Yara International Unveils Its “Creating Impact” Business Strategy and Commitment to Action at Clinton Global Initiative 2013 Annual Meeting
Yara International ASA (OSE: YAR), one of the world’s largest crop nutrition and sustainable agriculture solution companies, announced a Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)2013 Annual Meeting to implement “Creating Impact,” Yara’s new strategic direction to meet the challenge of sustainably feeding a fast-growing global population. In addition, Jørgen Haslestad, Yara CEO and President, participated on a CGI panel on September 24 titled “Shared Value Investing: Making the Shared Value Case to Investors.”
Yara’s Creating Impact strategy will drive investments and activities across the company’s entire global operations and will measure social, community and environmental risks and benefits alongside traditional financial metrics. These parameters include an overarching response to the issues of food security (through precision farming and crop nutrition), resources (through land preservation and reduction in water use) and the environment (through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint reduction in agriculture and industrial markets). Investments will also need to create shared value for all – the company, shareholders, customers and communities – and have the potential to be scaled up and work in different markets.
Creating Impact, approved by Yara’s Board of Directors in June, establishes a new direction to the traditional business model it has followed for more than a century.
“The world’s food security is facing increasing pressures due to the availability of land and water and environmental change, and in just 35 years, it is estimated that the world will need to produce 70 percent more food than it does today in order to feed a projected global population of nine billion people. At Yara, we believe that our own long-term growth can only be secured by using the economic engine of our business to address the challenges of food security, resource management and the environment,” said Jørgen Haslestad, Yara’s CEO and President.
The Creating Impact strategy is grounded in the experience Yara has gained working for decades in partnership with farmers, governments and other organizations. Yara believes the long-term – and profitable – growth of its business can be found in solutions such as improving agricultural efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of farming activity and the industrial sector.
Yara has set several benchmarks as part of its initial CGI commitment. They include:
- The Baltic Sea is one of the world’s most heavily polluted sea areas, and Yara is engaged in substantially reducing the environmental impact of agriculture in the region. Having developed a solution currently ready for implementation to trap phosphorous leakage and run-off, Yara is moving on to help improve on-farm fertilizer efficiency by demonstrating precision tools and sharing knowledge. Yara will demonstrate precision tools and best practice on 100+ demonstration farms across the countries on the Baltic rim by 2015.
- Yara’s environmental solutions business units helped customers cleanse 866,000 tons of hazardous NOx emissions in 2012. Yara is dedicated to grow this business area, including expansion of our solutions into new application platform, and we expect to increase the impact of the environmental solutions to minimum 1,000,000 tons cleansed NOx in 2013.
- Yara’s involvement in The Sahara Forest Project aims to trigger new agricultural greenhouse capacity in desert areas, with low or no GHG emissions. Yara will assess the existing pilot project and document solutions for semi-industrial scale application by the end 2013.
- Yara will scale-up the existing Ghana Grains Partnership (GGP) and the related farmers’ association Masara N’Arziki. Currently, more than 8,000 farmers, as end of 2012, have tripled their maize yield levels. Yara commits to grow that number by 80% by end 2014. Yara aims to secure additional financing and partners to scale-up the program. By the end of 2013, Yara aims to document the levers for success in a third-party study to scale up and establish similar efforts and partnerships for different crops and countries.
About Yara
Yara International delivers solutions for sustainable agriculture and the environment. Our fertilizers and crop nutrition programs help produce the food required for the growing world population. Our industrial products and solutions reduce emissions, improve air quality and support safe and efficient operations. Founded in Norway in 1905, Yara has a worldwide presence with sales to 150 countries. Safety is always our top priority. For more information, visit www.yara.com.
About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
The mission of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is to turn ideas into action. Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,300 commitments, which have improved the lives of over 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at more than $73.1 billion. For more information, visit www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.
Contact
Media:
Yara International ASA
Bente Slaatten, Chief Communications Officer
Office: + 47 24 15 76 07
Mobile: + 47 916 06 215
bente.slaatten@yara.com
or
Yara International ASA
Esben Tuman, Vice President Communications
Office: +47 24 15 70 26
Mobile: +47 90 50 84 00
esben.tuman@yara.com