International cooperation in industry networks In dialogue with customers and competitors, we can actively address the challenges of producing dairy in a sustainable way. We prioritise initiatives that enable us to contribute to leading the industry in areas that are mutually beneficial. n Dairy Sustainability Framework (DSF). Arla is an implementing member of the DSF and has Farm visits by school children 11,600 30,000 50,000 29,000 12,000 11,000 Many farmer owners welcome school children to their farms to learn more about where food comes from. Figures show visitors in 2013 and 2017 (in black). provided input to the work in the DSF to expand the number of indicators to assess sustainability performance of the dairy value chain. n Sustainable Agriculture Initiative. Arla is an active member in the Dairy Working Group of the Initiative. In 2017, the group focused on developing a businessto-business approach to assess company implementation of the DSF. The business-to-business approach aims to capture the DSF’s continuous improvement principle and will hopefully result in a robust yet rational way to assess sustainability performance, reducing the number of customer audits. n Food Reform for Sustainability and Health (FReSH), an initiative by World Business Council for Sustainable Development and EAT, offers a forum to discuss across sectors and to join forces in developing approaches to address common challenges within sustainable production and consumption. Arla has been active in two working groups in the FReSH initiative during 2017. These focused on sustainable diets and sustainable food systems. Inspiring colleagues to be healthy We want our colleagues to be healthy and feel inspired, both at work and in their free time. As we are living longer and working for longer, we continue to educate and train colleagues to enable a longer and healthy work life, both physically and mentally. In the UK, we have approximately 50 dedicated health heroes across the country acting as health ambassadors at sites. All colleagues in Sweden are invited to participate in the ArlaGo programme with various training and health activities and dedicated health inspirers at every site. At most of our dairies and offices there are local initiatives to inspire colleagues to be active, for example, step counting competitions, yoga classes and running clubs. To energize participants and encourage a healthy, active lifestyle, Arla’s sales teams have introduced exercise as part of their major conferences. Training programmes Just as a healthy mind and body is important, continuous learning and development of colleagues is crucial to running a successful business. This includes training programmes in leadership, competence and personal development, to ensuring necessary skills. As an example, 1,500 blue collar colleagues in Denmark have been trained in subjects such as basic Danish and mathematics, logistics (transport and production) as well as soft skills including cooperation, communication and how to plan tasks. PRIORITIES 2018 ■■ Continued focus on inspiring good food habits ■■ Further engage farmers in the cooperative 20
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