ICL Group’s 2024 ESG report has highlighted the company’s recent milestones in the journey to comprehensive corporate sustainability and its implementation of ground breaking food security solutions and climate action initiatives. The 2024 report shows sustained momentum and progress from previous years and a new level of strategic ESG integration across the entire operational spectrum.
This article features some of the key highlights of the current report, as well as achievements and future directions as ICL’s vision for a sustainable future and circular economy innovation evolves. It also explores the importance of effective and transparent ESG governance in the development of long-term trust, corporate credibility, and commercial potential.
Scaling Impact in a Decisive Decade
The combined impacts of climate change, a growing human population, geopolitical instability, and a host of other challenges are positioning sustainability, environmental protection, and the preservation of rural communities as priority concerns for policymakers across the decision making spectrum.
This decade may prove pivotal in the implementation of effective climate action, food security and sustainability measures. 2024 is emerging as a critical inflection point for ICL’s own ESG strategy and vision for a more sustainable and equitable future. The 2024 report certainly reflects recent progress, but, perhaps more importantly, demonstrates the deep integration of ESG governance into ICL’s business model.
“Sustainability is not a separate agenda—it is our business strategy. It’s how we create long-term value for all our stakeholders, from farmers and industrial partners to local communities and future generations.”
Elad Aharonson, President and CEO at ICL Group
Environmental Action with Measurable Results
One of the advantages of structured ESG governance is that it precisely quantifies outcomes and demonstrates both tangible progress and opportunities for improvements. The 2024 ICL ESG report highlights a number of achievements and milestone events that are delivering a positive environmental impact.
Accelerating Toward Net Zero
- 22.2% reduction in Scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions since 2018
- 2024 milestone: Board-approved SBTi declaration
- The signing of renewable power purchase arrangements (PPAs), enabling major Israel-based sites to begin a long-term green transition.
Closing Loops in Resource Use
- A number of ICL food security solutions now incorporate circular innovations: Puraloop®, eqo.x®, FruitMag™, and the Recytex pilot
- ICL Spain site achieved a 24.2% drop in water intensity
- The company reports hazardous waste reduction, resource efficiency, and product circularity across the board.
Global Recognition and Accountability
- CDP A – Rating
- EcoVadis score of 77
- SEAL Award for sustainable product innovation
A Meaningful Social Impact in a Changing World
ICL is committed to forging links and investing in the communities where it operates, and to building an equitable and inclusive workforce that functions as a collegiate community. ICL employees are encouraged and supported by the company in a range of volunteer efforts that make a meaningful impact where it is most needed.
A. Community Engagement and Local Investment
- In Brazil ICL helped to develop community water infrastructures.
- In the USA the company contributed to local food and energy resilience.
- In Israel, ICL supports 19,100 jobs in the Negev region and assists communities through conflict response initiatives.
B. Inclusion, Belonging, and Workforce Development
- ICL aims to recruit women to 32% of senior leadership positions by 2028.
- The company received a 5.58 rating by the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index.
- ICL has won a number of top workplace honors across multiple regions.
C. Employee Voluntarism and Internal Innovation
- ICL employees were supported by the company as they contributed over 75,000 volunteer hours to community projects.
- The employee-driven ESG innovation platforms ICLinkTech and Lighthouse continued to channel employee innovation.
ESG Governance that Builds Long-Term Trust
ESG governance uses data to build long-term trust on a reputational and investor level for corporations, but the trust that accurate and transparent ESG reporting generates can extend across a company’s value chain, encompassing partners, stakeholders and – perhaps most importantly – employees. ICL has updated its 2024 code of conduct (which is now undergoing a global rollout) and views the code of conduct as a powerful trust-building tool.
A key component of long-term trust is adherence to recognized standards. ICL is continuing its alignment with bodies like the Sustainability Accounting Standards (SASB) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). ICL also operates within the frameworks of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
The company is also continuing its emphasis on supplier standards and transparency, and stringent anti-bribery protocols. The 2024 ESG report clearly shows that ICL operates a robust governance culture built on integrity, ethics, and accountability.
Resilient Food Systems for a Harsher Climate
Climate change is one of the major challenges facing the global agricultural system. Global warming is creating harsher conditions for growers who can no longer rely on 20th-century farming methods and agricultural technologies.
ICL is investing heavily in the development of innovative food security solutions for a changing world, with a particular focus on sustainable solutions. These include advanced controlled release fertilizers (CRFs), biostimulants, and digital agriculture technologies.
The 2024 ESG report demonstrates the level of ICL’s commitment to food security and the scale of its reach and impact.
Scaling Smart Solutions for Food Security
ICL is firmly aligned with the United Nations Sustainability Development Goal of Zero Hunger. The objective of defeating hunger and achieving lasting food security is built into company policy making. The 2024 ESG report provides a useful perspective by quantifying ICL’s impact in terms of meals and food supplies.
- ICL products – advanced fertilizers and phosphates – enable 420 billion meals annually.
- Crop yield improvements equate to 70 million tons of food annually.
- ICL solutions for shelf-life enhancement improve the longevity of 43 million tons of food.
AgTech and Sustainable Innovation
One of the most potent tools for climate action is data, or more precisely, digital tools that can access agronomical big data, perform sophisticated data analytics and transform decision making for agronomists and farmers. Digital AgTech solutions include digital twins, platforms and apps for crop management and algorithms for developing alternative proteins.
Agmatix is making a positive impact on food security by providing AI-powered nutrient optimization from over 2,000+ datasets, while recent acquisition Lavie Bio is launching its Nitro 1000® range in the US. GROWERS is continuing to innovate on a strategic level and its digital tools are transforming input decisions for farmers.
Collaborative Innovation
The challenge of feeding the world’s growing population and creating a genuinely resilient global food supply chain requires multi-disciplinary collaboration and strategic partnerships between diverse stakeholders. ICL Group has created effective structures for forging partnerships, sharing its resources, expertise and global reach, and combining them with the niche skills, specialist knowledge and professional networks of its partners.
ICL and its subsidiaries explored 804 separate innovation opportunities in 2024 and the company is actively pursuing outreach to forge partnerships with startups and academia. Potential for collaboration covers the entire spectrum of ICL operations, but there is a strong emphasis on developing regenerative practices, digital ag, and biologicals.
“In a complex and rapidly changing world, we are scaling innovation responsibly—addressing climate challenges, advancing food security, and strengthening our global impact with transparency and purpose.”
Elad Aharonson, President and CEO at ICL Group
A Broader Vision: ESG as Strategy, Not Symbolism
The 2024 ESG report clearly demonstrates that ESG is embedded in ICL’s corporate DNA and is not just a symbolic gesture—it is a strategic framework that drives long-term value creation and guides decision-making across the organization.
ESG defines ICL’s value chain, investment and decision making criteria, and innovation priorities. ESG provides both a compass point and a foundation for future growth and market penetration, and corporate sustainability. It also reinforces the existing values that define ICL’s workplace culture and human interactions within the company.
On a functional level, ESG aligns with ICl’s global role in the development of food security, circular economy innovation and climate action. ESG mandates a culture of transparency and openness and through its requirement to quantify performance.
The creation of clear roadmaps towards science-based goals, and annual reporting on tangible achievements, creates a high level of stakeholder trust – both in a company’s leadership and culture, and its ability to translate good intentions into concrete results.
Conclusion: Sustainability as a Competitive Advantage
Industry 4.0 technologies are transforming the world at a speed and on a scale that is unprecedented in human history. ESG is one of the key tools for ensuring that the future ecosystem will have an ethical foundation and the main thrust of corporate innovation will be towards positive goals.
ICL has demonstrated solid progress in key areas of its ESG strategy, including a 22.2% reduction in Scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions since 2018, and a significant contribution to global food security through its advanced fertilizers, phosphates and food preservation solutions.
The company has also advanced towards its goals of delivering meaningful social impact wherever it maintains a corporate presence and creating a positive and equitable working environment that allows all employees to advance and reach their natural potential.
ICL has incorporated ESG into its corporate philosophy and is not simply adapting to a changing corporate ecosystem, but is helping to shape the systems of the future. The company is already demonstrating that ESG-derived corporate sustainability innovations can deliver a clear competitive advantage and is setting ever-more ambitious goals for future market penetration on a sustainable basis.
