Sustainability

Cibus Capital and the Cibus funds follow a robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) management process that helps to mitigate ESG risks and assists sustainable value creation throughout the investment process.

We want to build profitable companies that recognise and optimise their natural capital use, producing more & better food with fewer inputs.

Sustainable Investing in Food and Farming

Cibus Capital and the Cibus funds believe we can address the challenge of how to produce more food with fewer resources and at the same time, capitalise on the investment opportunities in agriculture’s changing landscape. Cibus’ Theory of Change aims to address this challenge through our goal to reduce the impact of the agricultural industry on the planet and people and support a sustainable, equitable and secure future food system.

Population increases, urbanisation, disposable income growth and changing consumer preferences are driving a structural change in food demand. Cibus believes that sustainability and commercial prosperity in the agriculture sector are inextricably linked.

At the same time, changes to the increasingly erratic and warming climate are being recorded at an increasing rate and biodiversity loss is impacting pollination, vital for approximately 70 of the top 100 food crops we eat today.

Quite simply, Cibus believes sustainable farming and production practices and companies that run on sustainable lines will be more valuable. Cibus believes that broadly, capital will be allocated to companies that find innovative ways to produce better food with fewer negative externalities and more efficient resource use. We want to be ahead of that curve. Please read our White Paper on what motivates us to get there, here.

Our Sustainability Process

The Cibus Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) documents the Firm’s sustainability process, each component is listed below and a full description of our ESMS is provided in the policy document at the bottom of the page. The ESMS outlines our ESG risk management and reporting and our impact integration, measurement and reporting.

Cibus has viewed ESG and impact integration as our strategy and fiduciary duty since the creation of the first Cibus fund. The Firm recognises the importance of its role in actively engaging and supporting its portfolio companies to improve their social and environmental outcomes.

Finally, Cibus’ governing policies, including ‘Climate Change’, ‘Modern Slavery’, ‘ESG and Sustainability’, ‘Remuneration’ and ‘Stewardship and Engagement’, underpin our whole sustainability process. Links to these are listed at the bottom of the page.

Cibus’ committees oversee the management and advisory services associated with ESG matters. Our committees:

  • Investment Advisory Committee (‘IAC’) and Portfolio Committee – Oversees the review of ESG factors at the pre-investment and post-investment stages, ensuring these are included within investment decisions.
  • ESG Committee – review changes to the ESMS and supports Cibus’ on-going commitment to environmental, health and safety, corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, sustainability, positive solutions/ impact, reputation and other public policy matters relevant to the Company.
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (‘DEI’) Committee – reinforces and enables the continual improvement of our DEI policy as a fundamental aspect of Cibus’ strategy.

Cibus believe a well-educated and incentivised team will enable the tangible integration of our ESMS, to create genuine management of ESG risk and impact creation, ESG and impact should not only be under the management of the ESG team but rather fundamental to the operation of all teams within the firm.

Global regulatory bodies have introduced sustainable finance regulations in recent years, we believe these are valuable initiatives to create accountability and transparency across the private and public investment universe. These regulations are nascent but evolving rapidly, therefore management, review and integration of the requirements because of these regulations is imperative.

The exclusion list, based on the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Guernsey Green Fund rules and our own internal criteria, is the initial step of our ESG due diligence process. We do not consider production practices that are damaging to our environment and society. We positively select for organisations that act to avoid harm, benefit society, and/ or create solutions to some of our planet’s greatest challenges.

Our ESG and Impact Toolkit is a set of proprietary frameworks supported by international standards (IFC, CDC, SDG Compass, UN Global Compact, Impact Management Project (‘IMP’)). Cibus’ ESG and Impact Toolkit is designed to support Investment Team due diligence by providing broad and sector specific guidance on ESG risks and opportunities, whilst aiding consistency of impact assessment.

For each investment we conduct due diligence on ESG risks and opportunities and potential for impact creation across the operations, services, products and supply chain of the company. We use comprehensive scope checklists supported by global standards and frameworks. We engage external experts based on minimum ownership and capital investment criteria.

Environmental and Social Action Plan (‘ESAP’)

Cibus works proactively with portfolio company management to add environmental and social value and improve governance practices via their ESAP, tracking progress on a quarterly basis. Cibus sets out the ESAP given the results of the ESG DD, the risk areas and the suggested mitigation actions. The ESAP for a portfolio company identifies any key ESG risk factors, guides sustainability risk mitigation and drives impact creation. Cibus works proactively with portfolio company management to add environmental and social value and improve governance practices via their ESAP, tracking progress on a quarterly basis.

Key Performance Indicators

Cibus collects a set of uniform ESG (c.50) and unique impact (1-10) KPIs across our portfolio companies. ESG KPI reporting is conducted on an annual or semi-annual basis, based on investment ownership criteria. All ESG and impact KPIs are tracked and analysed using our ESG reporting dashboard and are reported graphically.

ESG KPIs:

Governance

  • Board Member Breakdown
  • Board Gender Diversity
  • Child Labour Policies
  • ESG Policies

Social

  • Employee Gender Breakdown
  • Turnover
  • Salary Gap
  • Remuneration Gap
  • Accidents
  • Working Hours
  • Child Labour
  • ESG Policies
  • Training

Environment

  • GHG emissions (Each portfolio company will be asked to complete a full GHG emissions accounting review with an external consultant)
  • GHG emissions reduction targets
  • Land-Use
  • Water-Use
  • Waste
  • Electricity Use
  • Fuel Use

Reporting

As mentioned above, Cibus produces an annual sustainability report, disclosing the performance and progress of our portfolio companies. Cibus and the Cibus funds aim to incorporate and disclose via the recommendations developed by the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Cibus is also a signatory of the UN Principles of Responsible Investment (‘UN PRI’) and produce an annual transparency report. Regulatory reporting will be incorporated into our annual sustainability report or provided as part of internal reporting to LPs.

Engagement

Cibus ensures that all LPs and potential LPs have adequate information regarding our ESG approach alignments throughout their investment. Our Stewardship and Engagement Policy (see below) highlights our commitments to the LPs across Cibus’ underlying funds in terms of our own governance and transparency.

Exit planning begins before Cibus even makes an investment, whereby we seek out companies with ESG risk management and impact creation potential in their business model and/or management teams with a proactive commitment and capacity in the pursuit of positive impact. Cibus believes that our ESMS lends itself to enduring ESG risk management and impact value for our portfolio companies beyond our ownership.

Engagement