Rite Foods Limited has disclosed fresh details of its environmental and social performance for 2025, reporting measurable cuts in carbon emissions, water use and industrial waste, alongside a sharp rise in spending on community and workforce development.

The disclosures were made at the presentation of the company’s 2025 Sustainability Report, held at Opebi, Lagos, where Ekuma Eze, head corporate affairs and sustainability at Rite Foods, walked stakeholders through the company’s performance across the year.

Eze noted that Rite Foods has been publishing its sustainability report since 2024, with performance tracked consistently across the environmental, social and governance (ESG) pillars. He said the exercise reflects a deliberate commitment to run the business responsibly, both toward the environment and the communities in which it operates.

“We have to have a minimal impact on the environment, on the communities, on the people, and also conducting our business in an ethical manner to ensure that all stakeholders have one thing or the other to do well,” he said.

On the climate front, Eze disclosed that the company’s total carbon emissions stood at 567.5 tonnes of carbon equivalent in 2024, before falling by five per cent in 2025. He said the improvement in carbon intensity was even more pronounced.

“Again here, we reduce our carbon intensity year on year by 23 per cent,” he said, adding: “And our commitment is that by 2060, we should have come to net zero carbon as a company.”

He explained that Rite Foods is working toward that target through consistent emissions reduction and efficiency gains across its manufacturing operations.

That climate commitment was echoed at board level in the company’s Sustainability Report, where Dr. Sulaiman Adebola Adegunwa, chairman board of directors, pointed to similar gains recorded during the year:

“In 2025, we recorded an estimated 7% reduction in emissions intensity compared to the previous reporting year, driven by improved energy efficiency and operational optimisation. Furthermore, over 93% of our energy mix was sourced from gas, which is a cleaner fuel than diesel, while we remain focused on increasing investment in renewable energy solutions, including expanded solar capacity.”

Eze said Rite Foods reduced its water use by 15 per cent between 2024 and 2025, describing water as a finite resource that has to be managed with discipline.

“So because of that, we have set benchmarks for us to ensure that year on year, we are cutting down on our water use for our operations,” he said. “So between 2024 and 2025, we reduced our water use by 15 per cent. So every day, we track our water use ratio in our operations to ensure that we are using water responsibly.”

The company also posted a seven per cent improvement in its energy use ratio, moving from 0.44 megajoules per litre of beverage produced in 2024 to 0.41 megajoules in 2025 a gain Eze attributed to technology upgrades, behavioural change and tighter operational efficiency. He said the company now runs an integrated energy system combining solar power and natural gas, while cutting back on Automotive Gas Oil (AGO).

“The less we use of AGO, and the more of solar and natural gas we use, the better we optimize our energy efficiency,” he said.

On waste management, Eze disclosed that Rite Foods’ solid waste ratio dropped by 27 per cent, from 10.6 grams per litre of beverage produced in 2024 to 7.71 grams in 2025, as the company pushes to convert waste into useful materials rather than simply disposing of it.

Through its “Rite on the Beach” initiative, he said, more than 42 tonnes of plastic waste were recovered from coastal communities in Lagos in 2025, with another 558.2 tonnes collected on the company’s behalf through the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance. Discarded plastic labels recovered through these efforts were repurposed into school bags distributed to more than 2,000 pupils.

Describing how the coastal clean-up figure was achieved, Eze said: “Every month. Every plastic we recover is weighed. Then in July last year, we ran a campaign called Plastic July. In partnership with the Renewables Network, in fact, we’re going from shop to shop, distributing free collection packs to shoppers so that they can take it home, use it to package their plastics and send back to us. So, these were the initiatives we did to recover 42 tons of plastics from that project.”

Beyond the environment, Eze said the company’s social investment rose sharply in 2025, with Rite Foods spending N581.92 million across its community programmes a 50 per cent increase on the previous year. Training hours for staff climbed by 76 per cent, the workforce grew by 6.1 per cent, and employment from host communities rose by 4.1 per cent.

He disclosed that Rite Foods now has about 3,000 direct employees and supports more than 12,000 indirect jobs across its value chain. “So, when you see a business, it’s not just your direct employees you are creating jobs for. You are creating jobs for thousands upon thousands of Nigerians,” he said.

On corporate governance, Eze said integrity remains central to how Rite Foods operates, with the board providing oversight and continuing to strengthen internal controls and enterprise risk management. “We ensure that we comply with all external regulations and law, guiding the operations within our space. If you don’t do that, you get on the wrong side of the law,” he said.

Notably, he disclosed that the sustainability report was subjected to third-party assurance even though the company is not under any regulatory obligation to do so, with Ernst & Young engaged to conduct limited assurance focused on the social pillar.

“We had to do it, not because we are under any regulatory compulsion to do it. We just want to prove to our stakeholders that integrity and accountability matter,” Eze said, adding that sustainability oversight sits at board level with the Board Audit and Risk Committee, which monitors the company’s sustainability performance and associated risks.

That commitment to oversight is reflected where the Chairman of the Board Audit and Risk Committee, Mr. Kunle Elebute, said: “As sustainability reporting expectations continue to expand, the Board Audit and Risk Committee remains committed to strengthening oversight, enhancing assurance, and supporting the Board in fulfilling its governance responsibilities.”

Speaking in the same vein, the Head of Legal Services at Rite Foods Limited, Oluyemi Lawal-Daki, tied the company’s sustainability drive to its broader ambitions for the country. “It’s the way we want to grow. It’s the way we want to contribute to this country,” she said. “We want our constituents, which is the people, the citizens of Nigeria, to be able to hold us accountable for the impact that our operations have on the economy.”