Tongaat Hulett

Stakeholder Engagement
Tongaat Hulett displays leading practice in its stakeholder engagement process. The company discloses an overview of stakeholder identification and engagement processes as well as relevant stakeholder groups and their respective engagement methods, risks and opportunities, and priorities. In addition, Tongaat Hulett discloses how it has responded to stakeholder concerns and integrated these into its actions.

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
As part of its sustainability strategy, Tongaat Hulett has identified sustainability objectives covering topics related to nutrition, social inclusion and the environment dimensions. However, the company has an opportunity to disclose targets as part of its strategy as well as its identification and prioritisation process to determine the topics where it has the most impact.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Tongaat Hulett demonstrates it has assigned ultimate responsibility for its sustainability strategy to the board of directors. The company can further improve by linking remuneration for the board of directors or executives to sustainability performance.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Tongaat Hulett had set a 2020 target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 10% against a 2013 baseline and reports that it has achieved this target. The company has an opportunity to set new targets to reduce its scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and align these with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
While Tongaat Hulett discloses evidence of sustainable production and sourcing practices that improve soil health and agrobiodiversity, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to increase the percentage of production from sustainable practices that improve soil health and agrobiodiversity, reporting progress against the targets and disclosing quantifiable data on its impact on soil health and agrobiodiversity.

Water use
While Tongaat Hulett reports annually on its water footprint, its reporting demonstrates that this increased over the last years. The company has an opportunity to set targets to reduce its water use in its operations and report against these.

Food loss and waste
Tongaat Hulett does not disclose that it is addressing food loss and waste in its own operations. The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment by demonstrating policies or activities that tackle food loss and waste.

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

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

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

Workforce nutrition
While the company demonstrates that it offers Employee nutrition under its benefits for workers, it has an opportunity to develop this programme further to ensure the provision of healthy foods at work, nutrition education, nutrition-focused health checks and breastfeeding support, throughout its operations.

Food safety
While the company discloses compliance with national regulations, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by disclosing the percentage of its own operations that is certified to a food safety certification programme recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
Tongaat Hulett has a commitment to support the resilience, productivity and access to markets of small-scale sugarcane farmers as part of its inclusive growth objective. The company provides extension services and input procurement support schemes and it has built storage dams and water canals as well as installed water pumps to support farmers. While Tongaat Hulett reports on the impact of some of its support activities, it has an opportunity to demonstrate it is measuring the impact of all its activities and report these externally, as part of a holistic and strategic approach.

Child Labour
In its supplier code of conduct, Tongaat Hulett requires suppliers to prohibit the use of child and forced labour. While the company further addresses child and forced labour in its reporting, no policy committing to prohibit these practices in its operations was found.

Living wage
While Tongaat Hulett provides externally benchmarked wages and salaries, it does not disclose a time-bound target for paying a living wage across all its operations or that it includes living wage requirements in its contractual arrangements with its suppliers.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
Tongaat Hulett 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.

Land rights
While Tongaat Hulett commits to recognising and respecting the legitimate tenure rights related to the ownership and use of land of local communities, it has an opportunity to disclose a commitment that requires the same of its suppliers.

Tongaat Hulett commits to respect human rights in its operations and has in place grievance mechanisms for workers and third parties. However, the company does not disclose a policy statement committing to respect to all ILO core labour rights, nor a statement expecting this of its suppliers. Moreover, no evidence of a human rights due diligence process that includes the identification, assessment and integration of salient human rights risks was found and Tongaat Hulett does not disclose how it engages with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

Tongaat Hulett commits to respecting the health and safety of its workers, places health and safety expectations on its suppliers and monitors their performance. While providing reporting on fatalities and high-consequence injuries, the company does not disclose the main types of work-related injuries and the number of hours worked. Related to workforce diversity, the company discloses the proportion of its workforce that it HIV-positive and has an opportunity to also disclose the proportion of its workforce by each employee category by gender, age group, and race or ethnicity. No relevant commitments and reporting on the other decent work topics – living wage, working hours, collective bargaining, and gender equality and women’s empowerment – were found in the public domain

Tongaat Hulett discloses a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, a process and grievance mechanism to identify this practice, and includes clauses in its contracts with business relationships. The company also commits to protecting personal data, but does not provide a policy statement on the collection, access and sharing of this data. No publicly available policies setting out the companies tax strategy and lobbying and political engagement approach were found.