Our Responsibility

We are keenly aware that investing in some of the world’s poorest, most volatile economies brings with it huge social and environmental responsibility. We take this responsibility very seriously and operate to international governance, anti-corruption and sustainability standards.

Agris is governed to the same high standards as public companies on major stock markets globally. Engagement with our shareholders is robust, with quarterly reporting, a full company annual report and an annual shareholders meeting.

Agris adheres to a number of international anti-corruption policies including the UK Bribery Act 2014. 

In close association with our shareholders, Agris has developed a strong social component to all our activities. We engage with our communities across the different countries in which we work and seek to support them through direct employment, local infrastructure development, educational support and a range of other activities.  We monitor and measure our social impact across our portfolio and are continuously working with communities to develop both our means of engagement and reporting methods.

We operate within the International Finance Corporations Performance Standards and EHS guidelines. Agris is also committed to a Development Impact Reporting framework that ensures we communicate key development information to our shareholders on a quarterly basis. This includes measures such as job creation, the type of job created, gender of our employees, local direct expenditure and local taxes paid.

We uphold the highest standards in environmental sustainability across our portfolio. We constantly seek not only to minimize our impact on the environment, but to improve how we protect it .

The group has planted over 3 million trees in South Sudan within our sustainable forestry operation, Equatoria Teak Company, which we believe captures over 20,000 tonnes of CO2E per annum. This makes the entire Maris group net carbon positive, something we are proud to have achieved and will seek to improve.

Agris closely adheres to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and reports on our delivery and progress in achieving these goals to our key stakeholders.

The group subscribes to International Labour Organisation (ILO) core labour standards and ILO basic terms and conditions. We have also committed to respect  the International Bill of Human Rights in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.