Sainsbury’s

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

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Sainsbury’s has set a target to reduce its absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions 50% by 2030 against a 2019 base year. The company aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. Moreover, the company reports progress against this target regularly. Its target is approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and aligns with a 1.5 degree warming trajectory.

Plastic use and packaging waste
Sainsbury’s discloses its target to halve its use of plastic packaging by 2025 compared to 2005. The company reports progress against its target on “reduce own-brand packaging by 50 per cent compared to 2005” and on “reduction in own-brand packaging since 2005/06”. Nonetheless, the company is yet to share the evidence that it has achieved 100% sustainable packaging across its operations, presenting an opportunity for the company going forward.

Animal welfare
Sainsbury’s states that its meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products will be sourced from suppliers who adhere to independently verified higher animal health and welfare outcomes. It reports on the “Proportion of sales from an independently verified higher animal health and welfare outcome source”. It also states that 100% of its cows are not tethered and are not tail docked. However, there remains room for the company to improve by reporting its progress against its target on poultry.

Availability of healthy foods
Sainsbury’s provides qualitative and quantitative evidence that it is actively working to reformulate its products. It discloses that it has an ongoing programme to reduce sugar, salt and saturated fat in its own-brand products. Moreover, it has a target to increase healthy products sold as a proportion of total sales volume to 45% by 2020 and reports progress against the target. Furthermore, the company is transparent about its definition of healthy products through a Decision Tree it has developed, which outlines the criteria food must meet to be categorised as healthy.

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

Sustainable development strategy
Sainsbury’s discloses its Our Plan For Better sustainability strategy, which outlines its priority areas of focus and key commitments. It discloses time-bound targets for its most relevant sustainability topics which cover sustainability topics across all three benchmark dimensions (environment, nutrition and social inclusion) for its own activities and its value chain and reports on progress against them. However, the company does not disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics, presenting an opportunity for the company in future reporting.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Sainsbury’s discloses that its Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Committee reviews the sustainability strategy and the company’s progress on its key corporate responsibility initiatives. The chair of the committee then reports to the board following each meeting of the committee. However, the company could improve is performance by disclosing its highest governance body’s remuneration policy regarding sustainability.

Stakeholder engagement
Sainsbury’s shares examples of stakeholder engagement activities, such as holding an annual farming conference. However, it does not sufficiently map out its engagement activities with stakeholders, nor the outcomes of these activities and their integration into its sustainability strategy. The company could improve by increasing its disclosure in these areas and detailing its process for identifying stakeholders also.

Food loss and waste
Sainsbury’s discloses a broad commitment to tackle food loss and waste through its business activities and discloses a target to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. However, the company does not disclose the percentage of food loss and waste as a proportion of food handled. Moreover, the company could improve its performance by reporting progress against this target.

Protein diversification
Sainsbury’s discloses that it is expanding its meat-alternative and plant-based food ranges and shares qualitative evidence of offering diversified proteins to customers, such as its Plant Pioneers options for those following a flexitarian or plant-based diet. However, there remains an opportunity for the company to set a time-bound target to increase the number of alternative proteins in its portfolio and report progress against it.

Clear and transparent labelling
Sainsbury’s provides a public commitment to align with national and international regulations on labelling and also reports that it has rolled out front-of-pack (FOP) labelling for its products. The company also reports the percentages of own-brand products with traffic light labels on the front on the packaging. However, there remains an opportunity for the company to improve further by increasing the percentages of products which it rolls out both back-of-pack (BOP) and FOP labelling.

Food safety
Sainsbury’s is a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), and provides evidence that 100% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme. However, no information was found on the percentage of the company’s food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme, presenting an opportunity for the company for future reporting.

Child labour
Sainsbury’s requires its suppliers to have ‘zero tolerance for child labour’ and it provides examples of its remediation process for instances of child labour. However, no similar commitment was found for its own operations, presenting a risk for the company. The company can also strengthen its commitment by requiring suppliers to have an age verification mechanism in place.

Forced labour
Sainsbury’s commits to prohibiting forced labour in its own operations and supply chain. The company also discloses a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents. Besides, it requires suppliers to commit to not interfering with the right of workers to form or join trade unions and to bargain collectively and prohibits any form of intimidation against workers seeking to exercise these rights. However, no such commitment was found for the company’s own operations.

Living wage
Sainsbury’s discloses a 2020 target to pay a ‘standard colleague reward greater than the National Living Wage’ in its own operations. It also reports on progress against this target. The company has an opportunity to include living wage requirements in its contractual arrangements with its suppliers or set a target towards ensuring the payment of living wages in its supply chain.

Sainsbury’s discloses policies and commitments across most key topics related to respect for human rights. This includes strong commitments towards respecting both human rights and the rights of workers. Moreover, Sainsbury’s provides an overview of its due diligence process, which includes regular human rights impact assessments and their integration into corporate policies. However, the company can improve its disclosure by providing grievance mechanisms that are accessible to both workers and external third parties.

Sainsbury’s commits to paying a living wage and supporting gender equality and women’s empowerment. However, it can improve its performance by increasing disclosure on key metrics relating to these topics. Moreover, the company has not provided sufficient disclosure on other key areas related to promoting decent work, including the health and safety of workers, working hours and collective bargaining in its own operations and supply chain.

Sainsbury’s discloses its policy and commitment on personal data protection. However, the company provides a lack of sufficient information in the public domain on other key metrics related to ethical business conduct, including responsible tax, anti-bribery and anti-corruption approaches, and responsible lobbying and political engagement.