Sustainability and ESG performance on commitments, goals and targets
In addition to our 2030 commitments, we have also set ESG goals and targets that are representative of key issues and opportunities. These are within shorter time frames, focused on continuous improvement, and will be revised and updated as our operating context evolves. We will communicate our performance annually.
These commitments, targets and goals are tied to specific material ESG issues along with major ESG reporting frameworks we have implemented.
Download ESG reportENABLE growers to adopt sustainable and productive agricultural products and practices on 75 million acres globally.
- In 2022, we measured and documented approximately one million acres in North America and Australia. We continue to provide growers with whole-acre solutions that support sustainable and productive agriculture and aim to deliver improved environmental outcomes. Our three-tiered approach helps define outcomes and measures to execute this target. The first tier involves collaborating with growers to apply sustainable products, conservation practices and technology solutions. The second tier leverages our digital platform including Agrible® to track and measure outcomes such as crop quality, soil health, water quality and biodiversity. The third tier aims to independently verify sustainability outcomes, such as greenhouse gas ("GHG") emission changes through third-party verifiers such as SustainCERT and the Climate Action Reserve. By working with value-chain partners, we are seeking to collectively advance global agriculture sustainability goals for the broader supply chain.
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LAUNCH AND SCALE a comprehensive Carbon Program, empowering growers and our industry to accelerate climate-smart agriculture and soil carbon sequestration while rewarding growers for their efforts.
- In 2022, we enabled North American pilots on approximately 685,000 acres, working with growers and collaborating with approximately 10 suppliers and downstream partners. Our whole-acre solutions approach supports a program that aims to be capable of generating high-quality carbon outcomes for both voluntary and regulated carbon markets. Although global carbon markets and protocols for agricultural systems remain immature, through our direct engagement with growers, we have advanced our capabilities to support program expansion and focused on a practical and science-based approach. Our collaboration with growers and value-chain partners will likely remain foundational to our efforts as we continue to build and scale sustainability programming going forward.
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ACHIEVE at least a 30 percent reduction in emissions to GHG (Scope 1 and 2) per tonne of our products produced, from a baseline year of 2018.
- We have continued with multiple initiatives to improve energy efficiency and emissions performance across our manufacturing facilities, including the completion of nitrous oxide (“N2O”) abatement projects at Lima, OH, Kennewick, WA and Augusta, GA nitrogen sites. We also continued to evaluate a pathway for setting science-based emissions reduction targets. We continue to explore other strategic emissions abatement projects, as well as continue to evaluate current and upcoming projects. We anticipate investing more than $500 million in pursuit of our 2030 emissions intensity reduction target.
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INVEST in new technologies and pursue the transition to low-carbon fertilizers, including low-carbon and clean ammonia.
- We are evaluating the construction of a new clean ammonia facility at our existing Geismar, LA site, which would produce 1.2 million tonnes of clean ammonia annually and potentially be among the world’s largest clean ammonia production facilities if approved. The project is in the front-end engineering design (“FEED”) phase and a final investment decision is expected in 2023. If approved, construction of the approximately $2 billion facility is expected to begin in 2024 with full production anticipated by 2027. In addition, our near-term focus is on using carbon capture, utilization and storage (“CCUS”) infrastructure, and growing our low-carbon ammonia production. As of 2022, Nutrien has annual production capability for approximately one million tonnes of low-carbon ammonia at our Geismar, LA, Redwater, AB and Joffre, AB nitrogen facilities.
- We continue collaborating with our shipping partner EXMAR to evaluate building a low-carbon ammonia-powered vessel. The project has progressed to initial engine design and is subject to further analysis, validation and a final investment decision. If approved in 2023, the anticipated completion is end of 2025. We believe this is an important step forward for the wider adoption of low-carbon ammonia as a clean fuel for the maritime industry.
- Nutrien continued our partnership with the US Department of Energy (“DOE”) and other industry partners to develop a clean ammonia plant with technology developed from the Renewable Energy to Fuels Through Utilization of Energy- Dense Liquids (“REFUEL”) program.
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LEVERAGE our farm-focused technology partnerships and investments to drive positive impact in industry and grower innovation and inclusion.
- We invested $500,000 in ag-tech entrepreneurs through an Inclusion Challenge with Radicle Growth, which aims to accelerate inclusive investments in our industry. The challenge was a pitch competition from ag-tech entrepreneurs around the globe who identified as female, black, Indigenous, people of color ("BIPOC"), from historically underrepresented groups in agriculture, or were committed to diversity and inclusion while advancing a sustainable food value chain. We invested $250,000 in each of the winners: Agtools Inc. and FA Bio Ltd. Radicle and Nutrien will also provide mentorship and networking opportunities to help accelerate the winners’ pathway to success.
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CREATE new grower financial solutions to strengthen social, economic and environmental outcomes in agriculture.
- We began developing an internal training program for Nutrien Financial employees to promote understanding of financial inclusion and support the creation of new solutions to support underserved communities. We continued to offer financial opportunities so growers can adopt sustainable agriculture solutions and support positive environmental outcomes. Our financing solutions play an important role in providing competitive product financing for our customers, supporting customer retention and business growth.
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Reduce GHG emissions in nitrogen production by one million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent ("CO2e") by the end of 2023. On an intensity basis vs 2018 baseline emissions intensity.
On track
- Our priority GHG reduction projects, headlined by our CCUS and N2O abatement projects, are on track to incrementally reduce emissions by approximately one million tonnes of CO2e annually by the end of 2023 (calculated on an intensity basis). Because one tonne of N2O is equivalent to approximately 298 tonnes of carbon dioxide ("CO2"), reductions in N2O have the potential to significantly reduce GHG emissions.
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Deploy self-generated wind and/or solar energy at four Potash facilities by the end of 2025.
On hold
- We have deployed renewable-based wind and solar meteorological and energy resource data collection stations at four additional Potash sites, for a total of six stations since 2021. We have paused our onsite renewables program until 2024 to engage in consultations with our provincial utility provider, SaskPower (the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada), related to their clean energy transition initiative and the adoption of related regulations. We are exploring the most feasible access to renewable energy whether that is onsite or offsite or a combination of both. Due to the uncertainty associated with the implementation of SaskPower’s clean energy transition, and the changing regulatory landscape in the province, it is possible that this target will not be met by the end of 2025.
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Complete a watershed risk assessment of our production sites.
Achieved goal and new target
- We completed watershed risk assessments for our production sites in 2021 and in 2022 we used the assessment to set a new operational water use target.
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New target: Reduce annual freshwater use in current operations at higher-risk and higher-use manufacturing facilities by 3.0 million cubic meters by 2025, which cumulatively is expected to reduce freshwater use by 30 million cubic meters by 2030. Improvement is on an intensity basis vs 2018.
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Develop Loss of Containment reduction strategy and provide related target by 2023.
Achieved goal and new target
- In 2022, we developed a LOC reduction strategy.
- New target: Reduce the three-year moving average LOC Index 3 from 1.52 in 2022 to 1.25 by 2030. This will be approximately an 18 percent reduction from 2022 baseline in LOC incidents.
- LOC is an unplanned release of material from its process that has the potential to impact human health and/or the environment. LOC Index is calculated from the number of LOC incidents and normalized to production/sales data.
Develop Retail’s plastic recycling strategy and set a target by 2022.
Revised goal
- In 2022, we developed a Global Nutrien Ag Solutions Waste Management Strategy, and identified improved data collection as a necessary next step for effective target setting. In Nutrien Ag Solutions, we continue to implement waste management programs, which are largely focused on empty, plastic product containers returned to designated Nutrien Ag Solutions locations. Each region has varying levels of recycling maturity.
- The original goal to set a target by the end of 2022 has not been met and has been revised.
- Revised goal: Nutrien Ag Solutions will continue to broaden and implement our Global Waste Minimization Standard, with a focus on improving our data management system and analytics with an aim to set a target by 2025.
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Determine how digital on-farm tools can identify and track opportunities to enhance biodiversity.
On track
- In 2022, we measured and documented approximately 835,000 acres in the US in collaboration with various downstream partners, which included biodiversity metrics. Note, these acres are included in our 75 million acre 2030 sustainability commitment.
- We continue to use our internally developed framework to characterize and measure grower performance on various metrics developed by Cool Farm Alliance and Field to Market®. Our Agrible® platform now includes Field to Market’s Habitat Potential Index (“HPI”) to assess on-farm habitat for plants and animals.
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Women comprise no fewer than 30 percent of the Board of Directors (maintain annually).
Achieved
- As of December 31, 2022, we are exceeding our target with 33 percent women on our Board of Directors. Nutrien is also a member of the 30% Club, an international group of Chairs and CEOs promoting gender diversity on boards and senior management teams.
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30 percent women in leadership (director and above) by 2025.
Room for improvement
- The percentage of women in senior leadership positions is 21 percent in 2022, which is the same percentage as 2021. To reach our 30 percent target by 2025, we will continue to expand leadership programs focused on women, look to remove any systemic barriers, explore new avenues to attract women and drive cultural change that fosters an inclusive workplace where all employees, including women, can thrive.
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By 2025, 25 percent of local spend in our Potash business has direct Indigenous economic impact.
On track
- In 2022, our Potash business exceeded the target, reaching an approximate 30 percent spend with local direct Indigenous economic impact. This reflects approximately CAD$270 million of contract opportunities that support direct positive impact with Indigenous communities and Peoples.
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Annually, 100 percent of potash suppliers contracted MSA have local Indigenous inclusion commitments.
Achieved
- In 2022, all new signed MSAs with potash suppliers included commitments to local Indigenous inclusion as a requirement to engage in our bidding process.
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Complete risk evaluation profiles of NPK (fertilizer) manufactured products by 2024.
Revised goal
- Throughout 2022, we aligned multiple best practices to identify and establish categories forming the basis for our product risk profiles. To ensure a holistic and comprehensive risk profile, we continue to consolidate and evaluate this information, which highlights the types of risk across our portfolio and informs priorities for improving product safety and sustainability.
- Revised goal: The original goal was to complete the profiles by 2023, which we do not expect to be met. Due to the complexity of the evaluation and our desire to ensure data and process integrity, we recognized the need to adjust our expectations, align resources and extend the time frame to complete NPK risk profiles by 2024.
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Achieve top-quartile safety performance across all business units by end of 2025.
On track
- In 2022, we achieved both top-quartile Lost Time Injury (“LTI”) and Total Recordable Injury (“TRI”) performance across Retail, Nitrogen and Phosphate operating segments, reflecting our deliberate effort on Serious Injury and Fatality (“SIF”) and severity elimination. Further, our Potash operating segment made positive progress towards achieving top-quartile LTI performance. Measuring against industry and globally recognized metrics ensures we evaluate our performance for Nutrien as an enterprise, as well as individual operating segments.
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Zero Serious Injury and Fatality incidents annually.
Not achieved
- Safety is a core value at Nutrien. In 2022, Nutrien had five SIF incidents. No incidents resulted in a fatality. Each incident was actioned immediately by response teams onsite. All SIFs were investigated, and actions were taken based on the investigation outcome. In addition, debriefs with lessons learned were held with relevant stakeholders to review the findings of each investigation and opportunities for process improvements, policies, procedures and training programs were identified. Resources were deployed accordingly. Our Culture of Care strives to create a safe environment.
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Expand safety coaching into performance conversations for all employees by 2022.
Achieved
- This goal is complete and safety coaching remains a priority approach we continue to implement and improve upon. All operating segments have coaching built into their existing processes and procedures.
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Develop and implement impact measurement of sustainability and community investments by 2023.
On track
- In 2022, we continued to develop our impact measurement framework. The framework aims to measure the impact of our investments on a continuum of change (that is, connect, improve, change and impact), allowing us to ensure a targeted and consistent approach with the largest impact. We expect the framework to be finalized and implemented in 2023.
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Employees volunteer at least 25,000 hours by 2025.
On track
- Nutrien’s total 2022 annual volunteer hours were more than 17,000 hours, representing a 53 percent increase over 2021. In 2022, we offered eligible employees three paid volunteer days during work hours or reward dollars for charities if volunteering outside of work hours.
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All employees, directors and officers complete mandatory Code of Conduct training annually.
Achieved
- All employees, directors and officers have completed mandatory Code of Conduct training. We update and rotate topics from year to year. We also provide refresher training on a periodic basis to address new or changing legal and compliance risks.
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Host quarterly education and training on cybersecurity for our community partners and stakeholders.
Achieved
- In 2022, we hosted five external cybersecurity sessions consisting of dedicated in-person events with targeted groups as well as cybersecurity awareness sessions targeting our customers and community non-profit partners. Value-chain partnership in cybersecurity is critical to protect Nutrien and we continue to find new ways to engage with peers, vendors and customers on this issue.
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