that matters to us is preserving our community.”
¡Hola!
As Maintenance Manager at our Montmeló site, Marçal probably spends more time thinking about how to use electricity efficiently than the rest of us. He has even taken the step of installing solar panels at his home. Along the way, he’s learned a lot about the topic, so he decided to initiate a project through preservewhatmatters.com that creates opportunities for others at Corbion to share in that knowledge.
By offering remote sessions via Microsoft Teams, Marçal and other employees can share ideas, experiences, and lessons learned with anyone at Corbion interested in participating. The focus is primarily on ways to reduce energy costs at home, covering how to get data from an electrical power meter, energy-saving actions and the reasons for them, and even answering questions about how to implement residential solar energy systems. Sessions are offered in Spanish and English to extend the impact of the project.
“I am very interested in learning more about what I can do to help preserve our planet,” Marçal says. “There are so many things that we can do and should do. Thinking about it can be overwhelming. Our new volunteering platform can help bring focus to some of those things so we can identify one achievable step at a time along our journey.”
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Nongpan Kaewdunglek, Senior Operations Administrator at Corbion’s site in Rayong, Thailand, knows that when a person truly wants to make a difference in the world, good ideas will come to them. When she learned that many people being sent home from local hospitals were being given plastic bags to carry their medications and medical supplies, she saw an opportunity to help people and protect the environment at the same time.
When COVID-19 infections were rising rapidly in the Ban Chang District of Rayong Province, Nongpan felt compassion for the many people stricken by the coronavirus, and concern about the volume of plastic being put into the environment. Recognizing that she personally had more cloth tote bags than she needed, she thought others might say the same. Some of her coworkers agreed to help collect and distribute the cloth bags. Together, they launched the “Say ‘No’ to Plastic” initiative through Corbion’s “Preserve What Matters” platform, which they used to recruit more colleagues to help.
In its very first round, the initiative took in 100 unused tote bags and Nongpan personally delivered them to hospitals, taking plenty of precautions to protect herself in areas where COVID risks were high.
Today, Nongpan and her collaborators have collection points in various Corbion departments, including Operations, Administration, HR, EHS, and Technology & Engineering. There are now at least 30 employees signed up via the Preserve What Matters volunteering platform to support the initiative, and the team continues collecting and delivering the cloth bags to more hospitals, even remote rural facilities, every month.
“I like it that we can do something that gives people a little support and helps the environment all at once,” Nongpan said. “We can live our values in big ways and in small ways, too.”
Olá
Corbion strengthens its commitment to the environment year-on-year. Towards raising awareness of the need for us to continue focusing on sustainability, Corbion Brazil organizes an event for its employees and contractors to celebrate World Environment Day on 5 June each year. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 was no exception. This event helps boost the company’s continual efforts to improve environmental performance.
The United Nations (UN) World Environment Day aims to engage authorities, businesses and citizens in addressing pressing environmental issues. Corbion Brazil has run a focused event with a different theme each time on this special day for many years. Last year, the focus was Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). Fernando Costa, Environmental Health & Safety Manager at Corbion Brazil, leads the company’s sustainability initiatives.
“Our event shows how we can all be ‘agents of change’, and demonstrates simple ways for our employees to make a difference in their own homes,” he said. “Last year, we featured virtual games that stimulated thought on the environment, and we donated seedlings that our employees could plant to green their environment.”
While the pandemic has restricted some socio-environmental events that Corbion Brazil would normally organize within the community, environmental education work in schools progressed in 2021. Established community environmental projects, such as collection of used cooking oil for recycling also continued.
“We have still been able to complete several activities with the community, mainly in schools, where we seek to strengthen environmental values in the public,” he said.
“Globally, we all have a lot to mitigate climate change, but at Corbion, we strive to advance every day. The road is long and must be addressed continuously,” added Fernando. “We should not wait for input from governments and companies, we as citizens, can evaluate our individual behavior, even at work, and strive for conscious consumption and implement measures daily that help us to create a better world.”