Preserving our planet’s resources
We are applying our technologies, reach and in-house expertise toward a mutually beneficial relationship between Croda and nature for a thriving planet and society.
Our long-standing relationship with nature and our leadership commitment enable us to work not only to mitigate our negative impacts but to actively improve the state of nature and people's lives through active engagement and monitoring of our land footprint, and technological innovation. Our products will enable more land to be saved than is used to grow our bio-based raw materials and our innovation will help customers to mitigate the impact of climate change and land degradation, increasing the availability of land suitable for growing crops. By becoming Land Positive we will directly contribute towards the following UN SDG targets:
SDG 2.3, SDG 2.4, SDG 12.2, SDG 13.2, SDG 15.2, SDG 15.3, SDG 15.5
Contributing to a Nature Positive future
We announced our aspiration to become Net Nature Positive in 2022 and, since then, have recognised this is a global ambition, defined by the Nature Positive Initiative1, in which we have an important contribution to make. We aim to build on the progress we have already made in the sourcing of bio-based raw materials, reducing deforestation and water impacts, preserving ecosystems, and creating technologies for regenerative agriculture alongside suppliers, customers, partners and industry organisations.
Land Positive: our world in 2030
Our targets
Innovation
Our progress
Resource and biodiversity conservation
With a strong record of crop science innovation, the pace of breakthrough launches has accelerated as we close in on our 2024 milestone, with nine breakthrough innovations launched since 2020, including four in 2023:
- Tree seed production
- Seed priming/coating for Guayule alternative rubber crop
- Seed treatment for commercial fibre production
- Atlox BS-50 delivery system supporting the move to biopesticides
A new whitepaper 'Formulating Biologicals for agriculture' was released, discussing the opportunities that biologicals provide in crop protection, alongside the formulation and delivery challenges.
Beyond Land Positive, our businesses have also engaged with customers to increase transparency in support of their own environmental assessments. Our focus has been on Life Cycle Assessments and biodegradability.
Inspiring innovation
In 2019, almost four years before the adoption of the recent Kunming – Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15, we realised that we needed a detailed understanding of our land footprint, a prerequisite to understand our impact on nature and biodiversity. Improving the yield of crops with our adjuvant technologies leads to lowering the land area required to grow one tonne of crop, expressed as land saving, externally validated by Avieco, taking into account the carbon and water savings associated with reducing the land required to grow the crop.
In 2023, combining the yield benefits from our seed coatings, crop adjuvants and bio-stimulants, the total land saved was 151,038 hectares, equivalent to 211,537 football pitches (2022: 161,431 hectares), and 58,815 hectares above our 2019 baseline. 69% of our land saved in 2023 is in Asia and Latin America, maintaining our focus on areas most pressured for food productivity and those facing the greatest threat of deforestation. Our 2024 milestone, while challenging to deliver, remains our focus this year.
Read more about sustainability being at the heart of what we do:
UK Government to support expansion of Croda's lipid systems manufacturing facility
Croda joins the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
