Pillars of Sustainability
People
LDC employs an average 17,000 people throughout the year and engages several thousand contractors across over 170 facilities around the world.
Our priority is to protect and invest in our people, whose commitment and expertise is the key to our success.
In 2020, as Covid-19 swept the world, we set up dedicated, cross-functional task forces at global, regional and country level, to lead LDC’s efforts to combat the spread of the virus.
In a fast-evolving environment, these teams monitored developments, coordinated prevention efforts and communicated guidance to our employees, ensuring the appropriate tools, equipment and processes were in place to keep our people safe, our operations running and essential supply chains moving.
With the pandemic still ongoing, we continue to work hard to prevent further spread of the virus and ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of all the people who work for and with us. Our comprehensive Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) management system remains central to these efforts.
In parallel, initiatives are ongoing to shape an increasingly inclusive, fair and non-discriminatory workplace, as we pursue our global Diversity & Inclusion roadmap.
Committed to Zero
We remain committed to our long-term goal of creating a zero-accident workplace at all our locations, to ensure that no harm comes to our people, local communities or the environment around us.
To achieve this, we continually reinforce a culture where safety comes first in the daily work of every employee and contractor working for LDC.
This relentless focus on safety is reflected in our ambitious targets to reduce our safety key performance indicators: accident frequency, gravity and severity.
Despite the added logistics challenges posed by Covid-19, 2020 was a record year in terms of safety metrics: we reduced accident frequency, gravity and severity indexes by 27%, 33% and 47% respectively year on year, and saw the lowest-ever rate of recordable incidents.
This outstanding performance is the result of a continuous improvement journey that began a decade ago.
During this time, LDC has invested continually to enhance workplace safety measures, mitigate risks and train leaders and employees in safety processes and procedures. In the past five years alone, capital investments in workplace safety amounted to over US$131 million.
As our safety teams have grown and built up knowledge and experience, we have identified and closed safety gaps, and intensified our focus on prevention for high risk activities, reducing the likelihood and severity of incidents.
For example, in 2020, we worked with long-time partner Ping An Group to leverage cutting-edge technologies for enhanced workplace safety at our Grains & Oilseeds facilities in China.
Nevertheless, our ambitious targets for 2021 seek an additional 5% reduction across our three safety indexes.
Safety Performance Indexes
2020
0.54
2019
0.74
2018
0.81
2017
0.77
2016
0.85
Year-on-year change
Down
27%
2020
0.21
2019
0.32
2018
0.34
2017
0.30
2016
0.31
Year-on-year change
Down
33%
2020
6.83
2019
12.98
2018
7.94
2017
8.60
2016
12.94
Year-on-year change
Down
47%
Facilities With Zero Lost Time Injuries
Our commitment to avoiding all accidents is also reflected in the proportion of assets that operate for an entire year without an accident that results in time off work.
In 2020, this percentage figure improved appreciably year on year in four of our six geographic regions, and remained stable vs. 2019 in the remaining two. Globally, we saw a 7% rise in the proportion of facilities reporting zero lost time injuries, which came to 86% for 2020, a significant improvement on the previous year.
| % of facilities recording zero lost time injuries | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | % | |
| Asia | 90 | 80 | 84 | 90 | 95 |
| Europe & Black Sea | 76 | 77 | 71 | 83 | 91 |
| Middle East & Africa | 73 | 86 | 79 | 40 | 64 |
| North America | 89 | 79 | 82 | 91 | 90 |
| North Latin America | 73 | 80 | 79 | 71 | 85 |
| South & West Latin America | 93 | 83 | 76 | 85 | 85 |
| Global | 82 | 80 | 78 | 79 | 86 |
Fatalities
While there were no workplace fatalities of LDC employees or contractors in 2020, we must record the fatality of a stevedore at our PT Intisentosa Alambahtera (ISAB) facility in Lampung, Indonesia.
On April 13, 2020, two stevedores engaged in conversation were hit by a sugar-loading truck as it reversed on the wharf. One worker injured his right knee and has since recovered and returned to work. Sadly, the other stevedore passed away as a result of the injuries sustained in the accident.
The subsequent investigation identified three improvement areas for wharf safety:
- Assistance for drivers with reverse maneuvers
- Better segregation between pedestrians and vehicles
- Improved vehicle warning systems
All these additional safety measures have been implemented at the site.
Looking Ahead
In view of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, our priority in 2021 continues to be to ensure the safety and health of our people everywhere, while fulfilling our vital role of keeping essential food and feed supply chains moving globally.
At the same time, we remain focused on achieving our targets for both workplace safety and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I).
Keeping out zero-accident work environment target front of mind, every level of the organization will focus on our renewed targets of 5% year-on-year reductions in each of our safety indexes.
We are also setting new, global D&I targets, as we continue to build an increasingly inclusive culture at LDC.
Our priority is to support the United Nations’ 2030 Global Sustainable Development Agenda, with inclusion, empowerment and equality at its heart, regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, culture, experience, background or thinking.
Accordingly, and in line with our global D&I roadmap, we have adopted goals that underpin two key areas.
- Inclusive Culture: Improve the perception of fairness and equity among LDC employees, providing a safe and inclusive work environment where different voices and opinions are encouraged and heard, as enablers of value creation for our business, partners, customers and communities.
- Inclusive Talent: Increase diversity in LDC’s senior management globally, through equal treatment and opportunities.
Concretely, these goals translate into the new D&I targets at 2025 and 2030, identified below.
Amended Targets
Reduce lost time injuries to zero
Deadline: Ongoing
Reduce frequency of workplace accidents by 5% year on year
Deadline: 2021
Reduce gravity of workplace accidents by 5% year on year
Deadline: 2021
Reduce severity of workplace accidents by 5% year on year
Deadline: 2021
Unconscious bias training compulsory for employees with access to LDC’s e-learning
Deadline: 2021
New Targets
Roll out inclusive recruitment standard globally across LDC
Deadline: 2022
Engagement scores indicate 75% perception of equal opportunities and treatment
Deadline: 2025
Engagement scores indicate 90% perception of acceptance as an individual
Deadline: 2025
Engagement scores indicate 70% perception of culture where innovative ideas can fail without penalty
Deadline: 2025
Engagement scores indicate 85% perception of equal opportunities and treatment
Deadline: 2030
Engagement scores indicate 80% perception of culture where innovative ideas can fail without penalty
Deadline: 2030
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