Nutreco

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

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
Nutreco’s subsidiary Skretting is committed to getting 100% of its marine ingredients from MarinTrust-certified sources by 2025. Where MarinTrust certification is unavailable, the company has further committed to making sure these ingredients come from fisheries participating in a MarinTrust improvers programme. The company reports against its target and discloses that 69% of its fishmeal and fish oil production is currently certified. While the company has yet to achieve this target, it has shown that it is heading in the right direction.

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
Through its RoadMap 2025, Nutreco discloses objectives and targets covering key topics such as GHG emissions reduction, deforestation and sustainable marine ingredients. However, not all of these targets are publicly reported, and progress on them is, therefore, unknown. In addition, nutrition-related targets were not found. The company has an opportunity to broaden its objectives and report its achievements so far.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
While responsibility for Nutreco’s sustainable development strategy lies with the Nutreco Sustainability Platform, the company has an opportunity to strengthen accountability by assigning this responsibility to its highest governance body and disclosing further information on its decision-making processes and oversight responsibilities. However, it is worth noting that Nutreco states it is establishing a remuneration policy linked to sustainability objectives and targets, particularly GHG emissions and antibiotic use.

Stakeholder engagement
Nutreco discloses the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement and their integration into its sustainability strategy. However, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose its process for identifying stakeholders and ensure this engagement covers sustainability topics across all three benchmark dimensions (environment, nutrition and social inclusion) across its value chain.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Nutreco’s scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions reduction targets are science-based and aligned with a well-below 2-degree scenario. Further, the company reports year-on-year reductions in these emissions. However, the company has an opportunity to further increase its ambition by setting a target aligned with a 1.5-degree scenario. Nutreco has a scope 3 emissions reduction target but does not report progress against it.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
Nutreco has the objective to achieve deforestation-free supply of soya and palm oil by 2025. The company reports on its progress, with about 75% of its palm oil being certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, but only 29% of its soya and soya products are considered deforestation-free. Therefore, the company has a significant opportunity to become deforestation-free.

Soil health, agrobiodiversity
The company does not disclose that it is adopting sustainable production practices that improve soil health and increase agrobiodiversity.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company does not disclose that it is adopting sustainable production practices that optimise the use of fertilisers and pesticides.

Water use
While Nutreco provides information on quantitative reductions in its water consumption, it is yet to set a target to reduce its water withdrawals across its own operations. In addition, there is room for the company to improve by providing evidence of dependency on water-stressed areas across its own operations and disclosing the proportion of withdrawals from the water-stressed areas, an exercise the company commits to carrying out in 2021.

Availability of healthy foods
The company does not disclose a commitment or activities to increase the availability of healthy and nutritious foods.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company does not disclose a commitment to address food insecurity by improving the accessibility and affordability of healthy and nutritious foods.

Food safety
Nutreco’s subsidiary Skretting provides an overview of food safety certifications and standards it adheres to. However, the parent company has an opportunity to expand on this disclosure by reporting on food safety certifications or schemes it follows in its operations and facilities globally.

Forced labour
While Nutreco 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 and restricting workers’ freedom of movement.

Living wage
The company does not disclose that it pays its workers a living wage or requires its suppliers to do the same. Neither has it set targets to do so in the future.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company does not disclose that it specifically recognises the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
Nutreco’s RoadMap 2025 target is to engage with 12,000 people in the communities in which it operates by the end of 2025. The company has various projects already. Among them is the Catfish Sustainability Project in Nigeria, through which the company reports increasing harvest weights thanks to best-practice training and protocols offered to 642 project beneficiaries. While the company also empowers women through its egg farming project in Guatemala, and indicates participation by 50 families, the impact of this project is less clear. The company has an opportunity to improve on the systematic impact reporting of its farmer and fisher support projects.

Nutreco commits to respecting the core ILO labour rights in its operations and provides grievance mechanisms for workers and third parties. However, the company does not disclose a policy statement committing to respect human rights, nor a statement expecting its suppliers to uphold the right to collective bargaining. While Nutreco provides examples of stakeholder engagement activities, it does not disclose an overview of affected and potentially affected stakeholder groups. Moreover, the company does not provide evidence of a human rights due diligence process that includes the identification, assessment and integration of salient human rights risks into its operations and supply chain.

Nutreco commits to respecting the health and safety of its workers and places similar expectations on its suppliers. However, the company does not disclose how it monitors health and safety in its supply chain and lacks reporting on key metrics, such as the number and rate of fatalities in the workplace. Regarding gender equality, Nutreco demonstrates that over 30% of its board members are women. It has also set a target to increase the number of women in senior leadership positions. However, the company lacks an overall commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and does not report on gender pay gaps. No commitments on the other decent work topics – living wages, fair working hours, collective bargaining and workforce diversity – were found in the public domain.

Nutreco commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on its use. In addition, the company prohibits bribery and corruption in its operations and relations with business partners and has a channel available for related grievances. However, the company does not describe how it identifies and integrates corruption and bribery risks. Nutreco does not provide a policy statement setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach, nor does it provide a publicly available global tax policy.