Mondelez International

Sustainable development strategy
As part of its sustainability strategy, Mondelez International discloses objectives covering topics across all measurement areas of the benchmark. In addition, the company sets targets for its most relevant sustainability topics and reports on progress annually. Mondelez International discloses its process for identifying and prioritising the topics within its sustainability strategy on which it has the most impact, which includes a materiality assessment. Furthermore, the company’s targets cover the entire value chain of the company.

Plastic use and packaging waste
Mondelez International is committed to reducing plastic use and packaging waste by setting 2025 targets to make all packaging recyclable and reduce virgin plastic use by 5%. The company reports on these targets annually and reports that 94% of its packaging was recyclable in 2020.

Food safety
Mondelez International demonstrates that it complies with national regulations regarding food safety, and that 100% of its operations are certified to a food safety scheme recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). In addition, the company has set a goal of achieving such certification for 100% of its suppliers and discloses that 94% of its suppliers are currently GFSI-certified.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
Through its Cocoa Life programme, Mondelez International aims to support the resilience and productivity of cocoa farmers by providing them with training and inputs. The company has integrated the Cocoa Life programme into its sustainability strategy and measures and discloses the impact of its support activities on farmers.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Mondelez International discloses that it has a board-level committee which is directly responsible for overseeing the implementation of its sustainability strategy. To further facilitate its implementation, the company has linked remuneration for its chief executive officer and senior executives to sustainability objectives. However, while the company links its sustainability performance to its highest governance body’s remuneration policy, it is not clear through the company’s reporting if this is across all three measurement areas of the benchmark, environment, nutrition and social inclusion.

Stakeholder engagement
While Mondelez International discloses that it undertakes stakeholder engagement activities, it does not provide an overview of its key stakeholder groups, how it has identified these groups and the topics discussed with them.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Mondelez International has set a target to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 10% by 2025, against a 2018 baseline, and demonstrates that it has achieved a 24% reduction since 2013. The target is in line with a well-below 2-degree scenario, providing an opportunity for the company to align its future targets with a 1.5-degree scenario.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
Mondelez International is committed to achieving deforestation and conversion-free (DCF) supply chains and has set targets to achieve 100% DCF supply chains by 2025 for both palm oil and cocoa. However, the company also sources soya, which is classified as a high-risk commodity. Therefore, Mondelez International has an opportunity also to set targets to achieve DCF supply chains for soya and to report on the percentage of its soya that is DCF, as well as disclose the sourcing regions of all of its commodities.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company discloses qualitative evidence of optimising the use of fertilisers and pesticides through promoting the adoption of good agricultural practices. However, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to increase the percentage of production from sustainable practices that optimise the use of fertilisers and pesticides and reporting progress against the targets.

Availability of healthy foods
Mondelez International discloses that it is introducing reformulated products and reports on an overall decrease of sodium and saturated fat in its portfolio. While the company has set a target to increase the sales of ‘well-being snacks’, it does not clarify what criteria these products should meet. As such, there is an opportunity for Mondelez International to increase transparency around its definition of healthy and to set a target to increase the proportion of products in its portfolio that meet this definition.

Clear and transparent labelling
For the labelling of its products, Mondelez International aligns itself with international standards, including the Codex Alimentarius, and provides back-of-pack (BOP) nutritional labelling on all products. While the company discloses it has started to roll out front-of-pack (FOP) labelling, it can further improve by disclosing the percentage of products for which FOP labelling has been implemented.

Responsible marketing
While the company has a commitment to market its products responsibly, particularly to children and young people, it has an opportunity to disclose evidence of activities promoting healthy foods.

Child labour
Mondelez International commits to prohibiting child labour in its operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard. However, the company has an opportunity to disclose a policy requiring its suppliers to have an age-verification mechanism in place.

Forced labour
Mondelez International commits to prohibiting forced labour in its operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard. It also prohibits suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents and restricting workers’ freedom of movement. While the company commits to respecting freedom of association, it has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect workers’ right to collective bargaining and prohibit any form of intimidation of workers seeking to exercise this right in its own operations and supply chain.

Land rights
While Mondelez International addresses land rights in its environmental, social and governance reporting, and in its Human Rights Due Diligence and Modern Slavery Report, it does not disclose a commitment to recognise and respect the legitimate tenure rights related to the ownership and use of land of local communities.

Mondelez International commits to respecting the human rights of its workers and discloses evidence of a due diligence process that includes regular human rights impact assessments and engagement with affected and potentially affected stakeholders. This system is supported by grievance mechanisms accessible to employees and external stakeholders to raise related concerns. While the company commits to respecting all other ILO core labour rights and expects its suppliers to adhere to the same standard, no commitment to respect workers’ right to collective bargaining was found.

The company commits to respecting the health and safety of workers, places similar expectations on its supply chain partners and monitors their performance. However, it lacks reporting on several key metrics, such as the number and rate of fatalities in the workplace. While Mondelez International commits to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, it does not disclose related targets, nor the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. No commitments or reporting on the other decent work topics – living wages, working hours, collective bargaining and workforce diversity – were found.

Mondelez International commits to protecting personal data. While the company discloses a privacy statement on the use of this data, this is limited to California residents only. The company commits to prohibiting bribery and corruption in its operations and relations with business partners. It also has a grievance mechanism available but lacks disclosure on a process to identify corruption and bribery risks and impacts in its operations. Regarding lobbying and political engagement, the company sets out its approach to these practices in its code of conduct but does not disclose its related expenses, nor that it refrains from making political contributions. Further, the company does not have a publicly available global tax strategy and does not disclose its income tax payments for each tax jurisdiction where the company is a resident.