Sustainability Report

Sustainability Report

Sustaining Tomorrow, Today

This report highlights Catania Oils’ journey to integrate sustainability into every part of our operations—from sourcing and packaging to energy, waste reduction, and community impact.

A Message from the President

Dear Stakeholders,

Since our founding in 1900, Catania Oils has grown from a one-man operation selling plant-based oils house to house into a company recognized for both innovation and performance, underpinned by a deep-rooted commitment to responsible business practices.

Our commitment to sustainability is not just a responsibility, it’s a guiding principle that shapes how we innovate, operate, and grow. Over the past two years, we’ve made meaningful progress by hiring dedicated environmental and sustainability professionals to help us develop specific, impactful goals.

Looking ahead, we see sustainability as a journey that requires innovation, collaboration, and resilience. We are investing in technology to ensure regulatory compliance, enhancing monitoring systems to track our environmental impact, and increasing internal awareness at every level.

Thank you for your continued support and for joining us on this journey. Together, we can build a future that is not only successful but also sustainable.

Joseph Basile
President

About Us

For four generations and over 125 years, Catania Oils has maintained an unwavering commitment to excellence. We source premium oils from more than 30 countries, serving foodservice, retail, and bulk ingredient markets.

What Sets Us Apart

Focus on Quality Assurance

State-of-the-art facilities for in-house laboratory testing guarantee the purity and integrity of every product.

Authenticity and Transparency

Our dedicated team provides exceptional service and complete transparency, ensuring trust in every interaction.

Genuine Partnership Approach

We treat your business as an extension of our own, fostering long-term relationships built on mutual success and shared commitment. Our expertise in navigating complex commodity markets, combined with tailored solutions and market insights, helps you make informed purchasing decisions with confidence.

People & Culture

We have over 270 employees at our campus in Ayer, Massachusetts. We source oils from over 30 countries around the world, and every batch is subject to rigorous quality testing at our in-house laboratory.

Our culture emphasizes inclusivity and empowerment. Monthly town hall–style meetings encourage open discussion and continuous improvement, and annual events like our employee barbecue and Thanksgiving turkey fry build community and connection.

Charitable Giving

The Basile Family Memorial Golf Tournament has raised nearly $1.8M since 1989 for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Founded in 2024, Catania CARES is an employee-run committee that directs the company’s nonprofit giving to organizations and events aligned with our core ethics of Community, Action, Responsibility, Empowerment, and Service. Catania CARES has:

• Donated over nine tons of food to local and regional food banks.
• Made significant monetary and in-kind contributions to nonprofits supporting athletics, education, music, and the arts.
• Coordinated volunteer hours and resources for regional nonprofits such as Boys & Girls Clubs, Community Harvest Project, and the United Way.

Core Values

Our purpose: We exist to create an everlasting impact with our employees, customers, and community.

• We Are Family: A respectful, supportive, and positive work environment that encourages healthy conflict to achieve our goals.
• Customer Focused: We treat your business like it’s our business and build partnerships through industry knowledge and market expertise.
• Authenticity at Our Core: We are devoted to our products’ integrity and committed to exceeding customer expectations.
• Job Well Done: We continually improve our processes and products and invest in our team members.
• Own It: We celebrate our successes and take accountability for our actions, fostering continuous improvement.

Our Products

Olive Oils

Olive oil is where Catania Oils began, and it remains at the heart of our portfolio. From Extra Virgin to Light-Tasting and Pomace, we provide oils tailored to every application, from premium dressings to high-heat cooking.

Olive Oil Blends

Our blends combine the character of olive oil with enhanced stability and performance, balancing flavor and smoke point for foodservice, retail, and private label brands.

Vegetable Oils

We offer a full line of vegetable oils including soybean, canola, corn, sunflower, and more, with Non-GMO and organic options available.

Specialty Oils

From avocado to grapeseed, sesame to MCT, our specialty oils support food, wellness, and personal care applications for brands seeking premium differentiation.

Tropical Oils

Coconut and RSPO-certified palm oils provide stability, clean-label compatibility, and excellent shelf life for food and personal care products.

Fry Oils

Formulated for consistency, our fry oils extend fry life and deliver crisp, golden results in high-demand kitchens.

Popcorn Oils

Our U-POP® and U-TOP® oils are always liquid, shelf-stable, dairy-free, and designed for rich flavor, golden color, and high-heat stability.

Butter Alternatives

Liquid butter alternatives made with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt deliver rich flavor without dairy or common allergens—vegan-friendly and Kosher.

Catania Oils Service Divisions

Catania Oils delivers quality oil solutions across diverse markets:

• Bulk Buyers: Consistent, traceable supply chains that meet manufacturing specifications for food and industrial producers.
• Foodservice: Oils for independent restaurants, national chains, distributors, and GPOs.
• Retail: Support for regional and national grocers, club stores, and brokers with reliable inventory and quality.
• Private Label: Comprehensive private label manufacturing solutions with strong production and quality systems.
• Soapers & Small Businesses: Flexible, scalable options for artisan crafters, specialty producers, and emerging brands.

Building a Responsible Supply Chain

Our supply chain strategy is designed to reduce emissions while maintaining reliability and traceability. Approximately 95% of our oil arrives by rail tank car, which carries more than four times the volume of a typical tank wagon. This reduces trips, fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Responsible Sourcing

We work with leading suppliers of soy and canola who are committed to eliminating deforestation and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. For palm oil, we have maintained Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification since 2017.

Sourcing from more than 30 countries requires discipline and vigilance. Our in-house laboratory validates product integrity at every step, and our procurement practices prioritize suppliers with credible sustainability performance and robust traceability.

Packaging Stewardship: Using Less, Using Smarter, Using Again

We are committed to minimizing our packaging footprint through smarter design to reduce materials, increase recycled content, cut transport emissions, and increase circularity.

Approximately 70% of our bottles are blow molded in-house from PET preforms:

• PET uses about half the plastic of HDPE for comparable applications.
• One truckload of PET preforms yields as many bottles as 24 truckloads of pre-formed HDPE bottles, reducing transportation-related greenhouse gases by an estimated 96%.
• Unused preforms and bottles are recycled, supporting rPET use.

Definitions: PET = polyethylene terephthalate; rPET = PET with post-consumer recycled content; HDPE = high density polyethylene.

We have simplified packaging designs, reduced bleached cardboard, and ensured that all corrugate we use is 100% recyclable. Many branded 5-gallon products have shifted from white to natural cardboard to increase recycled content and avoid bleaching.

For bulk formats, we offer:

• Reusable (two-way) totes: Returned, cleaned, and refilled multiple times.
• Recyclable (one-way) totes: Approximately 90% recyclable corrugate from Sustainable Forestry Initiative–certified suppliers.

We are registered with the Circular Action Alliance to comply with Extended Producer Responsibility requirements and continuously work to reduce material intensity while increasing recycled content and recovery.

Eliminating Waste from Oil Receipt to Customer Delivery

Vegetable oils are a renewable resource, and we design processes to minimize losses. During product changeovers, we “pig” pipelines to mechanically recover oil, prevent cross-contamination, and capture salable product instead of discarding it.

All inedible oil is sent to local processors to be converted into biodiesel, reducing waste. We also optimize delivery formats: many bulk customers receive oil by tank wagon, where a single delivery replaces about twenty-one 275-gallon totes—cutting packaging, handling, and environmental impacts.

Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) & Continuous Improvement

Through COPQ initiatives, we analyze process waste, identify root causes, and implement corrective actions from equipment tuning to operator training. These efforts reduce inedible oil generation, improve yields, and enhance product quality.

Definitions: Pigging pipelines = mechanically removing oil from a pipeline to ensure purity and reduce waste. Inedible oil includes oil from cleaning, wastewater skimming, spill clean-up, expired product, and customer returns.

Energy Management

More than 30% of our energy consumption comes from renewable sources, reducing reliance on fossil-based electricity. We participate in a Targeted Dispatch program to curtail electricity usage during peak demand, reducing strain on the grid and avoiding high-emission generation.

Inside the facility, we recover waste heat from blow molders to heat buildings during cooler months, improving thermal efficiency and lowering fuel use. By blow molding bottles on-site and prioritizing rail for inbound oils, we reduce transportation requirements and associated emissions.

Diverting non-hazardous waste to local waste-to-energy facilities helps avoid landfill methane and achieves an estimated annual greenhouse gas reduction of more than 200 tons.

Leadership in Sustainability

Jeff Partridge
Environment, Safety, and Sustainability Manager

Proactive Training for Environmental Protection

• CDL drivers are trained to prevent oil spills and respond to environmental emergencies.
• Managers and supervisors receive training on environmental reporting responsibilities.
• A Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures (SPCC) Plan protects the environment from stored oil and outlines layered systems to protect the watershed.
• Stormwater permits and best management practices reduce the impact of precipitation leaving the site.
• All employees are made aware of the environmental impact of their daily job duties.

Our 2030 Sustainability Goals

We are aligning operations around three focused, measurable, and actionable goals:

• Energy Intensity: Reduce electricity used per unit of product by 5% by 2030, using 2024 as our base year.
• Inedible Oil Recycling (COPQ Measure): Reduce unusable oil recycled to less than 0.1% of total pounds sold by 2030 through better process controls, changeover recovery, and training.
• rPET Usage: Increase the share of rPET to 5% of total PET usage by 2030, up from a 2024 baseline of 2.4%.

Engaging Stakeholders & Elevating Transparency

Sustainability is a shared endeavor with customers, suppliers, employees, and our community. As interest in environmental performance has grown, we have expanded our outreach and education, including public-facing materials like infographics comparing reusable and recyclable totes for bulk oils.

Our registration with the Circular Action Alliance reinforces our commitment to Extended Producer Responsibility. Internally, we are standardizing documentation and improving data quality so that we can share verified results, not just intentions.

Looking Ahead

We will continue to engage suppliers on refining sourcing, production, and traceability; partner with customers to optimize formats and right-size shipments; and keep employees informed about our progress.

Our objective is simple: build trust by making our progress visible, our claims verifiable, and our improvements durable, so we can live up to our promise of authenticity in every drop.

Let’s grow better, together.