Dawn Meats is first food processor to achieve BWR Mark across all Irish plants

Dawn Meats has become the first food processor to achieve the Business Working Responsibly (BWR) Mark across all of its plants in Ireland.

The Mark is audited by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), based on ISO26000 and is managed by Business in the Community Ireland (BITC). It is the only independently audited standard for CSR and Sustainability.The Waterford-based processor, which employs over 7,300 people in Ireland and around the world was first awarded the BWR Mark at its plant in Carroll’s Cross in 2017, and became the first food processor to receive certification across all of its plants in the country.

"We focused our energies on one site in 2017 and following Certification at Carroll’s Cross, proceeded to replicate this best in class standard at every plant nationwide."

This Certification comes on foot of the release of Dawn Meats’ second CSR report earlier this year where it announced it has reduced CO2 emissions by 33% just four years into a ten-year strategy. Dawn Meats also signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in May of this year - the first European beef and lamb processor to publicly commit to SBTi and the measurement of its progress on externally verified sustainability goals.The Business Working Responsibly (BWR) Mark represents a challenging standard for businesses to meet. A comprehensive review of the business from corporate responsibility governance, to workplace, marketplace, environment and community practices take place at audit stage, which was completed over three days in November 2019.Dawn Meats CEO Niall Browne commented: “Today’s Certification is the result of considerable effort by our whole team, since we first started to work with Business in the Community in 2015. We focused our energies on one site in 2017 and following Certification at Carroll’s Cross, proceeded to replicate this best in class standard at every plant nationwide. I would like to congratulate and thank each and every one of our team on this independent verification of the work that we are doing to integrate CSR and sustainability into every area of our business.”Among the benefits of Certification with the Business Working Responsibly (BWR) Mark are the opportunities to benchmark amongst peers and enhance sustainability credentials in contracting new business. Dawn Meats also participates in the BITC Leaders Group on Sustainability, a collaboration between the CEOs of some of Ireland’s largest organisations addressing social, economic and environmental challenges.

This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.