A look back on Sustainable Development Week

To mark World Environment Day on June 5 as well as Sustainable Development Week, the Group’s employees came together over the course of several days. This event illustrates Tereos’ commitment to contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly with regard to the “zero hunger” goal of improving food security and nutrition and promoting sustainable production methods.

Tereos’ teams have targeted some of these goals on the ground, such as good health and well-being for all, but are also focusing on more sustainable consumption and production. Each site was invited to organize local events around the theme: Take action for the planet, solidarity and well-being at work. “Our strength is having been able to join together all employees, wherever they are in the world, around a common purpose which concerns everyone”, explains Baptiste Rougier, Events Communications Officer. “Sustainable development is also about small, simple, day-to-day gestures. Individually, they may seem insignificant, but together they can have a very positive impact on our planet”, adds Xavier Huchet, Group CSR Manager.

“A world tour of initiatives” 

PARIS – MÉDÉRIC

An exchange was organized with Les Paniers Bios Paris, a collaborative organization that employs people with disabilities and those in professional reintegration programs. Tereos’ teams could place orders with them for organic and local fruit and vegetable baskets. In addition, employees were made aware of their plastic consumption and each received a reusable water bottle. The goal: To make the 31,000 plastic bottles thrown away each year a thing of the past! Finally, an expert in musculoskeletal disorders came to advise employees on their desk posture.

EUROPE CAMPUS

Around thirty employees from the Campus, Paris and Marckolsheim took part in the Challenge Contre la Faim [Challenge Against Hunger] sports event organized by the NGO Action Against Hunger. Alongside thousands of other participants, the Tereos teams did the Group proud and helped to collect more than €5,000 for the NGO’s anti-malnutrition programs.

REUNION

Tereos Sugar Indian Ocean called on a local association to help them celebrate Sustainable Development Week. “Les Rencontres Alternatives” [Alternative Finds] is a project led by artists who use salvaged materials and work with people in rehabilitation. After a visit to the Bois-Rouge sugar factory to salvage objects, the artists began making their frescoes and works of art with obsolete items from the Réunion factory.

In addition to a clothing drive for disadvantaged people and a waste-free lunch organized in the cafeteria, employees were invited to take part in a “Sustainable Eating” quiz. Finally, employees were encouraged to carpool throughout the week!

 Tereos Sugar France

Bucy

A challenge was set up to collect waste from the areas surrounding the sites. More than 91 kg of waste was collected at the Bucy site and more than 600 kg of used equipment at Vic-sur-Aisne! As well as a Sustainable Development lunch showcasing local produce, employees were asked to tidy, sort, and recycle their documents. The objective: To promote digital copies over paper.

Escaudoeuvres

The “Clean up our mill” initiative brought together all teams at the site in Northern France on June 5 this year. Armed with garbage bags and gloves, the 82-strong group collected waste from around the site. At the end of the cleanup, the participants gathered for a snack and were given a bottle so they could use the water fountains and thus limit the use of disposable cups.

Origny

Several workshops were set up at the Aisne site around the theme “Taking action for the planet”. In addition to a quiz, some employees also took part in a race and a walk to showcase well-being at work.

Thumeries

The Hauts-de-France site organized activities around three selected themes: solidarity, the planet, and well-being at work. Employees worked on the green spaces with various service providers, then discovered produce from local farms and shared a lunch in the picnic space.

Tereos Starch and Sweeteneers 

Haussimont

Employees were asked to donate blood to the Etablissement Français du Sang [French national blood service]. The teams also planted flowers on the site with the aim of making the company and its surroundings blossom. Finally, a sophrology session was offered to teach employees how to better manage stress and fatigue through breathing techniques.

Nesle

A board game was developed around the company’s environmental impacts. Regardless of whether or not they won, all participants were given a mug in order to avoid the use of disposable cups. Elsewhere, an environmental walk brought all the staff together to collect waste. 5 m3 of miscellaneous waste, 2 m3 of wood, and 600 kg of scrap metal were collected. The day ended around a food truck.

BRAZIL

The TSEB teams launched a special communication program around sustainable development by circulating the local and Group campaigns on television screens at the sites. A newspaper, comprising initiatives from the Group around sustainable development, was developed with young people from the “Pescar” project. Tereos Sugar & Energy Brazil has been supporting the association, which works with disadvantaged young people, for several years. Several young people also helped to create a work of art by making a tree out of paper.

TSEB also launched a re-forestation project during Sustainable Development Week. In total, 50 trees were planted. Around 40 of them were put into the ground by Tereos employees, working alongside students from two neighboring municipal schools. In future, the project plans to plant 800 trees.

INDONESIA

The TSSI site in Cilegon wanted to celebrate Sustainable Development Week and the end of Ramadan. An event was organized in the premises in the presence of around 30 children from a neighboring orphanage. Employees from the marketing, purchasing and production teams played games with the children.

A total of 250 people were involved: managers, employees, and members of the community. The evening was a real success and ended with the managers giving gifts to the teams.

SPAIN

Located in the popular district of Picarral, the Zaragoza site wanted to make itself more visible to those looking for work in order to encourage professional integration.

A fundraiser was also organized for the “Ailleurs en Solitude” [Elsewhere in Solitude] project, which is led by an association in the same neighborhood, and which supports and creates activities for lonely elderly people.

Finally, employees benefited from advice they can apply to their personal circumstances in order to make more responsible purchases.