Our Approach
As your key ingredients supplier, we support customers to better understand sourcing standards, certification and supply-chain data across our range of products. Supplying products from around the world creates complex supply chains as products are moved from grower through to production and on to customers.
We engage suppliers against defined ESG expectations and use the results to support improvement. This in turn strengthens resilience and creates value across our longstanding supply relationships. We use a cyclical, risk-based due diligence process to access suppliers for regulatory, environmental and labor risks across our range of products and sourcing regions. Any issues identified ae addressed through specific corrective-actions, including updated supplier controls to reflect evolving legal and industry standards and best-practice. We have developed a robust auditing and specification process, aligning our sustainability ambitions closely with our technical experience.
In practice, this means working in collaboration with suppliers and customers, sharing information and insight in areas such as carbon emissions, water consumption, biodiversity and human rights. In addition to the above, we are also taking action within our own operations, such as powering our Banbury office with 100% renewable energy.
Since 2022, our recruitment of Rob as our first dedicated sustainability manager has strengthened our capacity to address material ESG topics, share knowledge and support customer enquiries. Our aim is to build ever stronger relationships with both our customers and suppliers, through transparently sharing data about the environmental and social characteristics of our products.
People
At the heart of Silbury is the team of passionate colleagues who are the face of our business. This includes colleagues in our own operations both at our Banbury head-office and those based remotely. A healthy culture with regular coaching and 1:1’s encourages colleagues to be themselves and be the best they can be.
Further into our supply chain we work hard to ensure modern slavery and forced labour has no-place in the production of the products we supply. Our supplier code of conduct details how we manage modern slavery risk across operations.
We use the SEDEX platform to review activity across our supply base. Our due-diligence programme combines longstanding supplier relationships with defined risk assessments, time bound, periodic audits and corrective-action follow-up. This in turn creates trust in our suppliers and the measures they take to create products that they are experts in.
Security of Supply and Resilience
Many of our high-quality ingredients are sourced from mainland Europe, including Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. Our long-standing supplier relationships help us to improve visibility across the supply-chain with multiple logistics options. Through our recent integration into the Kagome group, we work closely with other business within the Kagome family. This includes Kagome Foods Portugal (KFP), our largest volume supplier. KFP, who operate two of the largest tomato processing plants in Portugal, has an SBTi emissions-reduction target aligned with a 1.5°C pathway; its published target boundary, baseline and target year are available on the SBTi website Relationships such as these help us provide customers with product-specific information on origin, certification and environmental or social topics, to support customers in turning supply-chain information into better-informed sourcing decisions We transparently share information via SEDEX and are keen to engage with all our customers on their own commitments and collaborations.
Deforestation
Awareness of the human impact on our rainforests continues to grow, with customers wanting to know more about how their food is sourced. Deforestation and poor land management practices are contributing to a changing climate and a loss of biodiversity.
At Silbury our approach is to work closely with supply partners that share our commitment to sustainability. We are advocates for RSPO palm oil, becoming a certified supplier in 2011. We’re also signatories to The Sustainable Coconut Charter.
To learn more about the facts and myths of deforestation, please click below and take a few minutes to watch this video released by WWF: Click to view . For more information about WWF please visit: https://www.wwf.org.uk/.
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil - (RSPO)
Silbury recognises that palm oil is the world’s leading vegetable oil in terms of production volume and consumption. Millions of people rely on palm oil to support their livelihoods. As the world’s population approaches 9 billion by 2050 demand for edible oil will continue to grow. Palm oil is the world’s highest yielding oil crop and uses less land per tonne of oil produced than any other vegetable oil. It is vital that we understand the environmental and social impact of palm oil production and play our part in the global effort to promote sustainable palm oil products.
Silbury recognises RSPO as the primary global sustainability standard for all palm oil products. We became a member in 2010 and achieved certification in 2011. We now supply palm oil through each of the RSPO’s certified supply chain options.
At Silbury we are fully compliant with our shared responsibility requirements as detailed in our Sustainable Palm Oil Policy.
This can also be viewed on our MyRSPO profile www.rspo.co.uk.
We are committed to proviWding our customers with the information they require to feel confident in sourcing palm and palm kernel oil products. Our RSPO-certified systems, enable us to supply palm products through fully defined supply chain-custody options. We support customers to understand the differences between RSPO supply-chain models, ensuring they can select an option aligned with their sourcing requirements. We also participate in EFECA and UK RSPO events and consultations to further awareness of the issues involved.
We work hard to encourage our stakeholders to buy and use RSPO certified ingredients. Our RSPO Supply Chain Certification is maintained through annual audits against the applicable standard. Our current certificate and scope are available on request. Our IP oil from Colombia can be traced back to each individual plantation. 100% direct traceability to the Farm (Daabon).
We are resolutley commited to promoting and encouraging the sustainable production of palm oil and our ultimate goal is to move to 100% supply chain traceability.
Our RSPO Shared Responsibility Scorecard can be viewed here.
Sedex
Silbury is an active member of Sedex – a global, non-profit membership organisation, and the world’s largest collaborative platform for sharing responsible sourcing data on supply chains.
Sedex provides us with an informative data exchange enabling us to work closely with our suppliers, sharing information and driving improvements.
We use Sedex information, supplier dialogue and audits where appropriate to identify gaps, agree corrective actions and monitor progress within the scope of our due-diligence programme.
Sustainable Coconut Charter
In March 2022, Silbury signed the coconut industry’s first global Sustainable Coconut Charter; an industry initiative with the objective of setting a global benchmark for sustainable coconut.
Established in 2019 with support from USAID Green Invest Asia, the Charter is a voluntary framework launched by private sector industry leaders and signatories AAK, Barry Callebaut, Unilever, Nestle, FrieslandCampina, Harmless Harvest Thailand and JDE Peet’s.
As a leading food ingredients supplier, Silbury has more than 35 years' experience of supplying food manufacturers, major retailers, high street chains and food service businesses across the UK, Europe and beyond. Coconut oil is a key ingredient in the company’s product portfolio, and we are committed to integrating the Charter’s principles of social, economic and social responsibility into our operations.
We are proud to be part of this industry development and congratulate all partners that have signed the Charter to date. For more information about the charter and how organisations or individuals can contribute, please visit Sustainable Coconut Charter
Global G.A.P
100% of our Portuguese tomato growers are Global G.A.P certified. This is the European Retailers standard for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), which encourages the adoption of commercially viable farm assurance schemes that promote sustainable agriculture and the minimization of agro-chemical inputs. www.globalgap.org
By working with local growers and agronomists, we support consistent application of GLOBAL G.A.P. requirements and report certification coverage against a clearly defined grower population and date.
