As with 2019’s report, our 2020 report focuses on our philosophy of Custodianship; our fundamental belief that we are caretakers of our assets and that we have a responsibility to ensure the stability, security and continuity of all our operations so that they can be passed onto the next generation as successful operations; caring for the environments in which we are based and for those who have to live and work within them.
In this year’s report we also elaborate on our Chairman’s Fund initiative. This fund has two purposes: first to ensure that important environmental or social projects are not wholly reliant on short term trading conditions for individual operations and second, to use some of our centrally held resources to invest in novel or even experimental technologies that could make a significant difference to our environmental impact.
A further theme that runs through this year’s report is Green Spaces. Our Green Spaces initiative encourages managers on our agricultural estates to consider how the land is used and where possible, to ensure it is managed in a way that is sympathetic to the local fauna and flora.
As ever we have tried to bring some of these themes to life with real life examples of Custodianship in action. This year’s case studies range from beekeeping initiatives in Kenya to supporting hydro-electric schemes in Scotland.