World Benchmark Alliance 2021

Fonterra has been ranked eighth out of 350 in the World Benchmarking Alliance Food and Agriculture Benchmark. In addition to this overall ranking, the Co-op was first in the animal protein category and seventh among food and beverage processors.

This benchmark measures the progress of the world's 350 most influential Food and Agriculture companies towards the United Nations Sustainable Business Development Goals. This is based on a company's commitments and reported achievements in governance and strategy, environment, nutrition, and social inclusion.

This is a good result, but there is still work to be done as Fonterra continues to do what is best for people and the planet; you can read about what Fonterra is doing in the latest sustainability performance report.

About the benchmark

Companies are evaluated based on publicly available information (website) and feedback provided in the form of a questionnaire.

They are assessed on four different areas. Governance and strategy accounts for 10%, social inclusion accounts for 30%, the environment accounts for 30%, and nutrition accounts for 30%.

These areas are then used to determine an overall ranking, as well as rankings in the segment categories of agricultural inputs, agricultural commodities, animal proteins, food and beverage manufacturers / processors, food retailers, restaurants, and foodservice.

More about WBA

The World Benchmark Alliance was launched in 2018 with the aim of helping businesses do more to achieve the seven transformations it sees as vital to delivering the Sustainable Business Development Goals. It has identified 2000 companies that have the greatest potential to achieve a more equitable and sustainable future. These companies are in the areas of finance, decarbonisation and energy, food and agriculture, digital, social, urban and nature, major areas requiring transformation to achieve the SDGs. The WBA is developing benchmarks across these areas, with a goal of having them completed by 2023. More information about WBA and the benchmark can be found here.