G's ESG Report 2021/22 - Growing Our Sustainable Future

GROWING OUR SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

G’s WORLDWIDE

As one of Europe’s leading family-owned, vertically integrated farming and fresh produce businesses, growing across multiple countries, we supply quality salads, vegetables and added value produce to major UK, European and North American retailers.

We care for the environment and wildlife by acting responsibly in our use of land, water and natural resources. We are here for the long term and want to improve the business and its core assets for the benefit of those who follow us.

Our farms and production facilities are located throughout the UK, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, Senegal, the Netherlands and the USA.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO

As we look back over the last year, we have achieved some significant milestones. We are now firmly into the third generation of the Shropshire family running our businesses and our 70 year anniversary celebrations are taking place throughout 2022.

Our commitment to do the right thing by People, the Planet and Profit remains central to our strategy and if we are to remain at the forefront of our industry and continue to provide millions of families with healthy fresh produce, we must successfully deliver our sustainability commitments.

It requires every one of us to think like a champion in a grass-roots movement, where the objective is to accumulate small, incremental changes that build over time at every level within our businesses. The ESG movement within our business is here to stay and I am excited to see how, as a team, we continue to rise to one of our greatest challenges in order to become a truly sustainable business.

Guy W Shropshire G’s Group CEO

A FAMILY-LED BUSINESS

Our business is, at its heart, family-led, with very strong values for its people, product, environment and community. As a multigenerational family business, we are here for the long term, with sustainability at the centre of all our decision making.

What sets us apart from others is that we manage the entire process from seed to shelf, from growing through to production and sales, marketing and logistics.

3rd Generation of the Shropshire Family. Guy Shropshire - G’s Group CEO, Charles Shropshire - MD Cambs Farms Growers Ltd, Henry Shropshire - MD Barway Services Ltd.

Henry

Charles

Guy

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

In our 70th year of business, our ethos is to act in accordance with the family values that Guy S Shropshire instilled in 1952, driven by our values of Trust, Efficiency, Quality, Expertise and a Can-Do approach.

As the business leadership has transferred to the third generation of the Shropshire family, our ambition is to continue to guide the business in line with our values, with a focus on a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit, and grow a culture of sustainability in all that we do.

This ambition is integrated into our business culture, through our “ESG Champion” based model. This devolves our sustainability strategy and activities through colleague empowerment, enabling individual businesses to develop strategies under core guiding principles.

Our integrated businesses do not suit a “one size fits all” approach. They are free and empowered to devise solutions that match the context of their operations, whilst working towards our overall common sustainability matrix and target of being a Net Zero emission business by 2035.

ESG Steering Board

Chair: Anna Dugdale (NED)

ESG Pillar Sponsors

People: Henry Shropshire

Product: Guy Shropshire

Environment: Charles Shropshire

Community: Anna Dugdale

ESG Champions

People: 25

Product: 36

Environment: 33

Community: 9

OUR STAKEHOLDERS

We have defined our key stakeholders within the macro-environments in which G’s operates, to help us measure our impacts and determine what this means in terms of our sustainability actions and targets. The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard categorises greenhouse gas emissions associated with a company’s Corporate Carbon Footprint as Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions.

l Scope 1 - Direct emissions

l Scope 2 - Indirect emissions from purchased energy

l Scope 3 - Indirect value chain emissions

We are developing our understanding of the impact we have on the environment, directly within our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. In addition, we must understand our upstream and downstream Scope 3 emissions from our suppliers and their impact as part of our customers’ Scope 3 emissions.

Working up and down our supply chain with our suppliers and customers, as well as with other growers and industry stakeholders, has enabled us to share best practice and learnings on our pathway to Net Zero.

“Our

Polly Megginson, Technologist & Regenerative Agriculture Champion

Across our international businesses, we have a diverse and varied stakeholder network, including colleagues, suppliers, customers, industry partners, NGOs and government organisations.

OUR FOUR PILLARS OF SUSTAINABILITY

In January 2021, we revisited and relaunched our ESG strategy across the business under four ESG pillars, aligning with the UN SDG’s where we believe we will have an impact.,

We invited all colleagues to become ESG Champions, building a grassroots force for change and integrating ESG into the core of our business. Today, we have over 100 ESG champions who work cross-functionally throughout the G’s Group.

Helen Peasnall, ESG Director

“The metrics that guide each pillar were created for and by our ESG Champions, guiding the work that we do and the impacts we have on our employees, customers, communities and the environments around us. These metrics also provide a framework by which to review each of our Business Units on an annual basis.”

Our champions have focused on assessing and measuring the impact of the products we grow, process and sell. This involves refining how we operate as a business, and challenging the impacts that we have within our own operations.

Key achievements this year include industry recognition through the Fresh Produce Consortium Awards at which we won the Sustainability Excellence award for our work in managing Food Waste. The team has also made significant progress through agreeing our five +1 core principles (six principles) of Regenerative Agriculture.

Our continued growth as a business means that to reduce our emissions impact we must continue to move forwards simply to stand still. The work our product champion groups are doing to challenge and improve our products and processes is key to our future success.

“With our roots in farming and fresh produce, our commitment to regenerative agriculture is one of our central strategic imperatives.”

- Guy W Shropshire

1.1 REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

The Regenerative Agriculture group has adopted and developed the emerging core principles of regenerative agriculture. The principles form a common basis for developing and sharing our farm-based action plans for transition.

Ensuring our soils are healthy and productive, so they can continue to grow fresh produce whilst minimising our inputs, requires long term dedication from our farming teams.

Over the coming year, the group aims to consolidate the reporting of progress and the adoption of regenerative farming practices using the industry leading General Mills open-source survey across G’s farming operations.

G’s + One Approach

In addition to the five core principles of regenerative agriculture, we have incorporated a sixth principle: Context. The addition of this principle allows for the essential variation of approach due to the diverse geographical farming base within which G’s operates.

“Being a Champion of Regenerative Agriculture allows me to influence the business further than my day to day role and get out on the farm to understand the long term benefits of a regenerative farming approach.”

Lucy Harler, Babyleaf Product Manager & Regen Ag Champion

1.2 CIRCULAR ECONOMY

The Circular Economy group has spent the last year exploring the concepts and models championed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and learning from industry leaders, such as our packaging supply partners D.S Smith, to understand what a journey to circularity could entail for G’s.

A circular economy strives to move from our take-make-waste system to one where waste is eliminated, resources are circulated and nature is regenerated. Better utilisation of our resources will not only reduce our environmental impact on the world around us, it will also play a role in helping to mitigate the ongoing cost inflation evident at every stage of our production process.

There are many initiatives already in place across the business with the aim of reducing waste; for example, micron reduction in packaging across salads and WIP stock management in organic beetroot at March.

The Circular Economy group aims to bring all of the fantastic ideas and initiatives under one metric in order to share learnings and accelerate our movement towards circularity.

“A Circular Economy approach isincredibly important at G’s FreshBeetroot to ensure our energy, waterand packaging waste is kept as lowas possible. Through our work on thecircular economy we are building amore sustainable business structure,saving resources, reducing our carbonfootprint and strengthening ties withother local businesses.”

Thomas Garrett, Artwork, Printand Packaging Technologist &Circular Economy Champion

“The circular economy gives us the tools to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss together, while addressing important social needs. It gives us the power to grow prosperity, jobs, and resilience while cutting greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and pollution.”

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation

1.3 FOOD WASTE

Since 2017, we have been measuring our food waste across our businesses. Over the past five years we have continued to improve and were an early adopter within the produce industry in measuring food waste fully back to field level. This achievement was recognised by receiving the Fresh Produce Consortium Award for Sustainability Excellence.

In 2017, 16% of handled produce was wasted; this has been reduced to 8% in 2021. We currently partner with multiple food waste charities, including FareShare, City Harvest, The bread and butter thing, The Felix Project, Cáritas and Food Banks, to redirect food that would have otherwise been wasted.

Food Waste Champions have focused on creating an 18 month plan, defining their focus and scope of work, driving group wide communications and awareness of food waste, and further developing relationships with key charities.

In-field gleaning has been piloted to ensure produce left in the field is also made available to be redistributed with the help of volunteers from the Felix Project.

“As the cost of living crisis continues, it is likely we will see a significant increase in the number of people experiencing hardship and placed at risk of hunger this winter. With the support of companies like G’s, and many others, we’re gearing up to ensure we can continue getting healthy fresh food to those who need it, now and in the difficult months to come.”

Lindsay Boswell, FareShare Chief Executive

1.4 DATA AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Understanding how our businesses make decisions is key to becoming smarter and more efficient in the way we grow our produce.

Smarter decision-making can improve outcomes throughout our businesses, from our resource use, time required, planning and systems and future strategies.

Projects such as Variable Rate Technology use vast amounts of data points enabling farm teams to assess the amount of nitrogen they apply to crops and to optimise fertiliser application. This workstream has allowed us to reduce the amount of nitrogen applied overall to the field, whilst improving crop uniformity and yields.

We are using data to continually improve our crop forecasting in terms of both timing and yield. This allows us to better match our crop availability against customer demands, enabling us to reduce inputs, wastage and inefficiencies across our supply chain.

By building apps for harvest teams, running trials and working with product teams, we can assess and optimise the end-to-end growing process.

“Data and the ability to turn data into business value is becoming increasingly important in helping G’s achieve the goal of a Triple Bottom Line. Champions have joined efforts to work out how data culture can be implemented across all operations.”

Krystof Sahula - Agronomist & Technician G’s Czech & Data & CI Champion

In January 2021, we made the commitment as a Group to become Net Zero by 2035.

Through working with the Carbon Trust to set science based targets that go beyond those of the Paris Agreement, we will ensure that we have external independent validation of our plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Farming and the environment will always be intrinsically linked. Our work within the environment pillar, and our wider commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, formalises and builds on the existing practices that have been established over many years to continuously improve the biodiversity and soil health across all of our farms.

“A holistic approach to understanding and improving our impacts on the environment is key. The ESG Champion groups and wider business have come together to show that we can make impactful change to reduce emissions whilst improving the natural environment around us.”

- Charles Shropshire

2.1 CARBON

As of January 2022, we have been working with the Carbon Trust to calculate a baseline value chain footprint from 2019/20 and create a carbon reduction pathway, aligned to SBTi targets. By the end of 2022 we will have calculated and validated our baseline emissions figures and established our reduction pathway to continue our journey to Net Zero.

By using carbon tools such as Agrecalc and UL, we are able to measure our farm and manufacturing emissions with clarity from farm level, showing how our farming practices affect emissions and the sequestration ability of the crops and cover crops we grow.

The carbon champions have encouraged learning and cooperation between business units through shared understanding of reduction pathways and plans to meet our Net Zero targets.

G’s is a founding member of Fenland SOIL, a notfor-profit organisation that works with Fenland growers, government, academic institutions

and NGOs. Its core aim is to inform and develop ‘whole farm’ land use policies, in order to achieve climate change mitigation and biodiversity enhancement in the East Anglian Fens.

We are currently working with academic institutes from across the UK to establish agreed figures for emission factors from deep, shallow and organo mineral soils allowing more accurate estimates to be made of agricultural soil emissions in Cambridgeshire.

“Reducing our emissions comes from a variety of workstreams, understanding our hotspots, investing in our sites and ensuring that each and every one of our colleagues feels they can have a tangible impact on the journey.”

James Green, Director of Agriculture and Carbon Champion

2.2 WATER

Our Water Stewardship Plan has set out actionbased targets on: - Good Water Governance – Sustainable Water Balance – Good Water Quality Status –Important Water Related Areas – Safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All.

The diverse geographical regions across which we farm result in significant variability and availability of water across our farming base. We have implemented a variety of systems and improvements to minimise water usage, such as more efficient irrigation systems and the building of reservoirs, whilst also improving drainage.

By creating reservoirs across our farming locations, we have been able to better store water, improving our resilience to the changing climate and availability of water as a resource, as well as creating unique habitats for native and migrating plant and wildlife species.

Our Senegalese farm provides fresh water for the Yamane village as well as for our farming and packhouse operations.

When selecting the regions in which to grow our produce, rainfall is a large factor. Salad production does not lend itself to heavy rainfall, so dry growing regions are beneficial. However, these areas are becoming increasingly water vulnerable and long hot summers are now more frequent.

Innovations in drip tape and drip irrigation allows us to reduce our water usage whilst maximising the uptake of water by each individual plant.

Over the past 24 months G’s España has reduced water usage by 18% by optimising water resources.

“Water is our most preciousasset and our goal is tooptimise its consumption,directly impacting in ourenvironment.”

Clara

Pozancos Simón, R&DAgronomist & Water Champion

2.3 BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity is at the core of our farming business, and the ambition to leave the land we farm in a better condition for the next generation has been central to the Shropshire Family since our beginnings in 1952.

The importance of biodiversity and improving the husbandry of land is recognised by customers, and a drive towards LEAF status is occurring within our retail customer base. G’s Hainey Farm Cambs has been a LEAF demonstration farm since 2000 and is able to measure improvements in species numbers since that time. Many of our farming sites globally are now LEAF Marque accredited.

Using diverse crop rotations, including arable, salads and cover crops, along with the addition of wild mixes, can boost the health of our soils, as well as providing diverse habitats and food sources for nature.

Our largest farms have set aside 10% of their land base for wildlife. They are improving biodiversity with ambitious plans and targets and are working towards the enhancement of habitats for red list bird species.

Our Champions are working to inspire all of our sites to think about biodiversity, not just within our farmland.

At Cambs Farms we have 16 pairs of barn owls. In 2021, a record 18 chicks were ringed.

“Our aim is to show that it is possible to combine intensive agricultural production with biodiversity in a harmonious way.”

Stewart Mcintyre, Gampekeeper and Conservation Manager & Biodiversity Champion

G’s is working to understand patterns within wildlife, such as migration, numbers of breeding pairs and varieties of beneficial habitats.

Our ambition is for all of our businesses to be accredited “Great Place to Work for All”.

We are annually measuring the work environment through our staff survey, which covers all business areas.

Our goal is to improve the lives of all our people and empower them with the information, skills and resources to flourish. The agriculture industry can provide opportunities and careers in a wide variety of roles. We are committed to sharing these opportunities and encouraging young people to work with us to build lifelong careers.

We proudly champion ethical employment, protect labour rights, drive to eradicate modern slavery and promote healthy, safe working environments.

“We cannot grow, in any sense of the word, without people. Ensuring that our colleagues are safe, happy and fulfilled within their working lives is key to having successful and driven teams.”

- Henry Shropshire

3.1 GREAT PLACE TO WORK FOR ALL

We have started the process of becoming “Great Place to Work for All” accredited across our business. People will be integral to our success over the next 70 years, and improving the working lives of our colleagues is paramount. Our business structure relies on empowered

Newstead, HRBusiness Partner and GPTW Champion

individuals and integrated teams making decisions day in, day out that affect the whole business. Having access to information, skills and resources that enable informed decision-making is essential to a high performing, empowered workforce.

GOOD FOR PEOPLE GOOD FOR BUSINESS

Great Place to Work defines their For AllTM Philosophy

A Great Place to Work For All™ is one where everyone, no matter who they are or what they do, is having a consistently positive experience. Caring leaders foster an environment where everyone has a purpose, can contribute new ideas, and has access to the resources they need to thrive within the organisation.

For All™ is more than an idea. It’s a commitment. A pledge. A mission.

“I have grown and developedto where I am now by beingempowered to bring ideas tothe table and give colleaguesa voice. I am really excited tobe on the journey to becomingGPTWFA accredited.”

Lucy

3.2 ETHICAL EMPLOYMENT

We are committed to detecting, disrupting and preventing modern slavery throughout our businesses and supply chains, whilst leading and maintaining human rights standards in the workplace. Our ethical policy framework underpins the G’s Group commitment to tackling modern slavery and labour exploitation throughout our operations and supply chain management processes.

Building awareness and understanding of labour exploitation and modern slavery among our colleagues across the business is vital. The Group’s modern slavery training programme is designed to continually develop the right skills and knowledge to ensure that exploitation is detected as early as possible and reported correctly, with any resulting cases being managed in a responsible, sensitive and timely manner. Our training programme is made up of four modules, each aimed at different roles across the business. It ensures we reach as many people as possible, while also targeting those who require more specific training.

Tackling modern slavery requires collective action, with collaboration across industry, government and the third sector. We are actively engaged in multiple industry collaborations, including the Food Network for Ethical Trade (FNET) and the SETF (Spanish Ethical Trade Forums). A significant milestone was the launch of an 18-month pilot of the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN), initially led by G’s and M&S in 2020. This now involves most major retailers and stakeholders within the food industry, with G’s hosting the first MSIN Conference in early 2022. We primarily grow our own

produce but use supplementary third-party suppliers from 25 countries around the world to ensure a consistent supply of quality produce throughout the year. Our ethical due diligence process includes internal and external auditing and risk assessments to prioritise activities where potential risks relating to modern slavery and exploitation are greatest. It provides greater transparency, improved supply chain management and consistent monitoring systems.

Prevention - Robust systems

Detection - Widespread awareness and proper use of intelligence

Case management - Protecting victims and preserving integrity of legal cases

Leadership - Setting expectations for supply chains and sharing expertise

“We are constantly facing new and evolving forms of labour exploitation. By partnering with the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network we can provide a safe haven where those addressing the risks can share their insights and challenges with peers.”

Beverly

Dixon, Group HR Director

Our Modern Slavery and Exploitation strategy is based on four guiding principles:

We will improve the wellbeing of our communities by having a positive social impact. We recognise our role in supporting communities to thrive, and we seek to inspire them to engage with and appreciate farming and food.

Our champions have built links within the communities in which we operate through our school engagement project Sowing Seeds, a programme that is now established in four countries.

Open Farm Sunday is our annual opportunity to open our doors to the local community, give tours of our facilities and improve agricultural and produce knowledge.

Sponsorship of local sports teams and community events are agreed at a local business level to ensure that they are relevant for our colleagues and businesses at a devolved level.

“Across our operations, our community champions and individual businesses are working on projects that resonate with local communities and their priorities.”

- Anna Dugdale

4.1 SOWING SEEDS

Sowing Seeds is being established in schools and local community groups in most of the countries and cities in which we operate.

Established in 2020, our Champions aim to inspire children to connect with farming and healthy fresh produce through projects in schools, including urban vegetable gardens. The ultimate aim of Sowing Seeds is to encourage children and their families to eat more and varied produce as part of a healthy diet.

We are collaborating with schools by:

l Providing plants and seeds.

l Working hand in hand with teachers to devise lesson plans that cover product lifecycles and healthy eating habits.

l Delivering farming lessons led by our expert teams

l Giving virtual talks and on-farm video tours.

Sowing Seeds connects children with our sector and gives them the opportunity to unite with different cultures.

SCHOOLS AND GROUPS

COUNTRIES

“It could not have happened without true commitment at each level: ours, teachers’ and students’. I am delighted to see how passionate about nature children are, how curious they are. We cannot let this enthusiasm fade away - Sowing Seeds encourages a passion in children for vegetables, agriculture and the environment.”

Natalia Lowicka-Zlotowska, Agros Poland & Community Champion

4.2 OPEN FARM SUNDAY

Since our first Open Farm Sunday in 2008, we have been a leading supporter of LEAF, welcoming the public into farms and factories to learn how our food is produced.

Covid provided new challenges to bringing the farm to the public, but sharing our practices was still of key importance to our Champions.

Rob Parker and Ivaylo Kostadinov took part in Online Open Farm Sunday livestreams in 2021, showing an online audience our growing and harvesting processes for lettuce and celery crops.

The themes for 2021 were Produce Provenance, Wildlife and Biodiversity. Rob and Ivaylo talked through the range of measures G’s is actioning on farms to enable sustainable agriculture, and explained how large-scale farming and biodiverse habitats can work harmoniously alongside each other.

The enforced pause of in-person Open Farm Sunday meant we couldn’t open our farm gates to our normal visitor numbers of c.6000. However, the online events allowed us to reach a wider audience, interact with other farmers and agricultural businesses across the UK and learn ourselves about different aspects of the industry, such as livestock and animal husbandry.

The Impacts of LEAF's Open Farm Sundays:

92% of visitors reported the visit had changed the way they think about farming 95% said they now appreciate more the work farmers do 89% feel better connected with farmers 89% have a better understanding of what sustainably produced food means 81% are more motivated to check the country of origin on the food they buy 76% now actively look out and select British food where they can

4.3 OUTREACH AND SPONSORSHIP

We continue to work actively with schools and technical colleges, such as Kościelec in Poland, to boost interest in growing vegetables and the wider agriculture industry. Students are able to join us on apprenticeships and work placements. G’s is a core example in field courses at Universities such as Newcastle, helping to promote horticulture and agriculture within the wider food supply chain.

Campaigns for sports, healthy eating and opportunities for children are key to our approach towards community support and sponsorship of local youth sports teams.

Our links with charity partners, such as The British Heart Foundation and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, resulted in limited edition packs which have raised over £25,000 in the past year.

In Senegal, alongside developing our farm, we have built a school, medical centre and training centre for the local village and we continue to invest each year in developing the local infrastructure.

Our global reach and the compassion of our colleagues was truly shown during the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The response of our colleagues from all of our operating countries was incredible.

USA’s Offshoot Brands donated to the World Central Kitchen to provide hot, nourishing meals at border crossings into Poland. West Africa Farms donated 500kgs of rice, which was shipped to Ukraine.

Our Czech business accommodated refugee families and hosted parties to keep children entertained.

G’s Polska set up transportation from the border, providing accommodation, meals, childcare and legal assistance.

Sandfields Farms set up a collection hub from surrounding communities, and items were shipped to those in need using our network of suppliers and customers.

Our Spanish and East Anglian sites partnered with our Polish mushroom supplier in order to backhaul full trucks of donations from Torre Pacheco, Barway, March, Ramsey and Cambs Farms.

“The devolved nature of ourbusiness means that individualbusiness units have the freedomand autonomy to reach out andsupport clubs and initiatives in theirlocal areas.”

Louisa Pratt, Operations Director -Spain & Community Champion