JD.com

JD.com supports initiatives to assist the elderly population with online shopping. 

The company has an initiative for improving digital literacy, where its staff teaches elderly people basic smartphone skills at the company’s stores. 

JD.com discloses that it has a committee responsible for cybersecurity as well as certifications relating to information security management.

The company provides support for start-ups. The company also demonstrates high-level support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Alongside this, the company develops products to reduce environmental impacts and provides information about the location of its research and development (R&D) facilities.

The company can better demonstrate its contributions to enabling universal and affordable access to digital technologies and its support for digital inclusivity of women and girls. It can also demonstrate how the economic value it generates is distributed among stakeholders. 

The company has an opportunity to introduce programmes for basic and technical digital skills development and to promote school connectivity. Next to this, it can increase disclosure on its existing programmes, such as provide participation and impact metrics, and carry out third-party assessments for its programmes.

The company has an opportunity to improve disclosure of its cybersecurity practices. This includes providing evidence of high-level responsibility for managing cybersecurity, and how it monitors, responds to and reports on security incidents. JD.com can also make a commitment to child online safety. 

The company can better demonstrate how it supports inclusive and ethical R&D. For example, it can disclose the percentage of its women employees engaged in R&D.

In its ESG report, JD.com states that it “pays close attention to human rights protection”. However, the company should disclose its commitment to respect human rights in a separate public policy statement. Furthermore, the company does not have a public commitment to respect the ILO core labour rights, and it does not expect its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. JD.com can disclose a process to identify, assess and act on salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. It can also disclose how it engages with affected stakeholders. The company can also provide more details regarding the grievance mechanisms available to workers and stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints.  

JD.com does not have a publicly available commitment to respect worker health and safety. In addition to making this commitment for itself, the company can also place this expectation on its business relationships and monitor their health and safety performance. Furthermore, the company lacks relevant disclosure in relation to living wages, working hours and collective bargaining. For example, while the company states that its salaries are fair and decent, it does not disclose whether it pays its workers a living wage. JD.com discloses the breakdown of its workforce by age and gender per employee category but does not have a public commitment towards promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment

JD.com can disclose relevant information in relation to tax, such as a global tax strategy and its income tax payments in individual tax jurisdictions. The company does have a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, but it does not include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. In relation to lobbying and political engagement, while JD.com states that it prohibits political contributions unless approved by the CEO or Compliance Officer, it does not have a public policy statement indicating that it does not make political contributions, and it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.