Category: Australia

Ingham’s is committed to protecting and enhancing the welfare of all birds in our care.

Our Animal Health and Welfare Report for the 2021 Financial Year transparently details this commitment. This includes:

• building on our heritage of animal welfare expertise to formalise our animal welfare strategy
• protecting animal welfare through accountable leadership and innovation, and
• holding external accreditation with animal welfare organisations.

We are proud that at every stage of their life, our birds are fed carefully formulated diets developed by Ingham’s nutritionists and with most feed being produced in Ingham’s operated feedmills.

Mythbusting a common misconception, the Report also highlights that hormones are not approved for use in Australia and New Zealand in the poultry industry and that Ingham’s does not use artificial or hormonal growth promoting substances in the production of any of its poultry.

Ingham’s best practice commitment to animal welfare and transparent reporting helps us to achieve our purpose to provide deliciously good food in the best way. Read the full report here.

As part of our commitment to creating a bright future for everyone where they can thrive, Ingham’s regularly looks for ways we can improve gender equality.  

The company is steadily advancing this commitment after reporting a 6% increase of women in the organisation to 38.9% in FY21, or approximately 360 employees, in its recent certification to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. 

Ingham’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Reeves, said: “We are committed to creating a level playing field for both men and women at Ingham’s. I consider an increase of 360 women in our overall headcount as a positive step towards bridging the gender gap.” 

Ingham’s attributes the increase of women in the organisation to: 

• Our new hire rate of women is trending higher than the national average which demonstrates a non-gender bias in our recruitment and selection process. This is a reflection of Ingham’s continuing to work to increase the representation of women on our recruitment shortlists, which we know leads to an increased rate of women being appointed to roles. 
• Our resignations from women was lower than the national average – a positive given the amount of disruption our industry experienced due to COVID-19.  

“Ingham’s’ next focus is to embed greater flexibility into the business. We already offer many benefits to our people to promote flexible working, but we want to make this a greater reality in our operations. Initiatives such as our Parent and Student Hours shift trials will help us achieve this,” Andrew said.  

At Ingham’s, we care about providing the same growth opportunities for men and women in the organisation. To find out more about working with us, visit the Ingham’s career page. 

2020-2021 – Workplace Gender Equality Agency Public Report – including Compliance Program, Questionnaire and Workforce Management Statistics

2019-2020 – Workplace Gender Equality Agency Public Report

Ingham’s relies on best-practice agriculture, farming and animal welfare to remain sustainable. Therefore, we have committed to the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to manage our environmental practices to help protect the planet.

The Science-Based Target initiative is a partnership between CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The initiative’s urgent call-to-action is to help companies prevent the worsening effects of climate change by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

Ingham’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Reeves said: “Sustainability is core to Ingham’s strategy and is the right thing to do by our people, our animals and our planet. Our integrated network and supply chain extends from the farm to the table. To have a sustainable business, we therefore must protect our environment and our agriculture.

“Science-based targets provide us with the pathway to make meaningful change in our business. Our targets include reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent, reducing water usage by 20 per cent and reducing waste to landfill by 20 per cent by 2030 against a 2019 baseline.

“We will do this collaboratively with every site having a bespoke Environmental Management Plan to each improve their environmental performance, and with the support of our services teams for opportunities that can be leveraged company-wide,” Andrew said.

By joining this initiative, Ingham’s also joins the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Race to Zero and the most ambitious aim of the Paris Agreement – to reach net zero global emissions by 2050 at the latest to limit global warming to -1.5°C.

Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Managing Director of the Science Based Targets initiative, said: “There is no time to lose. The transformation to a net-zero economy is unavoidable. Hundreds of businesses are leading the way by setting ambitious 1.5°C science-based targets. To stand a fighting chance of maintaining a habitable planet, we urgently need more companies to act on climate science and to decarbonize our economy.”

Some of the initiatives Ingham’s has started to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions includes installing LED lights across our facilities, monitoring site’s energy efficiency, and at Te Aroha in New Zealand, Ingham’s is using bore water heat recovery in its processing facility to reduce the natural gas usage.

Ingham’s is committed to taking care of our planet and proud to be part of this important global initiative.

The Ingham’s team at Tahmoor’s Turkey Primary Processing facility in New South Wales reduced the site’s water usage by 26 per cent in just five months, saving 24,000 kilolitres of potable water, or the equivalent of nine Olympic-sized swimming pools!

The site processes approximately 27,000 turkeys per week, with water being an essential part of the process to produce quality products, including portioned, minced, marinated and whole turkey birds.

When Plant Manager, Carolynn Wade started with the team in 2021, she commenced bringing the leadership team together comprising engineering, production, safety and quality to discuss ideas to improve the site. Top of the list was how they could do the right thing for our environment by saving water.

The team identified a range of initiatives to reduce water usage across the site. This included preventative and reactive maintenance to resolve water leakages, working with the cleaning contractors to update their cleaning practices to use less water, and reducing the water volume in the spin chiller tanks by 14,000 litres per processing day.

The reduction in water usage has also led to less wastewater on site, freeing up the wastewater storage dams and adding the further benefit of less discharge to the local council’s wastewater treatment system by more than 200 kilolitres per day. The team is both saving water and reducing our environmental footprint in the local community.

Well done to Adam McNamara, Carolynn Wade and the Tahmoor leadership team for showing what great progress can be made by working together towards a more sustainable planet.

As part of Ingham’s commitment to creating an inclusive and diverse workforce, we have hatched an innovative idea to support our part-time employees.

After trialing a part–time parent and student shift in New Zealand Primary processing and having a lot of success for over a year now, we decided it was about time Australiagot on the bandwagon. From February onwards, we will trial ourParent and Student Hours initiative.  

Managers across our primary processing and distribution centreshave endorsed a trial forthis initiative across Queensland, South Australia, and in Tasmania for students. The aim isto support flexible working arrangements for parents and students and give them comfort in knowing that when they join Ingham’s, the hours aimto suit their lifestyle needs.  

These new part-time shiftsare available for the following times: 

• Parent hours are from 9am-2.30pm, Monday-Friday 
• Student hours are from 4pm-9pm, Monday-Friday.  

Our Parent and Student Hours initiative demonstrates that Ingham’scaresfor each other and the broader community.  

If you or someone you know is a parent or student looking for part-time work in our trial states, refer them totheIngham’sCareers page.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Ingham’s has focused on keeping its people safe. 

In an industry first, Ingham’s is now extending its health and wellbeing benefits to include a new Vaccination Leave Policy to cover its people across Australia and New Zealand to increase accessibility to COVID-19 vaccinations.

Ingham’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Andrew Reeves, said: “Ingham’s has worked hard to take care of its people through the COVID-19 pandemic, and I am proud that we’re having ongoing conversations to ensure this continues to be our number one priority. In this latest initiative, we decided it was important to support our people and their work-life-balance, which means they can take paid time during their work day and at a time that makes it more convenient and accessible to them than what it might be on a weekend or out of work hours.” 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, Ingham’s has prioritised its support for people’s safety. This has included:  

• establishing an Incident Management Team to coordinate our company-wide actions and consultation with governments, health agencies, customers and unions to ensure we met safety standards 
• providing additional paid pandemic leave benefits to enable our people – including casuals – to stay home, get tested and stay safe without financial burden 
• reconfiguring labour-intense operations to enable physical distancing by installing guarding and implementing enhanced personal protective equipment and high standards of hygiene practices 
• providing direction on carpooling to ensure safe travel to and from work 
• building temporary on-site facilities, such as lunchrooms, to accommodate physical distancing during breaks 
• separating shifts to reduce the number of people at any one time on sites, and  
• increasing communication and consultation with employees, including frequent updates on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 via our internal communications app, Workplace. 

Ingham’s high safety standards has enabled it to remain an essential service and keep operating throughout the COVID-19 pandemic with job security for its people and nourishing consumers with fresh, convenient and affordable food that is always good. 

The United Nations is launching a Decade on Ecosystem Restoration on World Environment Day this Saturday, 5 June with the aim to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation on every continent and in every ocean.

Healthy ecosystems are essential to sustaining us with water, food, building materials and a host of other resources that nourishes people and our way of life. Learn about the eight main types of ecosystems and how you can help to restore them here.

Our Murarrie Primary Processing team in Queensland has been doing its own ecosystem restoration over the past 18 months, which involved rejuvenating five disused water treatment ponds on its site.

Figure 1: Aerial photo of the site before restoration – August 2019

What was the ‘before’ status like?

These ponds were disused and disconnected from the site’s previous life more than 20 years ago as a piggery operation. During a severe drought experienced in the last decade, the ponds were exposed to extreme conditions with stagnant and mosquito-infected water and covered in invasive weeds. Due to the rare large rainfall events that followed the drought, these ponds silted up with dead plant materials and loose dirt eroded from the surrounding slopes. Survey cameras placed around the ponds six months prior to the restoration projects also captured a high level of rodent activity and only a small number of natural wildlife in the grassy dry pond areas.

What did the restoration project involve and what outcomes have been observed so far?

Figure 2: Aerial photo of the site after restoration – March 2021

In January 2020, the Murarrie pond area biodiversity restoration project commenced with the goal of redirecting the flush water from the site’s own Advanced Water Treatment Plant (AWTP) to the ponds. The engineered overflow and fill pipe system allowed water wildlife to move through the pipe system and between the ponds. With the support of the Brisbane City Council, the final overflow water is allowed to flow through the current stormwater release point off-site to the fresh water swamplands on the adjacent property owned by the Council. The fresh water swamplands had also suffered from 10-year drought conditions and now benefits from the constant water overflow coming from Ingham’s rejuvenated ponds.

During the pond base and the wall restoration, special care was taken to relocate any existing wildlife to an adjacent pond, such as turtles, eels and hatchling water birds. The ponds’ overall capacity was increased by 50 per cent to 50 million litres of water (equivalent to 20 Olympic size swimming pools!) and the pond depths also increased, which reduces the potential of algal bloom formation during the warmer months of the year.

One of the rejuvenated ponds at Ingham’s Primary Processing in Murarrie, Queensland.

The site is now a commercial partner in the local Land for Wildlife program. Through working together with the Council Rangers, members from the Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C) and Global Environment Modelling and Monitoring Systems (GEMMS) Australia Pty Ltd, we developed a rejuvenation program of the ponds and the surrounding areas to improve the wildlife habitats. Some of our improvements to the ecosystem include installing wood piles for small lizards and birds, floating wetlands for birds, small islands for bird roosting and tree planting to join two tree lines to support treetop mammals such as the gliders.

Land for Wildlife has reported a ‘remarkable transformation’ of the area in their recent bird survey, with lush vegetation and creation of wetland conditions that provide an ideal habitat and breeding grounds for a number of bird species. In particular, the density of Tawny Grassbirds was the most the surveyors had ever seen in one area. The 90-minute bird survey identified a total of 45 different species with 312 individuals. Click here to view the sighting information from the survey.

We are proud to be doing our part in ecosystem restoration and helping to keep our planet healthy.

#WorldEnvironmentDay #GenerationRestoration #Planet

The Water Corporation’s Waterwise Business Program has awarded the Platinum Waterwise Business of the Year award to Ingham’s Wanneroo Feedmill in Western Australia for innovative water management and industry-leading best practice on site.  

The Waterwise Business Program supports many of the state’s biggest non-residential water users with improving water management and driving water efficiency across their operations. 

Out of the total 262 businesses that participate in the Waterwise Business Program, Ingham’s Wanneroo site was amongst eight Gold winners. The site received the Platinum Award, the highest level water management recognition for businesses in WA.  

The Wanneroo site’s Maintenance Team, led by Feedmill Manager, Jaffer Alimohamed, utilise Ingham’s sustainability action plan framework in the site’s Environmental Management Plan (EMP) to set specific actions towards the site’s Planet KPI targets and track them throughout the year. The team identified an opportunity to reduce water use in the boiler by adjusting water softening algorithms to target and treat hard water only, resulting in reduced water and improved gas use efficiency. Other projects included installing efficient fixtures, ongoing monitoring, staff training and using fit-for-purpose recycled water in our hatchery and feedmill operations.

Water Minister, Dave Kelly, recognised the recipients for saving more than 9.5 billion litres of water in 2019-20: “Aside from the environmental benefits, the sustainable use of water in the workplace also makes good business sense. It reduces operating costs and promotes businesses as a sustainable place to work.

“With the impacts of climate change becoming more apparent, it is encouraging to see such commitment and passion by these businesses recognised today to save our most precious resource.”

We are proud of this remarkable achievement by the Wanneroo team and thank Jaffer Alimohamed, Rodney Johnson and all the team members involved for leading in innovative and sustainable water management.