There’s the field where farmers use our machines. And then there’s the field of agricultural equipment makers like AGCO...And figuratively speaking, we’re doing everything we can to un-level it.
“For the farmers. For the people working for them. For ourselves. For the future.”
Our operations mindset consists of maximizing the performance and potential of our teams and communities while minimizing the impact of the Company's operations. We are committed to continuously improve our processes and programs to ensure a safe, inclusive and exciting environment for our global workforce and future industry leaders. We are continuously looking to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in our manufacturing processes to make for a greener tomorrow while supporting agricultural markets across the globe.
This is simply how we operate.
At AGCO, the health and safety of our employees is paramount, and a safe workplace is fundamental to achieving our business goals. We have a unified vision, common goals and a system of accountability across our operations globally: the AGCO Global Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Vision. We have implemented health and safety performance tracking in our environmental management system and work purposefully to achieve continuous improvement across all measures of health and safety.
An important mechanism for driving improvement is our Focus program to foster best practices in Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) in the workplace. Closely connected to the AGCO Production System (APS), Focus emphasizes continuous improvement and individual responsibility for achieving high-quality results. The program is built upon a foundation of five core principles:
We recognize the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in our global work environments and local communities. We understand that diversity of cultures, backgrounds, experiences and skills promotes creativity and innovation, and that fostering an inclusive environment leverages that creativity to drive greater business success.
AGCO is accelerating its commitment to DE&I and has created a strategy that is centered on four foundational pillars: Talent, Culture, Marketplace and Community.
This refreshed framework will help us to reach our goal of positioning AGCO as the company of choice in the agriculture industry for employees, customers and suppliers.
Our DE&I approach places a strong focus on balancing the number of women at every level of the organization, with a special emphasis on increasing the number of women in leadership positions. One way we put our commitment to practice is through AGWN, the AGCO Global Women’s Network. AGWN is dedicated to fostering belonging and inclusion for women in the workplace and providing development opportunities for aspiring women leaders. To promote hiring and advancement of women leaders, AGCO also works with external organizations that align with our own goals to build a more gender-diverse pipeline of future leaders.
Our newly established Executive Inclusion Council, chaired by our CEO, ensures alignment of DE&I with our organizational objectives. We also continue to focus heavily on employee belonging through a robust listening strategy, Culture Champion Network and other Inclusion Impact Networks (sometimes known as Employee Resource Groups).
Find out more on joining the AGCO team. Read about our commitment to DEI
Working at AGCO is more than a job. It’s a career in an industry that makes a difference in the lives of billions of people around the globe. At AGCO, we believe that when our employees succeed, our business succeeds. We make sure all of our employees—in every function, every geography and at every level—have the tools they need to be successful and take charge of their careers. When our people grow, our business grows—every day, in every way.
AGCO University
AGCO University, our internal learning program, offers leadership programs to help our employees grow their management skills.
Simply Management is for a targeted population of new leaders as they are hired and move into leadership roles. This course is based on the book, Simply Management by Martin Richenhagen, AGCO's Chairman, President and CEO. The main components include: The Essence of Management, Strategic Planning and Goal Setting, Organizational Structure, Governance and Controls, Employee Development and Advancement, Communication and Motivation.
LEAP is a series of three learning journeys targeted at three levels of leadership: New supervisors (Fundamentals of Leadership), project managers (Driving Results through Leadership) and those preparing to lead leaders and functions (Becoming a Strategic Leader). Cultivating our Leaders and Development Centers are highly valuable global leadership development programs for select transition assistance.
AGCO takes a holistic approach to advancing African agriculture: we identify key challenges and barriers to growth in the industry and develop innovative solutions to overcome them. The Company is making major investments in Africa to engineer food security and support sustainable productivity. And as a first mover in innovation, we are meeting the challenge of growing more food with fewer resources head-on.
Teaching Africa for Africa
The Martin Richenhagen Future Farm and Training Center in Zambia is designed to elevate resident expertise within the many nations of Africa—drawing farmers and agribusiness professionals from across the continent to explore our latest innovations and relevant technologies.
In 2017, we launched the AGCO Agribusiness Qualification (AAQ), an accredited a two-year agribusiness program at a Strathmore University in Kenya. The program is focused on developing talent, leadership and strategic expertise to further drive African agricultural prosperity.
Financing Africa within Africa
Africa needs affordable farm machinery financing. In fact, only 95 of 900 banks surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa provide financing to farmers. In response, we have established a Retail Finance Partnership to offer low-rate financing so Zambian farmers can purchase vital farm equipment. The new partnership between AGCO, our national distributor BHBW Zambia Limited and the Zambia National Commercial Bank Plc (Zanaco) will provide retail financial solutions for farmers purchasing Massey Ferguson machinery.
We have identified multiple opportunities for AGCO to play a role in reducing energy use and carbon emissions. Our manufacturing operations offer one of the most meaningful and immediate opportunities to do so. AGCO is committed to producing our products in a less energy-intensive manner. To that end, we have implemented a global environmental management system to track energy, water, waste generation and health/safety performance across our facilities. This platform and its centralized database provide a harmonious system accessible to employees from corporate headquarters to the individual sites.
To further enhance our commitment to applying benchmarked practices in energy management, AGCO has an energy policy that supports reduced energy consumption, an increased emphasis on green building, purchasing and renewable energy sources and measurement as well as tracking of energy performance across all relevant areas and equipment.
Water is an increasingly precious resource for communities globally. AGCO is committed to reducing the use of water in our manufacturing processes and using water management practices. We track water usage, and individual manufacturing sites implement water conservation initiatives targeted to meet local needs. These measures include capturing rainwater to benefit our facilities and incorporating water re-use strategies into industrial processes.
We also enhance manufacturing efficiency by finding ways to minimize waste in our operations. Waste outputs are tracked by weight, type and disposal method. And the Company has implemented purchasing agreements for key commodities to increase scrap recycling and the use of returnable pallets and crates. AGCO's tracking activities are designed to encourage recycling in plants, reduce the inflow of waste materials and reinforce lean manufacturing processes.
Our Valtra plant in Suolahti, Finland, demonstrates AGCO's commitment to run a less energy-intensive operation with a reduced carbon footprint. This plant has become the first tractor factory in the world to begin using Neste MY Renewable Diesel as the start-up fuel for all new tractors. In 2018, 721,000 liters of fossil diesel fuel were replaced with 100-percent renewable fuel. From March, all new Valtra tractors rolling off the production line were filled with Neste MY Renewable Diesel, as did all forklift trucks operating at the factory. Replacing regular diesel with Neste My Renewable Diesel has saved 1,891,782 kg worth of CO2 emissions, which equals the annual output of 629 diesel cars.