Mosaic Co. announces ‘Leading with Purpose’ report, renewed sustainability goals

As businesses worldwide begin taking a closer look at sustainability — in energy, materials, and waste – one major company in Florida is taking the lead in environmental responsibility.

On Tuesday, The Mosaic Company released its 2014 Sustainability Report, titled “Leading with Purpose.” In it, the Polk County-based company, one of the world’s leading producers of agricultural nutrients, outlined both last year’s past progress in sustainability and set new goals for 2020.

The Report addresses several Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators, which govern activities such as freshwater and energy use, and greenhouse emissions. It is Mosaic’s sixth such report since 2009.

GRI, an independent global organization, helps corporations, governments and organizations worldwide understand the impact of business on sustainability issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption and others. The independent organization, founded in the late 1990s, develops a series of reporting guidelines on various issues called G4 Core Sustainability Reporting. Groups provide data to GRI on water, waste, energy and greenhouse gas emissions, which is verified by third-party reviewers.

Through the most recent set of GRI guidelines, Mosaic renewed its commitment to materiality – the use, waste and conservation of physical material.

“No element of our company’s progress shines more brightly than our commitment to sustainability,” said Mosaic CEO Jim Prokopanko, “We are leading with purpose. We’re growing our value to shareholders while achieving measurable and meaningful environmental and social progress,”

In helping Mosaic identify areas of improvement, Prokopanko credits its employees – the company employs about 4,000 Floridians — for “delivering industry-leading sustainability performance.”

Among Mosaic’s strategic 2020 objectives: Reduce freshwater use by 10 percent per tonne of product produced; avoiding the use of approximately 30 million gigajoules of energy; and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent per tonne of product produced.

“As global demand for food, water, and precious natural resources increases, we are driven to improve how we operate and produce crop nutrients,” said Mosaic COO Joc O’Rourke, slated to become Mosaic’s Chief Executive Officer in August. “These water, energy and emissions targets build on our existing business strategy, and position us to stretch our environmental responsibility efforts even further.”

In 2014, Mosaic officials say they received a 99 out of 100 carbon disclosure score, with a grade of “A” for climate performance. In addition, 7 million gigajoules of electricity produced in Mosaic’s North America operations through cogeneration, which converts waste heat to energy.

As for environmental stewardship, Mosaic’s phosphate business unit planted 2 million trees in its effort to reclaim approximately 6,000 acres of land in Central Florida. Those efforts landed Mosaic its fifth consecutive year on Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, named No. 40 in 2015.

The full Mosaic Company’s Sustainability Report is available at www.mosaicco.com, as well as the GRI G4 Content Index and a How We Lead infographic.