From our beginnings, in 1951, we decided to stand as a company that evolves caring for people and the planet. Over time, our sustainable management has gone through different stages, and currently, it is integrated into our business model; that is, it is part of our mission, vision, values and purpose.

"Arcor was born with a very strong company-community integration, and this has been consistent over the years. Nowadays, Arcor has plants in many locations where this bond is really powerful. We always contemplate that in each community, where Arcor is present, there is a good understanding among all the actors, "says Luis A. Pagani, President and CEO of Grupo Arcor.

‘A Better Life’ is the result of a planning process in which we systematize the milestones and challenges reached over the years in terms of sustainability and identify the challenges posed by the global agenda: climate change, demographic changes and the needs of communities and consumers. In this way, after more than two years of work, we developed the new Sustainability Strategy, which aims to produce sustainable food, promoting the prosperity of people and preserving the sustainability of the planet. 

A positive footprint for ‘A Better Life’

‘A better life’ comes to challenge, empower, and broaden our focus on sustainability. This new strategy proposes a deeper stage in the integration of sustainability in the company, establishing a starting point that aims leaving a positive footprint in every step we take. This means empowering everything we do to generate long-term economic, social and environmental value and reshaping past and present so that everyone can have a better life. 

In the words of Barbara Bradford, Corporate Manager of Sustainability at Grupo Arcor: "’A Better Life’ establishes the pillars on which we are working towards 2030 to leave a positive footprint on people and the planet. It is a work agenda aligned with the global challenges that require companies to raise their ambition in terms of sustainability."

We understand that sustainability must be present throughout all our actions, from the soil in which we plant to the food we produce, and how we connect with the communities and the planet we live in. 

That is why, through nine priority commitments organized into three pillars, ‘A Better Life’ will guide our efforts to grow the business with sustainability as a way of being and doing. These commitments are based on Integrity, Human Rights and Innovation as the basis for all the actions we carry out:

Producing Sustainable Food

We make sustainable and responsable manufactured products, without waste, offering our customers quality, affordable and safe options to contribute to their well-being, whilst providing them with moments of pleasure. This pillar comprises three commitments: 

Healthy and Affordable Nutrition: we are committed to offering the best alternatives for those who wish to have a balanced and healthy diet, suitable to their needs, preferences and culture.

Quality at Every Step: We are committed to guaranteeing top quality across our entire product offering, considering consumers’ expectations and ensuring a reliable supply chain, certified production processes, and an efficient marketing network. 

Regenerative Agriculture: we are committed to implementing conservationist models for the production of our raw materials that contribute to regenerate ecosystems, strengthening the best agricultural practices embracing precision technologies.

Promoting People Prosperity

We foster people prosperity, based on inclusion, diversity and equality to establish bonds of trust, ensuring our employees’ well-being at the workplace, and strengthening the progress of the communities we are part of, along with our broad value chain, to contribute to the economic and social growth of our environment. This pillar comprises three commitments:

Inclusion, Diversity and Equity: We commit to fostering a respectful and tolerant workplace, building a culture in which everyone is valued as an individual. Through this commitment, we ensure equal opportunities for everyone, without discrimination.

Workplace Well-being: We are committed to maintaining safe and healthy workplaces that ensure the well-being of each company’s member, encouraging creativity, initiative and development, as well as an appropriate work-life balance.

Community and Value Chain Development: we are committed to fostering the comprehensive development of our communities, creating spaces for collaboration, fostering the entrepreneurial spirit, and favoring local roots. Similarly, we commit to ensuring a responsible value chain, championing for quality work, ongoing improvement, and compliance with applicable environmental, social and health standards.

Promoting a Living Planet

We preserve the planet by taking care of water, taking actions that benefit the climate and biodiversity, and encouraging a circular business model of supplies and waste to help enhance ecosystems. This pillar comprises three commitments:

Water Care: We are committed to an increasingly more efficient water consumption, returning water to the environment in a safe manner, and preserving our water sources across the entire value chain.

Action for Climate and Biodiversity: We are committed to take action in favor of the climate, seeking to achieve a positive carbon balance in our activities. Similarly, we commit to preserving biodiversity, enabling a beneficial interaction among production areas and natural ecosystems. 

Circular Economy of Materials: We are committed to fostering a circular model for the supplies that we use across the entire value chain, rethinking their life cycle.

A Better Life’s Natural Forest

We believe that efforts to mitigate climate change and reverse biodiversity loss are necessary and urgent. Therefore, we are committed to the conservation of natural areas. 

As a milestone in the launch of this strategy, we inaugurated the A Better Life’s Natural Forest at the Finca la Providencia, Province of Tucumán. The farm has an area of 6,500 hectares of which 4,000 are protected areas of forest, mountain and high mountain, which is equivalent in size to approximately 8,000 football stadiums.

The forest is bordered to the north by the La Florida Reserve and to the west by the Aconquija National Park. The area belongs to the Yungas plant region, a mountain rainforest that extends from southern Peru to northern Argentina, passing through Bolivia and Brazil. It is an area of high conservation and valuable biodiversity that houses more than 100 species of mammals and 500 of birds, among which there are native species and others in danger of extinction. 

In the forest, we do forest enrichment tasks with native species such as cedar. This afforestation work contributes to reducing the erosive effects of the wind on the ground, protecting the banks of the river and streams, and creating interconnected ecological corridors that serve as a refuge for native fauna.

Why the forests?

Forests are a refuge and source of food for a large number of living beings. They are the ecosystems that harbor the greatest biodiversity on the planet. During its growth, plants, especially trees, capture and fix carbon dioxide and this contributes to mitigating climate change. They also promote the conservation of streams of water. 

Everything we do depends on nature, which is why we are committed to taking care of and regenerating it. 

At Arcor, we believe that companies as social actors have a responsibility to develop solutions for the benefit of people and the environment. We know that we have many challenges ahead and the opportunity to sow and build a better world.

Therefore, we choose to work with a view that leaves a positive footprint on every step we take, enhancing what we find, with sustainability as a way of being, doing and growing so that all people can have a better life.