The sustainability of a product can be defined from the design stage. The choice of raw materials is a fundamental step towards making sure that the final product complies with criteria regarding consumer safety and the protection of the environment from which the resources were sourced.

With this in mind, in 2019 we started to develop the Bolton Group’s Raw Materials Policy. Given our Group’s diverse business areas, the rules for the management of raw materials include some guidelines to which our Business Units (Food, Adhesives, Home & Personal Care, and Beauty Care) can refer for future development of their raw material-specific policies.

The general goal is to define, on the one hand, which ingredients we no longer want to use, because they are considered critical from an environmental and/or safety point of view, and, on the other, to establish procurement criteria to elevate the degree of sustainability of our raw materials.

In 2020, it is already guiding the work of our companies: we worked on the development of certain Business Unit-specific policies, such as the policies on red meat, tuna, mackerel, salmon, and sardines. The policies include the criteria that we ask our suppliers to comply with in farming activities, such as animal welfare and the reduction of environmental impacts.