Prasit Boondoungprasert, Chief Executive Officer of Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited has unveiled the company’s ESG strategy for the net-zero transition by 2050, focusing on accelerating renewable energy, improving efficiency and phasing out coal use.

CP Foods CEO, who spoke at Sustainability Forum 2022 : The People and the Planet, revealed that the company has integrated Circular Economy principle into all of business to remain agile in a fast-changing world, especially in the matter of climate change and thus one of the company’s top priorities is being net zero by 2050.

He elaborated that CP Foods conducts a range of activities to minimize the company’s carbon footprint including renewable energy transition. So far, renewable energy accounts for 27% of the total energy consumption. This effort enables the company to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 575,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.

CP Foods has also committed to end coal use for businesses in Thailand within this year (Coal Free 2022). Moreover, the company set up a taskforce to oversee the greenhouse gas emissions.

Aside net-zero effort, CP Foods pledges to protect biodiversity and combat deforestation . Under the roadmap, key agricultural raw materials such as corn, fish meal palm oil, soybean and cassava will be 100% traceable and deforestation-free by 2030. Furthermore, CP Foods conducts conservation, protection, and restoration of mangrove forests and watershed forests in strategic areas and increasing green area in operations

The company also shares its best practices with leading companies worldwide as well as its partners and contract farmer. For example, CP Foods’ contract farms has adopted biogas system to turn waste in swine farms into electricity. This practice has been successfully utilised by CP Foods to reduce electricity cost and environmental impact.  

At global level, CPF has announced science-based greenhouse gas reduction targets in collaboration with Science Based Targets initiatives, a joint project between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep the global temperature from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement.

Mr. Prasit added that CP Foods has supported 10,000 of its suppliers in Thailand with multiple programs to ensure that they have sufficient cashflow during the Covid-19 crisis such as shorten credit-term to 30 days and helping partners to gain access to funding sources with ultra-low interest rates.