GWF AND ITS BUSINESSES ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRADITIONAL OWNERS, CUSTODIANS AND FIRST NATIONS OF AUSTRALIA. WE PAY OUR RESPECTS TO THEIR ELDERS, PAST, PRESENT, AND EMERGING, FOR THEY HOLD THE MEMORIES, THE TRADITION, AND THE CULTURE OF ALL ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE.
WE RECOGNISE THE UNIQUE ROLE MĀORI AS TANGATA WHENUA AND EMBRACE TE TIRITI O WAITANGI RECOGNISING MĀORI AS TINO RANGITIRATANGA OF AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND WHILE EMBRACING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THE TREATY.
GWF’s Sustainability Report
This is George Weston Foods’ (GWF) 2024 Sustainability Report. It details our approach to sustainability across our business using the GWF Sustainability Framework. The Report also highlights sustainability performance information and case studies from across GWF businesses for 2023 and the first half of 2024. For the purposes of this document, the GWF Group encompasses information from Tip Top®, DON®, Jasol, MAURI and Yumi’s. Please note Yumi’s is a separate legal entity to GWF. Our report is prepared with reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. We welcome feedback or questions on our reporting to sustainability@gwf.com.au
INTRODUCTION
With an estimated nine out of ten households buying at least one of our products every week, at George Weston Foods we have a clear focus on providing safe, nutritious, and affordable food to millions of Australian and New Zealand families.
We do this while not losing sight of our responsibilities and ambitions for the future. We are determined to reduce our impact on the planet, provide a safe and inclusive workplace, source ingredients from ethical, responsible, and sustainable sources, reduce food waste, and support our local communities when they need us most.
In our 2022 Sustainability Report we detailed that GWF was embarking on a new phase of our sustainability journey, building on past foundations. We developed a GWF-wide Sustainability Framework that has helped guide our businesses.
This latest Report marks the next stage in GWF’s Sustainability journey, with the reporting on our progress 2023 + the first half of 2024.
In this report we highlight the progress we are making against our pillars of People, Products, and Planet, including how we are helping Australian and New Zealand families facing cost of living pressures through our community partnerships.
Because our businesses within GWF are autonomous, they may also report their individual sustainability roadmaps and progress, in addition to what is detailed in this report.
With the announcement by the Australian Federal Government of a potential new mandatory climate-related financial disclosures framework, GWF is now revising our Sustainability or Corporate Responsibility Strategy to prepare for new climate disclosure requirements from 2026 onwards..
CEO’S MESSAGE
At GWF, our vision is to provide the best home for a growing family of safe, well-led businesses, delivering outstanding results and return for the long-term.
As one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest food manufacturers, we appreciate our impact and our responsibility to invest in our future.
We believe we have a responsibility to our consumers and customers to be a good neighbour and contribute positively to the communities in which we operate. Importantly, we have a responsibility to the 6,000+ employees who work hard every day to produce safe, nutritious and affordable food and products across our company.
Our values underpin our behaviour and guide our decisions and actions every day: Safe, Courageous, Trusting and Collaborative. These values are also at the core of our Sustainability work, which you will find detailed throughout this report.
This year, Sustainability at GWF has taken on even more meaning, as Australia and New Zealand families continue to face cost of living pressures. We understand that many, if not most of our products are vital to the everyday lives of Australian and New Zealand families. This is why despite soaring grain, ingredient and other input
pressures we have kept any increases in prices as low as possible while looking at ways to increase the nutritional value of our delicious range of food products. This is why we also continue our significant community support programs, including partnerships with Foodbank in Australia and KidsCan in New Zealand, to help alleviate the growing hunger crisis.
As you will see from the case studies highlighted in this year’s report, we are proud of our ongoing work in Sustainability and the progress we are making. However, we know there is more we can and must do to tackle ongoing issues including climate change, cost of living pressures, food waste, and recycling. We will continue working in close collaboration with our industry partners to solve some of these industrywide challenges.
Finally, I’d like to thank my predecessor Stuart Grainger for his leadership of GWF over the last seven years. GWF is in a strong position to deal with the challenges ahead and make a positive impact through our Sustainability roadmap.
Paul Foster Chief Executive Officer George Weston Foods
OUR ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2023 AND 2024 IN SUMMARY
GWF and our businesses have expanded the task of asking our supply chain partners to join SEDEX, the international system designed to enable businesses to store, analyse, share, and report on sustainability practices, especially ethical sourcing and modern slavery, with the world’s largest data platform for supply chain assessment.
We ran our third Safety Perception Survey
To measure, analyse and address our progress in workplace safety and continue strengthening our strong culture of safety.
We released our first Gender Pay Report, showing the strong progress we are making in closing the Gender Pay Gap at GWF.
We continue improving our product packaging
In line with guidelines set by the Australian Packaging Covenant (APCO). Our latest APCO report demonstrates that we are achieving a leading position in this area.
Investing for a more sustainable future:
GWF through Tip Top is investing...
In Western Australia on an expanded and more sustainable bakery, to secure bakery products for the people of Western Australia, including new nutritious products aiding gut health, low cholesterol and high protein products for the first time, with new energy efficient equipment.
Our new Gluten Free Bakery in New Zealand has moved away from natural gas to electricity which is largely generated from renewable sources in New Zealand, reducing our GHG emissions.
Our Mauri business opened a new, state-of-the-art animal feed mill in Hope Valley.
In New Zealand we have joined Kai Commitment
TONNE
Compared with our previous mill, making this one of the most energy efficient mills of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.
A voluntary agreement for leading food businesses to reduce food waste and related emissions and contribute to a more efficient, resilient and sustainable food system. Tip Top is also a signatory to the Australian Food Pact with End Food Waste Australia.
We have completed our sixth roof-top solar energy project
At our largest Tip Top Bakery in Australia, helping us get closer to our emissions reductions target.
We continue supporting community organisations where we can make the most difference to people in need. Through our collaborative supply partnership with Foodbank in Australia, we donated over...
We also support many other community organisations including Friends with Dignity in Queensland and Victoria, Cowboys House in Townsville, Ronald McDonald House in Victoria and KidsCan, Full Bellies and RaWiri House in New Zealand.
MILLION LOAVES OFFRESH BREAD IN2023
OUR PRINCIPLES AND PRIORITIES
Our guiding principles underpin our Sustainability Plan and guide our journey towards a better tomorrow for our people, our planet and our customers and communities.
We believe they will also create long term value both for our parent company, Associated British Foods, as well as our customers.
Our Sustainability Guiding Principles
These principles guide the impact we aim to create on society, planet, and the economy; and also provides the foundations for GWF’s Sustainability Framework.
Care for our people
Caring for our people means prioritising the health, safety and wellbeing of our team and cultivating inclusive and diverse workplaces where everyone is respected, supported, and empowered to fulfil their potential.
Create and sustain value
We create and sustain value for customers, consumers, and our own business through our high quality, healthy, nutritious, and affordable products, and through the relationships we forge with our supply chain.
Be a good neighbour and a good corporate citizen
Being a good neighbour means looking out for the communities and natural environment impacted by our business. As a good corporate citizen, we act with integrity, work to reduce our negative impacts, and aim to do good every day. We aim for workplaces where everyone is respected, supported, and empowered to fulfil their potential.
To turn our guiding principles into actions, GWF has three pillars of focus
People
To provide a safe and inclusive workplace, where people can be themselves at their best and to support the local communities that support us, and those most in need.
To buy from ethically responsible and sustainable sources, and consider people in the supply chain.
PRODUCTS
To always provide safe, high quality products and to pursue improvements to nutrition, enjoyment and customer satisfaction, and to comply with local and international standards in animal welfare as a minimum.
To progressively reduce our environmental impacts and use natural resources more efficiently.
Our commitments and focus areas are mapped to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as they address the global challenges we face together.
People PRODUCTS Planet
We provide a safe, healthy & inclusive workplace, where everyone is valued, & we support thriving local communities.
• Workplace Health, Safety, & Wellbeing
• Inclusion & Diversity
• Human Rights & Modern Slavery
Our Commitments
We deliver value for customers, ensuring products are safe and promote good health.
Priorities
• Food Safety, Quality, & Innovation
• Product Packaging & Waste
• Animal Health & Welfare
We value nature & work to secure a safe climate and a healthy environment.
• Energy Management & Emissions
• Climate Adaptation & Resilience
NEW DISCLOSURE LAWS AND ITS IMPACT ON THE GWF SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORK
In the past year there have been substantial changes proposed to the regulatory environment for sustainability issues both here in Australia and New Zealand, and for our parent company in Europe and the UK .
As we understand these new requirements better, GWF and our parent ABF, will be developing internal reporting systems that reflect these new requirements, be it for energy and emissions usage, and other inputs, including ethical sourcing, packaging and climate adaption and resilience measures.
While GWF is not captured by the new European Union Corporate Sustainability Directive, our parent ABF in part is, which will impact GWF.
As a result, the GWF Sustainability framework will be refined in 2025 and 2026 to support these disclosures and the disclosure of other material topics that GWF believes are important for the company, for ABF, and for our stakeholders.
Until then GWF will continue to use the existing framework reported in the 2023 GWF Sustainability Report for reporting progress on sustainability issues.
OUR PROGRESS IN 2023/2024
People
Our Commitments
We aim to provide a safe and inclusive workplace, where people can be themselves at their best and to support the local communities that support us, and those most in need.
We recognise the importance of ensuring the highest standards of Health, Safety, and Environment.
Our goal is to be an employer where everyone belongs, everyone is valued, and everyone has an equal opportunity.
We are committed to protecting Human Rights and eliminating Modern Slavery across the value chain, with a Supplier Code of Conduct that sets out the values and standards we expect.
HELPING FAMILIES AND SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITY
We are committed to supporting the community when they need us the most by sharing our products, our skills, and our resources. Right across GWF businesses, our people are encouraged to volunteer to assist their communities. In fact, GWF employees are entitled to 2 days of paid volunteering leave per year and we also encourage and support our people to contribute to the community through payroll giving, fundraising, and donations.
At DON, our people are encouraged to volunteer with The Salvation Army, Foodbank and Ronald McDonald House, either as individuals or within their teams.
At Mauri, our Caring Everyday program is a site lead initiative where our people have the opportunity to support local communities and charities. This year our sites have supported a number of local organisations including Top Blokes Foundation, Royal Flying Doctors, Allowah Children’s Hospital, Westmead Children’s Hospital, Orange Sky NZ and Bowel Cancer Australia. Mauri also supports Foodbank through volunteering days and donations.
Tip Top has a Collaborative Supply Partnership with Foodbank Australia, Australia’s largest food relief organisation. Through this program, Tip Top is committed to a regular and planned donation of products each week to Foodbank, which allows Foodbank to better predict and plan its response within the community. In 2023, Tip Top donated over 2 million loaves of bread to Foodbank Australia to assist in critical food relief initiatives across the country.
Through our Tip Top ‘Caring Everyday’ program, each of our Australian bakeries has partnered with a community organisation that operates in their local area. These partners are chosen based on where Tip Top can add the most value. Some of these local partners include Friends with Dignity, Deadly Connections, NRL Cowboys House and Kickstart for Kids. Our aim is to have a positive impact on the communities where we work and live, and support people when they need help the most.
Tip Top NZ has also donated thousands of Tip Top Supersoft High Fibre and Tip Top Oatilicious toast loaves every week to schools across New Zealand through our partnership with KidsCan in New Zealand.
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP CASE STUDY:
FRIENDS WITH DIGNITY
Our Tip Top Bakeries teams in Queensland and Victoria have chosen to support Friends with Dignity as their local community partner.
Friends with Dignity is a national not-forprofit organisation focused on improving the quality of life for any adult or child impacted by domestic violence.
Through providing services and resources including fully-furnished homes, Friends with Dignity aims to help victims of domestic violence to rebuild their lives with purpose, dignity and hope.
In 2023, Tip Top Operations and Sales team members in QLD volunteered with Friends with Dignity. Our team assisted with building furniture, packing vans, and packing pamper packs. The experience was humbling and rewarding for our team while making a lasting impact. Through a combination of employee and company donations, Tip Top donated $5320 which fully fits out one family home.
CULTIVATING A GREAT PLACE TO WORK
Yujie Huang is a relative newcomer to the Don KR Castlemaine team having joined the company in October 2022. However, Yujie said she has been made to feel welcome and supported in her role as Cost Accountant Salami & Smallgoods Stream.
Yujie said she originally came to Australia from China as an international student to study Accounting at Monash University.
“I fell in love with Australia and decided to stay and pursue a career here,” she said.
Following her studies Yujie secured an accounting role with a small food manufacturing business in Melbourne and over the next five years quickly developed her skills and how to apply them to manufacturing. Yujie was excited to have the opportunity to step up into the new role at Don KR Castlemaine and make the treechange to Castlemaine.
“I am from a rural community in China so I am really enjoying the quieter, more relaxed lifestyle the Castlemaine region offers,” she said.
“The new role was daunting at first as Don KR Castlemaine is a much larger company than my previous employer, but I am really enjoying the challenge and getting to know the staff, systems and processes, and my managers have been very supportive.
“I am really focused on analysis of systems and figuring out ways we can increase efficiency in production and ensure that we make best use of the meat and supplies when creating the final product and we are reducing waste to ensure the most cost effective process. It is my job to look at ways we can improve,” Yujie said.
“Don KR Castlemaine has built a fantastic culture here. Everyone works together from those on the floor in production through to area managers and supervisors. There is a big focus on working as a team. Everyone has an important role to play and people really do care about presenting the best product possible.
“It’s hectic at times but it’s just a really good vibe and a great place to work,” Yujie said.
GWF ANTI BRIBERY AND POLITICAL DONATION POLICY
GWF is committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethics and compliance with all relevant laws wherever we do business in Australia and New Zealand.
Compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws must be at the forefront of this commitment. Therefore, understanding those laws and the ethical standards required of all of us is essential.
As part of this commitment, GWF will not tolerate any form of bribery or corruption.
Our policies and procedures must be followed, even if doing so may, on occasion, result in losing business. Failing to follow these procedures can result in severe criminal and civil consequences for GWF and the individuals concerned, and would put our hard-earned reputation, as well as our long-term financial health, at risk.
All directors and employees across GWF are required to follow the ABF AntiBribery and Corruption Policy and to comply both with the spirit and the letter of anti-bribery and corruption laws. We expect our business managers at all levels to lead by example in this regard.
Political Donations
It is the policy of GWF, as it is for our parent company ABF, not to make any political donations as an organisation.
Employees may choose to make personal donations as individuals, but not with a view to influence a third party for the benefit of GWF, or in any way that might give the impression that such influence was intended.
ENGAGING OUR PEOPLE TO MAKE OUR WORKPLACE SAFE
GWF believes that safety is all about continuous improvement that involves the active involvement of all our people, every day.
“Safe” is the first of our four values – it is more than a priority.
In late 2023 GWF ran our third “Safety Perception Survey”. In this survey we heard from over 3,380 of our team members across Australia and New Zealand, and from every one of our sites, and our field sales teams. Pleasingly we saw that our level of safety maturity has increased since our last survey across all of our businesses. Our focus now is to translate these learnings into action to ensure that we continue to make GWF an even safer place to work.
Our five-pillar strategy is designed to ensure that we have a culture where people do not “walk past” something that does not seem right, and our latest survey results tell us that our strategy is working.
GWF is pleased that we are seeing a record number of proactive matters being raised and then closed out, including hazards, near hits, and early notifications of pain.
We have seen a corresponding reduction in our lag safety indicators with the number and severity of our injuries decreasing since our last report in 2023.
In this way, GWF aims to have a strong safety culture that results in rise in proactive safety related matters being reported and that the number of injuries continues to decline.
CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP
At GWF, we believe that our people can be their best when they can be themselves. Our goal is to progress our journey of inclusion and diversity, to remove barriers and enable all our employees to have a satisfying and rewarding career with us. Our diverse business benefits from a rich diversity of experience and thinking. We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone is respected, supported and empowered to fulfil their potential.
In February 2024, we released our first GWF Australia Gender Pay Report. This report details our current Gender Pay Gap, the composition of our organisation by gender, and our policies and practices designed to close the pay gap and achieve greater equality. Some of the key insights from this report are included in the page opposite.
We are pleased to see this strong progress however we believe it is critical that GWF businesses maintain positive momentum through intentional strategies to close the gender pay gap, including increasing female representation at our most senior levels in the company.
Our Median Gender Pay Gap IS:
SINCE 2020-2021 our median gender pay GAP reduced by:
GWF’s workforce is made up of:
These results compare favourably with the Australian national average and our industry comparison group, however we believe there is more work we can do.
Our results demonstrate a significant improvement over time.
By comparison, on average in our industry (including other large manufacturers with 4999+ employees), 27% of the workforce are women.
INCLUSION And DIVERSITY
We have a broad Inclusion & Diversity program to ensure we create a sense of belonging for all GWF employees, irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, race, culture or disability. GWF is a proud member of Pride in Diversity and the Australian Disability Network.
GWF has established an Inclusion & Diversity Council as well as Inclusion & Diversity Taskforces in each of our Business Units. These are chaired by senior business leaders and include a diverse range of people from across each business. These forums share learnings and drive improvement across our businesses, ensuring we are continually reviewing and embedding practices to build an inclusive and diverse workforce.
Our leaders are trained to understand and recognise bias and how to be inclusive, because we believe that this important change must be led from the top. We actively support and encourage our diverse workforce through regular network events, cultural celebrations, education, and communication to ensure diversity and inclusion remains top of mind. We support a diverse range of community partners, from large national charities to small grass-roots organisations, to reflect the diversity of our people and communities.
ETHICAL SOURCING and MODERN SLAVERY
GWF businesses have been working to identify the key modern slavery risks in our supply chains. The first step in this process is to get more accurate and systemic information on our supply chains across our businesses.
Across GWF businesses, there has been an initial focus in 2022 and 2023 on registering suppliers with the SEDEX platform.
This is regarded within GWF as the foundation stone by which the next steps of auditing and developing grievance procedures can be undertaken. Mauri and Tip Top have launched SEDEX with their suppliers and started an initial pilot. The pilot is being used to help identify areas for improvements and opportunities to streamline procurement and ethical sourcing processes and plans. As part of the pilot, supplier questionnaires are issued with the GWF Responsible Sourcing Code of Conduct to ensure consistency and transparency to suppliers.
Our businesses have also begun the process of identifying their key supply chain risks. Tip Top have decided to source their fruit for popular products such as Raisin Toast from Türkiye, as both Tip Top and our parent ABF have identified potential issues sourcing fruit from other countries.
IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL MODERN SLAVERY RISKS IN OUR SUPPLY CHAIN
Over the past year, GWF has worked with our sister companies in ABF’s UK Grocery segment on the potential development of a central data point to embed procedures to monitor supplier engagement with SEDEX and provide accurate data.
A key use of this data is to provide status updates on non-conformance derived from ethical audits and help our businesses engage with their suppliers to resolve issues.
GWF businesses are also exploring opportunities to share resources with our sister companies that are needed to do on-the-ground auditing and grievance procedures in potential at risk locations.
Products
Our Commitments
We are committed to delivering value for customers, ensuring our products are safe, consistent in quality, and support good health.
As signatories to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) 2025 National Packaging Targets, we continue to encourage the uptake of innovative, sustainable product packaging and reducing reliance on problematic packaging materials.
Tip Top is a signatory of the Australian Food Pact which aims to halve food waste in Australia by 2030.
We follow and endorse the policy of our parent company, Associated British Foods Plc, with respect to maintaining and improving good animal welfare and meeting relevant animal welfare standards.
TACKLING FOOD WASTE
According to Foodbank, Australia currently creates...
Enough to fill the Melbourne Cricket Grounds nine times.
This is costing the Australian economy over...
$36.6
Come from food which is produced but wasted.
17.5 MILLION TONNES OF CO2 EACH YEA R
TIP TOP HAS AN AMBITION TO ACHIEVE ZERO FOOD WASTE TO LANDFILL.
Tip Top’s most recent report from the Australian Food Pact showed that Tip Top is tracking at less than 1% food waste to landfill - putting Tip Top in the lowest quartile. Tip Top is proud that through the efforts across the workforce, its food waste levels are extremely low compared to other food manufacturers. But we know there is more to do.
To drive down food waste, Tip Top repurposes waste by sending the majority of unsold bread to animal feed as well as upcycling into breadcrumbs.
In New Zealand, Tip Top NZ became a signatory to the Kai Commitment in 2023. Kai Commitment is a voluntary agreement for leading food businesses in New Zealand to reduce food waste and related emissions, and contribute to a more efficient, resilient and sustainable food system.
IMPROVING NUTRITION AND HEALTH
GWF is an active participant in the Australian and New Zealand Governments’ Health Star Rating system, through our bakery brands such as Tip Top, Abbott’s Bakery, Big Ben Pies, Burgen and Golden, and through our Yumi’s products.
The Health Star Rating (HSR) is a front-of-pack labelling system supported by Federal and State Governments that rates the overall nutritional profile of packaged food and assigns it a rating from ½ a star to 5 stars.
It provides a quick, easy, standard way to compare similar packaged foods. The more stars, the healthier the choice. Tip Top and Yumi’s both believe that good consumer information on nutritional choices is important.
At Tip Top Bakeries, Health Star ratings now appear on 100% of our products. Yumi’s are working hard to get to 100% across their product range by the end of 2025.
Tip Top Bakeries is also voluntarily committed to the Healthy Food Partnership sodium targets for the bread category. Over the past few years, we have been working towards meeting these targets and have met our commitment of reaching over 80% of the category by sales volume ahead of June 2024. Since removing added sugar from Tip Top Raisin and Wholemeal Raisin Toast we have removed 238 tonnes of sugar from the food supply.
Note: Labels are examples of the HSR labelling system only,
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
Tip Top has been undertaking a critical $130 million redevelopment and expansion of Western Australia’s critical bakery, a bakery that supplies the majority of packaged bread for a state of almost 3 million people.
Tip Top is the largest producer of bread + bakery products in Australia, producing over 1.5 million bakery items daily and delivering to more than 12,000 customers across the nation.
Tip Top’s Canning Vale site is a critical bakery in the Tip Top network as it is the only food manufacturing site of bread and rolls for the Tip Top Western Australian market. Its geographical location means the nearest Tip Top bakery is 2,700 km away (28 hours by road) in South Australia, resulting in the bakery producing all varieties for the local market with no other major bakery for support if supply issues arise in Western Australia.
Now Tip Top is investing to secure supply for Western Australia into the future and deliver more of the products seen in Eastern States.
The new and updated bakery at Canning Vale will be able to deliver additional bread lines not currently able to be produced in Western Australia.
The investment is not just about extra capacity. Tip Top is also driving efficiencies and improvements to safety, environment, food safety and quality, and staff amenities.
Improving reliability and performance is also key to the investment. Tip Top is replacing inefficient machinery, enabling both improved reliability, better efficiencies and performance – as well as greater capacity. Critically as well, there will be major cost improvements through better machinery utilisation and line efficiencies.
Finally, post production there will also be supply chain improvements through a more efficient warehouse and dock improvements. Tip Top Canning Vale has some of the longest supply chains for bread and bakery products in the world stretching over 2,000 kilometres to cover Western Australia.
IMPROVING OUR PACKAGING
George Weston Foods is a signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) 2025 National Packaging Targets and a foundational member of the National Plastics and Recycling Scheme (NPRS).
The NPRS is being developed by Australia’s food and grocery manufacturing industry, with funding support from the federal government, to create a new advanced recycling industry in Australia, aiming to turn plastic packaging back into new foodgrade packaging.
But GWF brands aren’t waiting just for the NPRS. Where we can we are already undertaking changes in our packaging.
DON for example is converting all its thermoforming rigid packaging machines to materials which are 100% kerbside recyclable.
George Weston Foods brand
Ploughman’s Bakery in New Zealand was also the first and only bakery brand in the region to introduce 30% post industrial recycled plastic into its bread bags from May 2022. Significant plans are underway in a number of businesses to increase recycled material content in packaging for key product lines over the course of 2024.
REMOVING NON-RECYCLABLE PLASTICS FROM OUR PACKAGING
GWF is a member of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), and we are dedicated to aligning with and contributing to the 2025 National Packaging Targets to make 100% of our packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Our latest APCO report demonstrates that we have been rated by APCO as achieving an overall leading position result.
In some areas we have exceeded best practices such as Governance & Strategy, Design & Procurement and On-site Waste. In other areas, GWF and our businesses are committed to further ongoing efforts to enhance our performance.
As part of that program of continuous improvement, GWF businesses are currently addressing problematic materials such as PVC by substituting with PET which is kerbside recyclable.
For example, Tip Top has replaced the PVC trays with PET for Golden Pancakes, which is 100% kerbside recyclable. This transition resulted in approximately 37 tonnes from nonrecyclable plastic to recyclable.
Additionally, Tip Top has implemented cardboard tags for all branded bags as a substitute of polystyrene. Tip Top is also engaged in projects aimed at increasing the incorporation of recycled content into our packaging such as PET trays made with 80% recycled plastic and bread crates with a minimum of 10% recycled content across our bakeries.
DON has progressed with the introduction of mono PET bottom trays made with 80% post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials. This move has saved approximately 295 tonnes of virgin plastic for the last financial year.
DON is implementing this change for other SKUs by replacing the PVC trays with PET which are 100% kerbside recyclable. This initiative is part of DON’s ambition to make 100% of packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
TIP TOP FOOD SAFETY and QUALITY ‘STEPS TO ZERO’
As a leading food manufacturer, at Tip Top we take pride in our deep commitments to food safety and quality.
In October 2023, we launched a new Food Safety & Quality program called ‘Steps to Zero’. Through this program, we provided tools for our bakery team leaders to conduct a series of regular team discussions across four modules – See It, Own It, Change It, and Live It. There are 20 Discussion topics in total covering topics including common food safety risks and hazards, hygiene, prevention and reporting.
This program is currently underway across our Bakeries and is helping to strengthen our culture and mindset which prioritises food safety and quality every day.
Our Commitments
We seek to optimise and conserve energy consumption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through increasing our use of renewable energy like solar. We are committed to contributing to a low carbon economy and managing our climate risks and impacts. We will continue to measure our greenhouse gas emissions and develop an action plan to achieve our GHG targets.
OUR PROGRESS IN REDUCING ENERGY EMISSIONS
George Weston Foods is focused on both energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions as part of its roadmap, which will be finalised in 2025.
In 2023 and into 2024, George Weston Foods’ businesses continued to consider ways in which they can integrate more renewable energy into the energy mix long term, and factored energy and carbon-related risks into its decisionmaking. Tip Top have since installed further solar panels at sites, and DON is finalising the agreement which will enable construction later in 2024.
George Weston Foods’ businesses also continue to find new ways to replace synthetic greenhouse gas refrigerants with less harmful alternatives in our operations.
DON has also embarked on an updated energy supply strategy
Which could reduce its total emissions by
40% B Y 2030(FROM A 2018BASELI N E )
NEW MAURI HOPE VALLEY MILL DRIVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY
MAURI is meeting growing customer demand for animal feed by investing $90 million in a new, state-of-the-art animal feed mill in Hope Valley, Kwinana, Western Australia. The site became fully operational in early 2024 after a 2-year build affected by COVID.
MAURI is a leader in the production of quality animal feed, and this significant investment demonstrates its long-term commitment to customers across the animal feed markets in WA. Increased agricultural production is a major focus for the Western Australian Government and the Mauri investment was one of the largest ever made in agricultural production in WA.
During construction, 200 jobs were created directly. The mill is expected to contribute $37 million to the local economy each year creating 35 ongoing fulltime jobs directly, and a further 72-80 jobs indirectly.
GWF is WA’s largest domestic buyer of grain, and the mill will buy more than 332,000 tonnes of grain every year –supporting WA farmers and regional WA. The Feed Mill will produce 416,000 tonnes per annum.
As well as the increase in size, Mauri’s new mill will also be far more efficient and able to deliver better quality products to Western Australian animal producers. It will also enable an expansion in downstream animal production in Western Australia.
The equipment throughout the feed mill is set out to maximise efficient use of energy without compromising safety or future needs to maintain or improve equipment. Energy usage per tonne is expected over time to be up to 20% lower compared with our previous mill.
It is now one of the most energy efficient mills of its type – not just in Australia but in the Southern Hemisphere.
From left to right
Paul Foster
CEO George Weston Foods
Ian Fairbairn
General Manager
Weston Animal Nutrition
Jackie Jarvis
Western Australian Minister for Agriculture and Food
HARVESTING THE SUNSHINE
We started installing solar panels on our Tip Top Bakery roofs in 2017.
We have completed the installation on six bakeries, with at least one more installation planned.
When fully operational they will generate around..
combined with our energy reduction initiatives
Across both electricity and gas usage will reduce our emissions by...
OFTHE BAKERY’SELECT
At our Chullora Bakery in NSW, installation of solar panels is completed . Through the installation of... The carbon emissions saved by having these solar panels over their lifetime Is the equivalent to taking... we will offset... (covering an area the size of a football field),
1,012 CARSOFF THE ROAD!
4,000 L I GHTWEIGHT SOLARPANEL S
REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN NEW ZEALAND
GWF Baking NZ, as a major food producer in New Zealand, has been working with the New Zealand Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA) to conduct an Energy Transition Accelerator review across our baking sites.
The purpose of this review was to look at the different fuels used across the sites, the equipment they power, and then pull together a recommendation plan for how GWF Baking could decarbonise over the next 15 years.
The review identified ways in which GWF NZ could make more efficient use of the fuels we use currently. For example, greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction opportunities by switching fuel sources and more energy efficient equipment to replace existing ones when they reach end of life, including choosing electric ovens over gas for our new gluten free bakery.
By implementing all the recommendations, GWF NZ can now potentially reduce our GHG emissions by up to 72%. Our sites have already begun implementing some of these recommendations and will continue on this journey over the next 12 months.
BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE and ADAPTION
GWF has sites in many locations across Australia, as well as important supply chains in both city and rural areas that are impacted by climate and related events. GWF understands the potential impact of climate change on both our operations and supply chains.
That’s why GWF continues to develop and enhance plans and strategies for understanding these risks and managing their impact on our operations, supply chain and customers. GWF is committed to regularly reviewing these risks with the support of experts and to monitoring our progress against our strategies to ensure we continue to build our climate resilience.
GWF will undertake a program of assessments at a portfolio and individual site level to better understand vulnerabilities and enhance our decision-making processes. This will include expert supported scenario analysis where appropriate.
Our assessment will include direct climate related impact as well as ancillary risks (e.g. impact of shift to lower carbon emission) and will be considered as part of our capital and infrastructure spend. This will also feed into reviews of our Business Continuity Plans ensuring there is adequate coverage of climate risks and their impact on our sites and supply chains.
GWF has already completed the first step by obtaining a high-level report on future climate impact on our Australian sites and is now identifying the key sites to undertake more in-depth analysis.
BEING A GOOD NEIGHBOUR
At Tip Top, we believe that being a good neighbour is fundamental to building great relationships with the communities in which we operate.
Our new ‘Be a Good Neighbour’ program commenced across our Tip Top Bakery sites and major depots in 2023. Through this program, we have strengthened our Environmental Management Plans for each our sites. The program will help us meet our commitment to the environment by strengthening our protection measures to help prevent pollution (including noise and odour) to air, water, and land. It will guide us to identify, assess, control and review environmental risks and potential emergencies at each of our sites.
As part of this program, 20 of our Health, Safety and Environment team members have been studying a Diploma of Environmental Management course to enhance our internal skills and capabilities.
