Accueil — Continuous improvement and certifications
To strive for excellence on a day-to-day basis, the Group relies on its approach to continuous development to improve safety, workplace conditions and process/skills performance.
“Together Towards Excellence”, our performance improvement program
Resolutely collaborative, the Cristal Union approach to performance improvement has been rolled out since 2014 at all levels of the cooperative. It is based on our excellence benchmark set by the members of the Management Committee, company directors, operations directors and technical experts.
Michel Mangion Director of Corporate Social Responsibility
As improving industrial performance is not just the preserve of engineers and technical or IT investors, we need everybody to contribute their very best so we can progress even more quickly. It is not possible to separate performance from the quality of the workplace environment.
Our employees are asked regularly to identify ways in which their daily work life can be improved. This monitoring, along with performance indicators and ratios, means that our sites can establish their own roadmaps based on six performance targets.
Each roadmap contains transverse working groups which cover the improvement areas identified for each site and can implement operational solutions.
Un Groupe de travail EvE en pleine action
Le Management visuel à Sainte-Emilie
Methods recognized for their effectiveness were deployed:
Optimization of the workplace environment through 5S practices
Visual management: dynamic noticeboards set up by employees to encourage dialog and communication on the factory floor.
Feedback and benchmarking were made routine in order to enhance our approach.
CRISTAL VISION, our approach to continuous agricultural improvement
We are constantly adapting our agricultural practices and are always on the lookout for any improvements. Cristal Vision smart sugar beet is a progressive approach for everyone, employees and cooperative members.
It is the first approach of its kind in France and is now recognized by our main customers who have formed a group called the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI).
In October 2015, the SAI platform recognized the “CRISTAL VISION” approach and declared it 100% compatible with its FSA (Farm Sustainability Assessment) benchmark.
What are the advantages for beet farmers?
CRISTAL VISION smart sugar beet provides:
Sustainability of our sugar, alcohol and bioethanol production in line with our customers’ demands
Recognition of the sustainability of our cooperative members’ production systems.
Currently, 78% of our producers are Gold or Silver SAI certified and we are also closely monitoring innovative agri-environmental initiatives.
Certifications provide a guarantee of our commitment
Platinum ECOVADIS medal
With the EcoVadis Platinum Medal, Cristal Union is among the world’s top 1% of companies most committed to CSR
This medal rewards the ambitious CSR strategy that Cristal Union has been implementing for almost 20 years.
On the “Environment” criterion alone, Cristal Union even scored 100/100, showing that the Group is “fully aware of sustainability issues.”
Ecovadis is an international leader in the evaluation of CSR management systems within companies. It assesses the policies and actions implemented, as well as the results achieved, in four areas: “Labour and Human Rights”, “Ethics”, “Environment” and “Sustainable Procurement”. This rating, which has been acclaimed by the entire professional ecosystem, is based on transparency criteria and the ability to demonstrate progress. Ecovadis evaluates 130,000 companies worldwide.
Cristal Union Group has also been awarded an A- rating by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
Cristal Union has been a member of CDP since it was founded in 2013. This international platform annually assesses and shares the environmental impact of its 8,000 member companies. This is awarded on the basis of the relevance of environmental policies, actions and projects undertaken to combat climate change. This rating places the Group amongst the leaders in implementing specific and effective measures to combat climate change.
Committed to the United Nations Global Compact
Cristal Union has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact since 2016. This UN program acknowledges the commitment companies have made to comply with ten main fundamental principles including: respect for the protection of human rights, non-discrimination in employment and occupations, greater environmental responsibility, and the fight against corruption.
Group Certifications
Cristal Union received the AFNOR certification for the entire Group. This is objective proof that our Group complies with international standards.
Since 2015, the Group has implemented appropriate certifications for each production site. Today, CristalCo can offer the following to its customers:
• alcohol for pharmacy use certified GMP Pharmacy from the Dislaub and Cristanol distilleries • sugar certified IPEC for Pharmacy (Excipients) from the Bazancourt and Erstein sugar factories • organic ethyl alcohol for cosmetics, certified ECOCERT and COSMOS.
Food safety certifications
To guarantee to our customers that our products meet food safety standards, Cristal Union had the entirety of its sugar factories certified according to FSCC 22000 standards (food safety certification benchmark).
Code of conduct
This document summarizes the Group’s values and rules that all Cristal Union employees undertake to respect within the context of their duties: fight against any form of discrimination, compliance with international rules of business ethics, etc. This code of conduct is accompanied by the implementation of an internal whistleblowing system, allowing any employee who witnesses a situation contrary to the Group’s rules of ethics to go through a confidential whistleblowing channel.
This charter is addressed to all suppliers of the Cristal Union Group and, by extension, to all their suppliers and subcontractors who, in the course of their business, are called upon to deal with the Cristal Union Group. It aims to share Cristal Union’s values, particularly in terms of corporate social responsibility. It also aims to describe the guidelines of these relationships for practical day-to-day application, without seeking to cover all possible situations.
Michel Mangion Director of Corporate Social Responsibility
