Mr. Brian Kocher reports

SUNOPTA RELEASES 2024 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

SunOpta Inc. has released its 2024 sustainability report. This annual update outlines sustainability progress made in the 2024 fiscal year across four key areas: products, planet, people and governance.

"Building a more sustainable future has grounded SunOpta since its beginning, and this commitment yielded significant impact in 2024," said Brian Kocher, chief executive officer of SunOpta. "Every day, our team of employees, compelled by a spirit of continuous improvement, is innovating and collaborating to provide more efficient, productive and sustainable solutions for our customers while supporting the well-being of the communities where we live and work."

SunOpta is continuing its journey toward its sustainability goals while communicating transparently about its progress and challenges. SunOpta strives to find solutions to reduce electricity, gas and water and to implement environmentally preferred solutions to waste management at its manufacturing facilities. The company is also committed to -- and making strides toward -- using innovative packaging solutions and efficient modes of transportation.

Following are highlights from the 2024 report.

Products:

• 50 own branded products and ingredients enrolled in the U.S. non-GMO project;
• Attained zero incidents of non-compliance with industry or regulatory labelling and/or marketing codes;
• Received an external food safety audit score of 95.7 (excellent range);
• Commissioned a product carbon footprint for its West Life soymilk product to determine the product's carbon footprint of 0.54 kilogram carbon dioxide equivalent per 32-ounce package;
• Expanded its plant-based beverage processing facility strategically in Modesto, Calif., supporting a 60-per-cent increase in oatmilk production and potentially eliminating up to 800,000 freight miles annually.

Planet:

• Donated 1.2 million pounds of food (equivalent to nearly 950,000 meals) to Feeding America;
• Saved 136-plus metric tonnes of carbon emission annually from load mode optimization, and 51 metrics tonnes due to the reduced diesel required to reach its new centrally located Alexandria, Minn., warehouse;
• 99 per cent (by weight) of all packaging sourced by SunOpta is recyclable;
• Maintained zero waste to landfill at five facilities**;
• Identified ways to preheat water more efficiently for steam production in plant-based milk operations, cutting natural gas use by nearly 650,000 therms annually in Modesto, Calif.;
• Saved 44.2 billion gallons of water by producing plant-based milk compared with dairy milk*;
• Reduced waste at SunOpta's corporate headquarters by recycling lab materials, plastic film and batteries; diverting 150 pounds of plastic from landfill by replacing disposable with reusable options and donating leftover product to employees;
• Reduced annual electricity consumption by 185,952 kilowatt-hours through the elimination of a 40-horsepower oat processing motor in Alexandria, Minn.;
• Reduced water consumption by 5 per cent through a streamlined washdown and cleanout process on production lines in Omak, Wash.;
• Generated nearly half (47 per cent) of SunOpta's corporate headquarters' annual energy needs (359,170 kilowatt-hours) with renewable solar energy.

People:

• Supported people affected by the California wildfires by donating 26,000 pounds of Dream and West Life dairy alternatives and 56,331 pounds of chicken stock;
• Fostered the value of inclusion and belonging through five in-person events and programming;
• 41 per cent of employees at the director level and above are female;
• 25 per cent of SunOpta's board of directors members are female.

Governance:

• Updated its materiality assessment in 2024 as part of the program development and goal assessment progress.

"In 2024, based on SunOpta's updated materiality assessment, we refreshed our sustainability strategy, and refined our goals to better reflect where we are in our journey and where we can make the most impact," said Stacy Seidel, head of sustainability at SunOpta. "One of our most meaningful achievements this year is the growing maturity of our program -- improving GHG emissions data collection, embedding sustainability into our business and enterprise risk assessments, and sharpening our focus based on stakeholder needs. We also made significant progress in advancing human rights visibility by on-boarding our Tier 1 suppliers into a new platform. As we move forward, we'll continue to evolve to support our customers' growth with high-quality, sustainability-forward solutions."

About SunOpta Inc.

SunOpta delivers customized supply chain solutions and innovation for top brands, retailers and foodservice providers across a broad portfolio of beverages, broths and better-for-you snacks. With over 50 years of expertise, SunOpta fuels customers' growth with high-quality, sustainability-forward solutions distributed through retail, club, food service and e-commerce channels across North America.

* Estimated global average water savings of plant-based milk when compared with the equivalent production of dairy milk based on SunOpta's annual plant-based milk production volume consisting of almond, oat, soy, rice and coconut milks, which represent more than 99 per cent of SunOpta plant-based milk production when using data from Poore and Nemecek (2018) with additional calculations by Poore as published by BBC and Roos et al. (2018). The water savings estimations are not directly associated with water use from SunOpta plant-based milk manufacturing but instead refer to global averages of water consumption from plant-based milk production in the Poore and Nemecek research.

** SunOpta has adopted a zero-waste definition as 90-per-cent diversion of waste from landfill.