Our Purpose | Tate & Lyle

Our Purpose

Family meal

 

TRANSFORMING
LIVES THROUGH THE
SCIENCE OF FOOD

 

Our purpose is why we do what we do.
It inspires us, and makes us strive to do our best. 

PURPOSE intro 2021

Living our purpose every day

We’ve been working to transform lives for over 165 years, growing our business and making a positive impact on society.

Whether it’s by supporting healthy living, building thriving communities or caring for our planet, we live our purpose every day, in everything we do.

Our purpose is our guiding light, enabling our people to achieve remarkable things.

Supporting healthy living 22
Supporting healthy living purpose icon
We help people make healthier and tastier choices when they eat and drink, and lead more balanced lifestyles.
Building Thriving Communities 22
Building thriving communities icon - yellow
We help build thriving communities where we operate and support people to achieve their potential.
Caring for our planet
Caring for our planet purpose icon
We care for our planet and help protect its natural resources for the benefit of future generations.

In 2020, we set ourselves some ambitious long-term commitments and targets for the three pillars of our purpose.

We support healthy living by using our ingredients and expertise to help people make healthier and tastier choices when they eat and drink, and to lead more balanced lifestyles.

These are our commitments:

  • By 2030, we will have helped improve the lives of over 300,000 people by supporting programmes that promote healthier lifestyles and activities.
  • By 2030, through our no/low calorie sweeteners and fibres, we will have helped remove 20 million tonnes of sugar from people’s diets, equivalent to 80 trillion calories.
  • By 2030, we’ll provide 35 billion ‘daily fibre gap equivalent’ servings of 15g of fibre in food and drink, sufficient to fill consumer’s daily ‘fibre gap.’

You can track our progress on how we are supporting healthy living in the 2027 Annual Report, which will be published in June 2027.

We build thriving communities where we operate and support people to achieve their potential.

These are our commitments:

  • By 2030, we’ll have supported the education of over 125,000 children and students through learning programmes and grants, helping them attain skills for life.
  • By 2030, we’ll have provided over 7 million nutritious meals for people in need.
  • By 2030, we'll maintain gender parity in leadership and management roles between a range of 45% and 55% in each year.

You can track our progress on how we are building thriving communities in the 2027 Annual Report, which will be published in June 2027.

We care for the planet we live on and help protect its natural resources for the benefit of future generations.

In June 2026, Tate & Lyle announced updated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets in line with reductions required to limit global warming to 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels. These targets, which have been validated as science-based by Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), are:

Energy and Industrial    

  • Reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 63% by FY2026 from a FY22 baseline year.1
  • Reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 63% by FY2026 from a FY22 baseline year.

Forests, Land and Agriculture (FLAG)

  • Reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 43% by FY2026 from a FY22 baseline year.2
  • No deforestation across our primary deforestation-linked commodities, with a target date of 31 December 2027.

Our other environmental targets and commitments are:

  • By 2025, we’ll have eliminated coal from all our operations (we achieved this in 2021).
  • By 2030, 100% of the electricity we purchase for our operations will come from renewable sources.
  • By 2030, 100% of our waste will be beneficially used.
  • By FY34, we’ll have reduced water use intensity at our high risk sites by 15% from a FY24 baseline year.
  • We’ll maintain sustainable acreage equivalent to the volume of corn we buy globally each year, and through partnerships we’ll accelerate the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices.

You can track our progress on how we are caring for our planet in the 2026 Annual Report.

 

1 The target boundary includes land-related emissions and removals form biogenic feedstocks.

2 The target includes FLAG emissions and removals.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Tate & Lyle is a signatory of the UN Global compact, the world’s largest sustainability initiative. In doing so, we have committed to supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We have assessed the goals and have decided to focus on those SDGs which are most closely aligned to our purpose and where we can have most impact. These are:

 

Tate and Lyle's priority UN Sustainable Development Goals

 

 


Tate & Lyle PLC is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index Series*. The FTSE4Good Index Series recognises companies demonstrating strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices.

FTSE4Good

*FTSE Russell (the trading name of FTSE International Limited and Frank Russell Company) confirms that Tate & Lyle has been independently assessed according to the FTSE4Good criteria, for further information please see the FTSE4Good website here.

Rowan Adams Headshot
We’re proud to be recognised alongside our customers for our commitment to the decarbonisation of our business and supply chain, and for making our ingredients sustainably and responsibly. As a business that relies on natural raw materials like corn, citrus fruit and stevia to make our ingredients, it’s essential that we take care of our planet and its ecosystems for its own health and the future health of our business.
Rowan Adams
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer
Our ESG disclosures

Tate & Lyle provides details on the programmes, initiatives, and performance that support our environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments through a range of voluntary ESG disclosures and assessments. These include CDP, EcoVadis, ISS ESG QualityScore, the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), Global Child Forum, Sustainalytics, the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) Food and Agriculture Benchmark, and our Annual Report.

These independent assessments help measure our progress as our ESG programmes continue to mature and become further embedded across our business. Our performance has been recognised by several leading ESG rating and benchmarking organisations. For example, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a global provider of corporate governance and responsible investment solutions, has awarded Tate & Lyle a Prime ESG rating, placing the Company among the top-performing companies in the food sector. Tate & Lyle has also been recognized by CDP as a Supplier Engagement Leader for its work to engage suppliers on climate-related issues.

ESG - Download Hub