Frequently Asked Questions

In January 2024, ABF Sugar (ABFS) announced the approval of its near, and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). This milestone demonstrates our proactive approach to addressing climate change and mitigating its impacts through our actions.

ABFS is committed to reducing E&I (scope 1 and 2) emissions by 52.1% by 2030 and to a net-zero reduction target of 90% by 2050. Additionally, they aim to reduce scope 3 emissions by 30% by 2030 and 90% by 2050.

They have also committed to reducing FLAG emissions from owned (scope 1), purchased sources (scope 2), and indirect sources (scope 3) with a near-term reduction target of 36.4% by 2030.

Additionally, they have committed to a net-zero reduction target of 90% by 2050 for scope 1 and 2 emissions and 72% reduction for scope 3 emissions by 2050 through collaboration with our stakeholders.

British Sugar as one of the ABFS businesses will contribute towards the validated targets and our trajectory is set out in our current transition plan (see question below).

Our transition plan features in ABF’s Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

For British Sugar, we are working towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for Scope 1 and 2, Energy & Industry (E&I). With a focus on three areas - energy efficiency, fuel switching and investment in new technology.

In the short term, we will continue to deliver projects focusing on factory energy efficiency / steam reduction, coal elimination and reduction of energy use for pulp drying.

In the long term, our focus will be on technological advancements for factory energy efficiency / steam reduction and alternate pulp drying technologies.

Since our 2018 baseline year, British Sugar has invested approximately £134m in 52 energy efficiency and carbon reduction projects, resulting in a cumulative reduction of above 160kt of CO2e.

In addition, we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 market-based GHG emissions by 31%, achieved a 13% reduction in energy used (excluding energy exported, and achieved a 31% reduction in water abstracted (+ municipal).

We have also eliminated coal as a fuel source across our factories.

Yes, we have a sourcing map and a central tracker for all bought in sugars. We know what is sugar beet and what is sugar cane. You can view our sourcing map by clicking the link below. 

Please get in touch with your account manager if you have further questions regarding this.

As a business of ABF PLC, we ask all our suppliers to adhere to the ABF Supplier Code of Conduct which can be found on ABF's website.

All British Sugar manufacturing sites are accredited to ISO 14001 for Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and ISO 50001 for Energy Management Systems (EnMS).

All our sugar beet growers must ensure that their sugar beet crop is audited under the Red Tractor Farm Assurance (Combinable Crops and Sugar Beet Standard) Scheme at all times. This assurance scheme, when benchmarked with UK legislation, achieves Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) 3.0 Silver Level Equivalence.

All sugar beet delivered to our factories must have a certification number for us to process. In addition, our Bury St Edmunds factory is also Red Tractor assured, and we are audited yearly on this.

Please get in touch with your account manager if you need proof of certification.

We do not use palm oil at British Sugar.  

All the sugar, thick juice, molasses, and sugar specialities manufactured on British Sugar’s sites are free from palm oil and its derivatives.

British Sugar is part of ABF Sugar, and our actions contribute towards their validated SBTi targets.

They are committed to reducing E&I (scope 1 and 2) emissions by 52.1% by 2030 and to a net-zero reduction target of 90% by 2050. Additionally, ABF Sugar aims to reduce scope 3 emissions by 30% by 2030 and 90% by 2050.

This includes emissions from purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel and energy related activities, upstream transportation and distribution, waste generated in operations, business travel, employee commuting, and downstream transportation and distribution.

We contribute towards ABF Sugar's validated SBTi targets by focusing on three areas - energy efficiency, fuel switching and investment in new technology.

In the short term, we will continue to deliver projects focusing on factory energy efficiency / steam reduction, coal elimination and reduction of energy use for pulp drying.

In the long term, our focus will be on technological advancements for factory energy efficiency / steam reduction and alternate pulp drying technologies.

You can read more about our transition plan by clicking the link below.

Our total carbon footprint will change every year because there are several contributing factors including sugar beet crop size, factory processing days, along with initiatives to continue our decarbonisation efforts at factories.

For our most recent reporting year of 2024/25, our greenhouse gas emissions were as follows: Scope 1: 714,939 tCO2e, Scope 2: 4,206 tCO2e

Our sugar product carbon footprint is 620kg CO2e/tn sugar product.

We also have PCFs for our co-products which are available upon request through your customer account manager.

Yes, we have the breakdown of emissions sources by source within British Sugar, which we update annually in line with ABF financial year-end reporting.

If you’d like to know more, please contact your account manager.

As a business owned by ABF, we contribute towards their CDP reporting which is published annually on their website.

You can read ABF’s 2025 CDP Corporate Questionnaire by clicking the link below.

For the year 2024/25, we used 338MWh/100tn sugar produced.

This equates to a total energy used of 3,662,371,326 KWh.

All our factories operate Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants, utilising natural gas as the fuel option which maximises fuel efficiency conversion into energy.

We export excess electricity generated to the national grid at all four sites, most significantly at our Bury and Wissington sites.

All of our imported electricity is renewable through the REGO scheme.

Around eight million tonnes of sugar beet every year is sourced from across the beet growing region which consists of East Anglia, the East Midlands and Yorkshire.

The exact tonnage will differ year-on-year because of many factors, including but not limited to climate or weather conditions, contracted hectares, or market demand.

In Spring 2026, we announced a new collaboration with the Soil Association Exchange (SAX) for UK sugar beet growers. The specific offering we have created with SAX for sugar beet growers will enable them to earn payments for actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve the environmental performance of the crop, and support the long-term resilience of farm businesses. SAX measures and rewards sustainability improvements using measurements across six key areas including soil, water, biodiversity, and carbon. For more information on our work with SAX, please click the link below.  

In addition, all our sugar beet growers must ensure that their sugar beet crop is audited under the Red Tractor Farm Assurance (Combinable Crops and Sugar Beet Standard) Scheme at all times. All sugar beet delivered to our factories must have a certification number for us to process. In addition, our Bury St Edmunds factory is also Red Tractor assured, and we are audited yearly on this.

This assurance scheme, when benchmarked with UK legislation, achieves Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) 3.0 Silver Level Equivalence. This alignment helps ensure that our sugar beet supply chain meets internationally recognised sustainability expectations and supports transparency for customers seeking globally benchmarked sustainable sourcing standards.

We are also proud to be founding members of SAI Platform’s Regenerative Agriculture Programme – a collaborative and farmer-centred initiative that aims to address the urgent need for an aligned industry recognised, trusted and cost-effective way to assess, measure and report regenerative agriculture outcomes.

British Sugar and UK sugar beet growers jointly fund the British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) who conduct research and trials on behalf of the homegrown sugar industry. Part of this work is looking into the best integrated pest management (IPM) approaches.

Currently IPM research is looking into the use of cover crops, odours and coloured dyes and beneficial hosts to understand the impact these methods have on the sugar beet crop. Particularly in relation to the limiting pests and diseases such as Virus Yellows disease which poses the biggest risk to the crop.

You can read more about our Virus Yellows Pathway, including our ongoing gene editing project by clicking the link below.

Over the course of 2024/25, total water abstracted, including municipal, for all our operational sites was 2,099 km³.

This equates to a 31% reduction in water abstracted (+ municipal) since the 2018 baseline year.

British Sugar has invested over £20 million since 2022 to further improve the quality of water discharged from its sites. This includes two new water treatment plants at Cantley and Newark, as well as upgrading existing facilities at our other locations.

We treat all water used on site before discharging into the environment, as required by our environmental permits. Our sites return more water into the catchment area, than they consume, as we use the water contained in the sugar beet crop (circa 75%).
We have a project in construction at our largest site, Wissington, which will enable a reduction in our abstracted water once fully operational. 

To find out more about our water usage, please click the link below.

All our sites are regulated by the Environment Agency through an environmental permit and we receive regular audits throughout the year.

We have an Environmental Management System (EMS) covering our business and are certified to ISO 14001.

All our sites have a waste management system, which is a structured process for managing and handling waste onsite through to collection, transport, recycling or final disposal; whilst minimising the environmental impact through reduction, reuse and recycling.

We measure waste and report less than 200g per tonne of sugar produced.

We recently invested £20m at our Bury Customer Supply site which has transformed the site’s capability to pack, palletise and distribute sugar to Silver Spoon for their retail customers.

New and refurbished packing machines, alongside palletisation equipment has increased the capability and flexibility of the site, alongside a significant re-design of retail and shelf ready packaging.

This transformation work has delivered a significant reduction in terms of environmental impact. From removing single use labels completely, to achieving over 60% plastic reduction as cardboard now has a greater use within the product packaging mix, and over 45% reduction in brown and white paper waste on site. Additionally, the project is expected to deliver carbon reductions attune to 229 tonnes of CO2e and a reduction of 470 tonnes of water per annum over the coming years.

In addition, we are fully compliant with the extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations regarding product packaging and the plastic packaging tax. We have also recently updated some of our bagged product to recyclable paper sacks for 20kg and 25kg formats.

The sugar-making process creates a range of co-products, which enable us to drive efficiency, develop our sustainability performance and work across multiple industry sectors.

These include, but are not limited to aggregate, animal feed, betaine, bioethanol, electricity/renewable energy, LimeX (soil pH corrector), raffinate, specialist pharmaceutical ingredient, topsoil and vinasse.

To find out more about some of our co-products, please the link below.

At British Sugar, we are committed to providing competitive and fair pay structures that attract, engage, and retain high quality talent. Our compensation framework is reviewed annually to ensure it remains appropriate to the prevailing economic climate and aligned with our strategic objectives.

British Sugar has made a clear commitment to pay above the National Living Wage. This commitment is set out in our National Living Wage statement and is evidenced through an annual review of all pay elements. Where appropriate, we apply the Anker Methodology to better understand living wage considerations, identify any potential pay risks, and ensure that appropriate action plans are in place to address them.

Every year we publish our gender pay gap report which details all our metrics, actions and activities that have contributed towards our results.

Our 2025 report detailed the significant steps towards supporting narrowing our pay gap through a broad range of Inclusion & Diversity initiatives. This is a long-term strategy where year-on-year we see a shift in our results.

To read our gender pay gap report, click the link below.

Health and Safety training data is an aggregate of onboarding, job fundamentals and leadership training. In 2025, we introduced a new unified Learning Management System (LMS) with clear governance and visibility on scorecard.

The majority of 'training hours per employee' and % employees given skills or career related training takes place over the summer months, in the maintenance period outside of harvesting campaign.

Yes, we have a Grievance Policy and Procedure in place for all our employees, and we also have whistleblowing through our Speak Up Policy which aligns to the ABF Policy.

All individuals working for British Sugar and third parties are welcome to use any of the reporting channels set out in this Policy.

As a business owned by ABF, the ABF Supplier Code of Conduct and Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement supports our approach to human rights.

To view the Modern Slavery Statement, as well as our own human rights policy, please click the links below.

Yes, SEDEX SMETA audits across all sites take place on a three-year cycle (except for Bury St Edmunds which is on a two-year cycle).

Our Bury St Edmunds site had a SMETA 7 audit in November 2025 (FY24-25) and all other sites are due to be audited in Autumn 2026.

We do this by ensuring that all recruitment of British Sugar colleagues is undertaken in line with our British Sugar Recruitment and Pre-Employment Policy and Procedures.

British Sugar recognises that it is illegal for employers, contractors and recruitment agencies to charge workers for finding them a job. The costs of all recruitment should be paid by the employer, not the job seeker as defined under the Employer Pays Principle (EPP). British Sugar by recognising the EPP, affirms that no worker should pay for a job and that the costs of recruitment should be borne not by the worker but by the employer.

Also ensuring that all of our labour providers have signed our Procurement Responsible Sourcing Policy before being able to provide any labour to the business.

You can find copies of all our policies by clicking the link below.

We have a statement on EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) for British Sugar (which excludes Silver Spoon), please see below.

Following a review of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and its scope, we can confirm that products British Sugar supplies (either sold in or exported from the EU) are currently out of scope and do not fall within the list of commodities or products which EUDR covers. Please note that this statement and scope does not include Silver Spoon products, which have separate trading arrangements.

We appreciate the growing interest in the EUDR and its role in promoting sustainable and deforestation-free supply chains. As a responsible UK-based food manufacturing business, we fully support initiatives that aim to protect global forests and biodiversity. We continue to monitor regulatory developments and maintain transparency with our customers and partners. If our business activities change in a way that brings our products within scope of the EUDR, we will update our position accordingly.

British Sugar remains committed to responsible sourcing and environmental stewardship across our operations including sourcing FSC certified wood/paper products.

If you have any further questions or require clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

ISO standards (14001, 45001, 50001)
SMETA, SEDEX
Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) 3.0 Silver Level Equivalence
Red Tractor Farm Assurance (Combinable Crops and Sugar Beet Standard) Scheme
FSSC 2000
EcoVadis (re-awarded GOLD in April 2026)
Royal Warrant of Appointment by The King
Fairtrade
Bonsucro
Vive

If you require evidence of certifications, please contact your account manager.