Savencia

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

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

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
The company disclose sustainability objectives and outlines its process for identifying and prioritising its key topics through its materiality analysis. Savencia’s Oxygen sustainability strategy is organised into four main focus areas, and the company sets targets which cover topics across all benchmark measurement areas. The company has an opportunity to further address the influence it has across its value chain within its sustainability targets.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company does not disclose the governance structure for the implementation of its sustainable development strategy or targets, such as the person, team or committee that holds ultimate responsibility for its implementation.

Stakeholder engagement
The company does not disclose stakeholder engagement activities, including how it selects the stakeholders, nor an overview of the topics discussed or their outcomes.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Savencia has target to reduce the environmental impact of its operations by 25% per ton of production of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, and discloses progress towards this target with a year-on-year reduction of scope 1 and 2 emissions between 2018-20. It has an opportunity to align its targets with a 1.5 degrees warming trajectory.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has a target to deploy its ‘Sustainable Milk Production’ diagnosis to 50% of its milk producers by 2025, with 19.2% secured by the end of 2020. The diagnosis covers ten indicators which include biodiversity and soil fertility but could disclose further information on how it works with suppliers to address this issue.

Water use
Savencia has a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawals by 25% by 2025 (in comparison with 2015). However, it does not demonstrate progress towards it, with withdrawals increasing over the 2018-20 period. The company also has an opportunity to demonstrate that it is mapping its dependency on water-stressed regions across its own operations and supply chain.

Protection of natural terrestrial ecosystems
The company does not disclose activities aimed at achieving deforestation and conversion-free (DCF) supply chains for its relevant high-risk commodities. It has an opportunity to increase its disclosure on commitments to source its high-risk commodities through recognised certification programmes or by disclosing targets for achieving DCF supply chains.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company has a target for 100% of recyclable or biodegradable packaging for its branded products, by 2025. While Savencia does disclose activities and programs to reduce plastic use across its operations, it has an opportunity to improve its disclosure by regularly reporting on progress against its target.

Animal welfare
The company commits to the five freedoms of animal welfare but otherwise does not disclose that it is addressing key animal welfare issues for its relevant key species in its operations. It has an opportunity to disclose a commitment that addresses key issues for animal welfare across its relevant species, geographies and products.

Availability of healthy food
Savencia has a commitment to align, “as much as possible”, the nutritional composition of its products targeting children, on the thresholds provided by the WHO’s marketing guide for products destined for children. However, it does not disclose any supporting quantitative evidence, except for a reduction in salt in its product portfolio, or time-bound targets to increase its proportion of healthy products.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy food
The company does not disclose a commitment and activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods for vulnerable groups.

Clear and transparent labelling
Savencia discloses a target company has a target for 100% of its branded retail products to include per-portion labelling (beyond the regulatory requirements of certain countries) by 2025, and reports that In 2019, about 42% of its branded retail products include per-portion nutritional labeling. The company could strengthen its commitment to clear and transparent labelling by demonstrating that is is adopting an interpretive front-of-pack labelling scheme.

Food safety
The company provides evidence that some of its own operations are certified to a Global Food Safety Initiative-recognised scheme. However, the company only discloses information through its subsidiary, and it is unclear to what extent this disclosure is reflected group-wide.

Child and forced labour
At the group level, the company states that it complies with local legislations and culture with regard to child labour but does not disclose a commitment to prohibit child and forced labour within its own operations and supply chain.

Farmer productivity and resilience
The company reports that it provided more than 670 days of training to its French milk suppliers in 2019 but does not specifically demonstrate that it improved productivity and resilience in doing so. Savencia has an opportunity to disclose quantitative data to further demonstrate the impact of its activities.

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.

The company has a grievance mechanism which is accessible to both its employees and external stakeholders and discloses an expectation for its suppliers to respect the human rights of workers, while lacking the same commitment and policy statement relating to its own operations. Savencia can further improve its score by disclosing information on how it identifies, assesses and takes action to address its human rights salient risks in its own operations and its business relationship.

Savencia discloses expectations for its suppliers to respect the health and safety of workers and details how it monitors the performance of its supply chain partners, but lacks similarly robust commitments in relation to its own operations. The company commits to achieve gender parity in managerial positions by 2025 but does not provide supporting data on either board diversity or its gender pay ratio. Savencia also lacks disclosure on collective bargaining, workforce diversity and working hours fundamentals.

Savencia describes its process to identify bribery and corruption risks in its own operations and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with supply chain partners. However, the company does not demonstrate how it protects personal data and lacks disclosure on its global tax strategy and approach to lobbying and political engagement, including the tax it pays per tax jurisdiction and its lobbying expenditures.