Pillars of Sustainability
Communities
With activities in over 100 countries, one of LDC’s four pillars of sustainability is a commitment to play a positive role in the lives of the many local communities we touch worldwide.
Working with local experts, peers, customers, NGOs and other key partners, we aim to contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals related to education, climate change, poverty, responsible production, health and life on earth.
We do this by investing in the development and resilience of local communities living close to our operations or connected with our value chains: creating jobs, protecting the environment, training farming communities and supporting health and education projects.
We also work closely with the Louis Dreyfus Foundation to increase the impact of the Foundation’s initiatives around the world, some of them highlighted in this section, especially those supporting smallholder farmers to improve their livelihoods through more sustainable farming.
Foundation projects count on the expertise and support of local LDC employees around the world, and complement LDC’s own community programs in rural areas that are vulnerable to food insecurity and climate change.
Our people are encouraged to propose initiatives for local action, and to submit projects for support from the Foundation, contributing their expertise and in some cases leading project implementation.
“For the Louis Dreyfus Foundation, as for LDC, the guiding principle of our response to Covid-19 was to make the health and safety of all participants and beneficiaries our number one priority. Where necessary, projects were customized to meet urgent needs, and timelines were extended to offer maximum flexibility to our partners. Existing and former partners were offered extra financial support and sanitation kits were distributed to farmers by leveraging existing grants.
The Foundation worked hand in hand with LDC to drive awareness about the virus in the communities where we work. During trainings, LDC agronomists included specific content about Covid-19 risks and protective measures, and distributed protective equipment and informative fact sheets. They adopted their training techniques to deliver remote guidance sessions, distributing audio recordings via phone or instant messaging services, and in-person training was conducted in smaller groups, adhering to social distancing guidelines.
The pandemic restricted movements, which caused disruption to local food markets, many of which closed, leading in turn to food insecurity for some communities. To help address this issue, the Foundation and LDC worked together and with other partners to supply food baskets to communities participating in its projects.”
Robert Serpollet
General Manager, Louis Dreyfus Foundation