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Sustainability: impacting future generations

Sustainability in all aspects of SLC Agrícola

SLC Agrícola believes that excellence in managing economic, social and environmental aspects has the result of reducing the environmental impacts of its operations, improving the quality of life in the work environment and ensuring a satisfactory result for its investors and shareholders. Sustainability at SLC Agrícola is based on these precepts and on the Company’s Big Dream: to positively impact future generations, being a world leader in efficiency in the agricultural business and respect for the planet.

The programs and actions adopted at the Company include components of economic management, consistent social responsibility policies, well-structured individual and collective protection programs, promotion of environmental education and information, as well as adoption of the best agricultural practices and technologies. All this in order to have minimal impact on the environment.

With these actions, it is believed that it is possible to produce food, fuel and clothing for the world population in a sustainable manner.

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Environmental Management in Practice

SLC Agrícola and its responsibility to the environment

Protected Areas

Preservation of native areas in Farms is a legal compliance that is provided for in the Brazilian Forest Code. These areas ensure maintenance of rivers and springs, as well as sheltering animals and plants. It is forbidden to access these areas, as well as use them for hunting, fishing or any other type of activity.

Waste Management

Waste management at SLC Agrícola is based on the 3Rs methodology: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The Farms have a structure to condition and temporarily store contaminated and uncontaminated waste, to later be destined for the appropriate purpose.

Natural Resource Management

The natural resources used by SLC Agrícola are many, from soil and water, to agricultural inputs industrialized through other natural resources, such as fertilizers. The Company optimizes its resources in order to use them in the best way, avoiding waste.

To educate is to recover the past, value the present and take care of the future.

Why invest in Environmental Education?

SLC Agrícola believes that there is no success in environmental management without the education and guidance of people, even if they have adequate infrastructure for this purpose. The information must be correct and understandable for all levels of stakeholders. Environmental education is an important and continuous tool within an environmental management system.

Our Concern for Society

Why is Social Responsibility part of our daily lives?

Quality of Life

The Farms of SLC Agrícola have soccer and volleyball courts, fences and illumination. The headquarters have a TV room, training room, grills, pool tables, bocce ball, playground with toys and sandbox for children. Houses and living quarters provide the safety of living in a place without urban violence. The cafeterias follow a standard in service, environment and menu, respecting, of course, the culture of each region. Machinery is high-tech to give more comfort to operators.

GAS

Created in 2003, the GAS (Socioenvironmental Action Group), through volunteer collaborators, carries out several activities with children and young people from less favored communities. Among these are donations of toys and sweaters, delivery of snacks, visits to daycare centers and donations to flood victims. The group of GAS volunteers meets monthly and plans the actions for the period. Collaborators can leave during office hours to carry out their work, as long as their managers have approved it.

People Development

Preparing collaborators to deal with new challenges is a permanent commitment of SLC Agrícola. With this in mind, the Company invests continuously and increasingly in training and development actions, preparing specific projects for the needs of the areas and the business, in accordance with the best practices that exist in the market. By qualifying technical and behavioral skills, the actions contribute to fulfillment of the business strategy and to human achievement.

Global Compact

In 2015, SLC Agrícola joined the Food and Agriculture Working Group of the United Nations Global Compact Network Brazil. The main objective of this Group is to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture in Brazil. The Groups were created to implement the values of the Global Compact by collaborating to build a culture of Sustainability. The Company also supports the implementation of strategic actions aimed at promoting the Food and Agriculture Business Principles (PEAA) and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). The activities of these groups include discussions of topics relevant to organizations and the implementation of projects aimed at cooperation with institutions that work with cross-cutting issues, creating greater synergy between initiatives.

Occupational Health and Safety

Accident and occupational disease prevention

SESTR

The Company has a team of professionals (Specialized Service for Safety and Health in Rural Work) who develop actions integrated with safety and health management practices. This makes the work environment compatible with the health and safety promotion and preservation of the collaborators’ physical integrity.

Occupational Risk Management

SLC Agrícola continuously identifies hazards, assesses risks and determines necessary control measures. All based on the order of priority of elimination, replacement, engineering controls, administrative controls and, finally, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Safe Behavior

With a focus on safe behavior, the Behavior Observation Program is developed in the Company’s Units. Understanding, changing and/or maintaining behavior standards is essential in order to reduce and/or eliminate accidents.

Certifications in Agribusiness

Standards that ensure Sustainability

SLC Agrícola’s Big Dream adds several factors to the business that demand standardization of its processes – whether they are focused on operations, the business or even its management. The Integrated Management System is the main tool for sustainability. A certification process, in which the economic, social and environmental pillars are supported by international performance standards, such as ISO 9001 for the Product Quality Management System, ISO 45001 for Occupational Health and Safety, NBR 16001 for Social Responsibility and ISO 14001 for Environmental Management. Within the good agricultural cultivation practices, other national and international certifications for SLC Agrícola commodities are also highlighted, such as RTRS (Round Table on Responsible Soy), 3S (Solutions for Sustainable Supplies), ABR (Responsible Brazilian Cotton) and BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) standards for cotton cultivation and UAAN – (Conab – Storage unit certification).

Sustainability Management

A committee that brings our actions to life

Created in 2008, SLC Agrícola´s Sustainability Committee unites officers for decision making related to sustainability projects within the Company. One of the main actions of the Committee was to prepare and revise the Integrated Policy, which guides the IMS (Integrated Management System). SGI is composed of ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and NBR 16001 standards and permeates all areas and operations of SLC Agrícola.

 

Social Responsibility Awards

Why adopt Sustainability as a strategy at SLC Agrícola?

  • Ensure legal compliance and other applicable requirements.
    Continuously improve our processes and systems, meeting new markets and customer requirements.
    Create mechanisms to strengthen economic, environmental and social management, minimizing risks and preventing pollution, accidents and incidents.
    Increase the efficiency of the Company.
    Promote ethics and sustainable development and influence stakeholders in Sustainability practices.
    Strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders linked to the Company.

Be Sustainable Economically

Geographic Diversification

Ensuring high productivity is crucial to successfully compete in the agricultural business. However, the climate is a relevant influence to crop performance. Therefore, SLC Agrícola adopted a geographical diversification model that allows variability in production to be reduced, since climatic problems in one region can be compensated by good performance in another. In addition, the Cerrado [Brazilian savannah] is considered a region of less climatic variation when compared to other producing regions.

Financial Risk Management

Our products are priced in dollars on the world commodity exchange markets and, therefore, are also exposed to variation of the real against the dollar. To manage these variables, the Company created a Risk Management Committee, which meets weekly to assess exposure levels and define mandates for crop sales, using instruments for future sale of commodities and foreign exchange and obeying a Risk Policy that is reviewed from time to time by the Board of Directors.

Product Diversification

We seek integration between the crop rotation system and exposure to different markets. Therefore, the option to plant grains (soy and corn) and cotton. They are annual crops, which allow changes in the production mix with each new harvest and add important synergies from an operational point of view. In addition, the grain and cotton markets have different dynamics, which provides the Company with greater diversification of revenues and less dependence.

Controle de Custos

Strict cost and expense control is part of SLC Agrícola’s organizational culture. This begins with efficient monitoring and control systems, standardized in each unit, and undergoes a thorough policy of continuous reduction of unnecessary expenses and efficient use of resources.