Sustainability

Elevating sustainability through cooperative strength

Caring for people and the environment will always be at the heart of the agricultural cooperative system. That is why CHS takes an outcome-based approach to sustainability with a long-term view on people, community, economic viability and environmental success.

Setting our sustainability focus areas

In early fiscal year 2023, CHS engaged 25 external stakeholders and more than 100 employees. This activity also included members of our strategic leadership team, including President and CEO Jay Debertin, as well as members of the CHS Board of Directors. The CHS team led the rigorous process, which included a survey, one-on-one interviews and internal listening sessions. The team asked each participant to describe perceived opportunities and challenges and overall sentiment about sustainability.

Through thorough analysis, including a third-party consultant, the team identified and categorized common themes for internal and external stakeholders. Each step in this critical assessment process contributed to development of four focus areas and the decision to work toward aligning those focus areas and strategy with six of the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Our ESG focus areas

Climate

Deforestation

People and communities

Stakeholder engagement

Jay Debertin, President and chief executive officer, and Dan Schurr, Chair, Board of Directors

At CHS, we believe sustainability is inherent in what we do: making agriculture more productive, helping communities thrive and feeding a growing global population while using fewer resources. Our current and future investments will play a critical role in this work as we leverage innovative solutions and technologies to drive continuous improvement and enhance outcomes.

Jay Debertin, CEO and Dan Schurr, Chair, Board of Directors

Sustainability in action

Optimizing nutrient management

CHS is fully engaged with planning and advancing The Fertilizer Institute’s 4Rs Nutrient Stewardship program. We put 4Rs principles into practice by providing agronomic recommendations and developing products that maximize nutrient availability to grow crops and improve soil health.
Leveraging technology

An electric crane, or E-Crane, is in use by CHS at a private terminal along the Paraná Guazú River in Argentina. This crane is designed to maintain equilibrium at all times and reduce energy consumption. This new technology will also reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.
Sustainability in livestock production

In 2023, CHS joined the iFEEDER Sustainability Road Map Project to help implement animal feed objectives identified in the first project phase around data and information management, sustainability research, life cycle assessments, and educational resources and training. CHS personnel serve on the iFEEDER board of trustees.
Volunteering in our communities

CHS employees volunteered more than 23,000 hours in more than 35 communities in 2023. Projects included packing 32,500 meals to ensure access to affordable, healthy food and writing 175 cards for military members. During the CHS Giving Campaign, 830 employees raised $1.3 million for more than 740 nonprofit organizations.
Increasing safety with drone applications

CHS is using innovative drone technologies to capture and apply data across the company to boost productivity, increase efficiency and improve safety. From inspecting grain to checking grain-handling equipment, drones help enhance productivity and accelerate decision-making, while improving safety for employees by reducing the need to inspect elevated and/or enclosed spaces.
Developing new leaders

Encouraging young people to step into leadership roles is key to sustainability of the cooperative system. Cooperatives nominate young farmer-owners to attend the annual CHS New Leaders Forum, where participants learn about the cooperative model and benefits of cooperative ownership, gain skills in advocacy and communication, interact with members of the CHS Board of Directors and other CHS leaders, and network with other young leaders from around the U.S.

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Engaging stakeholders in sustainability

CHS members engage in activities related to sustainability throughout the year as we gather their input and ideas, answer questions and work together toward a more sustainable future.

Providing commodity market information, sharing new production approaches and offering opportunities to build leadership skills are just some of the ways CHS helps farmer-owners and cooperative leaders build knowledge for personal and business success. We have recently hosted education sessions at the CHS annual meeting, engaged with new leaders, participated in employee engagement activities and more to drive awareness of sustainability efforts.

CHS has long recognized that environmental and community resources are vital to the future of agriculture, the global food system and the 2 million U.S. farmers who make their living working the land. Diversified in agronomy, grains, foods and energy, CHS is integrating sustainability more fully into our core businesses and bringing that growing strength to the cooperative system. The system is a critical link to a more adaptable global food system and the success of CHS and its owners.

We recognize that sustainability is not new to agriculture or to CHS. At the same time, we have many opportunities to play a stronger role in sustainability initiatives. For this reason, CHS is taking an outcome-based approach with a longterm focus on people, community, economic viability and environmental success. By focusing on concrete results, we will be better positioned to drive sustainable success across the cooperative system.

In fiscal year 2023, we continued to learn more about the current and future sustainability needs of the company through an extensive materiality assessment. The assessment included in-depth conversations with our internal and external stakeholders, including our board of directors, member cooperatives, farmer- and rancher-owners, key stakeholders from trade organizations, the financial community and the next generation of agricultural leaders. From the assessment, CHS is developing an enterprise sustainability strategy and working to integrate the strategy across all aspects of our company.

At CHS, we believe sustainability is inherent in what we do: making agriculture more productive, helping communities thrive and feeding a growing global population while using fewer resources. Our current and future investments will play a critical role in this work as we leverage innovative solutions and technologies to drive continuous improvement and enhance outcomes.

Consumers will also play an important role as they navigate toward sustainable solutions and search for information on farm-to-table processes and handling. Not only will they become more knowledgeable, but greater transparency throughout the supply chain will continue to inform their decision-making.

As a global agribusiness leader with more than 10,000 employees, CHS is committed to reducing our impact on the planet, creating new market opportunities and investing in ways to build a better future for our owners, customers, employees and communities.

Jay Debertin
President and chief executive officer

Dan Schurr
Chair, Board of Directors

The agriculture industry and CHS have always evolved to meet new challenges, adapting to uncertainty and change. As a company intrinsically linked to the land, we believe our business model should drive sustainable outcomes that improve agriculture and rural America.

We are elevating sustainability principles by integrating them into all aspects of our operations from daily decisions to strategic planning. We are assessing risks and opportunities associated with our expansive network, which will address our strengths and challenges in real time and prepare CHS for the future.

I’m proud to be the company’s first chief sustainability officer and pleased to report our continued momentum and commitment to sustainability and rural communities. Our engagement with internal and external stakeholders has been significant — they are key to our success in the future.

Using this feedback, we identified four areas of focus for sustainability at CHS:

Climate
Deforestation
People and communities
Stakeholder engagement and communication

Progress made

We are aligning with globally recognized reporting frameworks. This sets CHS on a path to position our sustainability program and future reporting with emerging standards.

We also established a new sustainability and innovation team to guide our sustainability evolution and to help adopt new technologies and foster innovation. We view the innovation work as the gateway to sustainable agriculture through our joint venture capital fund, Cooperative Ventures. We anticipate our Cooperative Ventures investment will lead to greater operational efficiencies, improved productivity, reduced costs and increased competitiveness for CHS and our owners.

Work ahead

In 2023, we also began measuring our greenhouse gas emissions, starting with scope 1 and scope 2 emissions from our refineries at McPherson, Kan., and Laurel, Mont. By measuring the emissions of these operations, we will gain clarity that will support our work to implement meaningful change focused on outcomes and rooted in science.

In the years ahead, CHS will continue to elevate our sustainability work while continuing to keep our owners, customers, employees and communities at the center of the conversation. I’m confident we will continue to learn and grow in our approach to sustainability as we work together to make meaningful, measurable progress.

Megan Rock
Vice president, sustainability and innovation, and chief sustainability officer

Sustainability

Elevating sustainability through cooperative strength