Barry Callebaut

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Barry Callebaut has commitments to become carbon and forest positive by 2025. This includes a target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and reporting progress against the target on an annual basis. The target is aligned with 1.5-degree scenario and has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

No leading practices were identified for the company in the nutrition measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Barry Callebaut discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics through a materiality assessment. This includes disclosing objectives covering sustainability topics across the three benchmark measurement areas of environment, nutrition and social inclusion. However, the company does not disclose objectives across its most relevant material topics or report progress against them, offering an opportunity going forward.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Barry Callebaut discloses that it has a cross-functional Sustainability Steering Committee which is chaired by the chief executive officer and includes all members of the Executive Committee and the company’s top managers. The company also confirms that its highest governance body’s remuneration policy is linked to meeting sustainability-related performance objectives. However, it is not clear if this policy covers all three benchmark measurement areas, offering an opportunity for the company to improve.

Stakeholder engagement
While Barry Callebaut has conducted stakeholder engagement activities and discloses an overview of the issues raised via these activities, it has an opportunity to disclose how it identifies its most relevant stakeholders, along with information on how the outcomes of the engagement process are integrated into the company’s sustainable development strategy.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
Barry Callebaut discloses that, by 2025, it will have 100% sustainable ingredients in all of its products, which includes a commitment to deforestation-free supply chains. While the company discloses the proportions of cocoa and palm oil which are currently sustainably sourced, no information could be found on soya. To improve its performance, the company should look to disclose the proportion of all its high-risk commodities that are currently deforestation-free as well as the sourcing regions of all of its high risk commodities.

Food loss and waste
While the company is addressing food loss and waste in its operations through its involvement with the Upcycled Food Association, it has an opportunity to improve by setting targets to reduce food loss and waste across its own operations and supply chain and reporting progress against these targets.

Plastic use and packaging waste
Barry Callebaut does not disclose that it is reducing its plastic use and transitioning to sustainable forms of packaging.

Availability of healthy foods
Barry Callebaut does not provide evidence of improving the nutritional quality of its products and of proportionally increasing the sales of healthy and nutritious foods.

Clear and transparent labelling
Barry Callebaut does not disclose that it provides nutritional information through clear, transparent and accurate labelling.

Food safety
Barry Callebaut does not disclose evidence of ensuring safe food for consumers through compliance with national regulations and the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene, nor an effective food safety certification scheme.

Child labour
While Barry Callebaut commits to prohibiting child labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard, it has an opportunity to disclose a policy requiring its suppliers to have an age-verification system in place.

Forced labour
While Barry Callebaut commits to prohibiting forced labour in its own operations and supply chain, it has an opportunity to disclose a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
Barry Callebaut does not disclose a commitment or examples of activities to support the resilience, productivity and access to markets for farmers and small-scale producers in its supply chain.

Barry Callebaut provides a grievance mechanism for both workers and third parties and commits to respecting human rights and the rights of workers in its own operations and supply chain. The company does not, however, report on multiple human rights topics, including identifying and assessing human rights risks and how it engages with potentially affected stakeholders. Furthermore, there is an opportunity for the company to improve its disclosure on is due diligence system to identify and assess human rights risks in both its operations and supply chain.

The company has public commitments and statements regarding respecting health and safety, gender equality and workforce diversity but lacks reporting on their implementation or key metrics. Moreover, the company does not have commitments regarding paying a living wage, regulating working hours and recognising the right to collective bargaining, presenting a risk for the company going forward.

Barry Callebaut addresses key data protection issues as well as anti-bribery and corruption issues through publicly available policies and statements. However, it does not report on key metrics relating to its tax approach and lobbying activities. This includes a lack of a global tax strategy, which has been approved by the highest governance body as well as no policy statement that specifies it does not make political contributions.