Zespri

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.

Food safety
Zespri demonstrates that 100% of all post-harvest facilities are required to adhere to its food safety standards, including certification to a food safety programme recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative. Moreover, the company discloses that all growers who want to export fruit must be certified to GLOBALG.A.P.

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

Sustainable development strategy
Within its sustainability position statement, Zespri outlines time-bound commitments related to key sustainability topics across the three benchmark dimensions of environment, nutrition and social inclusion. Moreover, it describes how it has identified and prioritised its material topics. However, the company has not yet reported progress against many of its targets.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has teams and committees responsible for the implementation of its sustainability strategy (Audit and Risk Management Committee; Global Executive Team), and it discloses that the board of directors is responsible for integrating environmental and social considerations into Zespri’s assessment of business risk, strategy development and performance. However, the company lacks public evidence of the board’s decision-making and oversight responsibilities and of its remuneration policy.

Stakeholder engagement
While the company discloses that it engages with stakeholders, it does not disclose how it selects stakeholder nor an overview of the topics discussed or its outcomes.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
Zespri has set a target to work with partners to be carbon positive by 2035, including key milestones: by 2025, Zespri corporate will be carbon neutral, and by 2030, Zespri’s industry will be carbon positive to its retailers. However, the company is yet to report progress against this target. Moreover, while the company discloses that it is measuring segments of its scope 3 emissions, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets and reporting progress against them.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity, and fertiliser and pesticide use
In the water strategy outlined with partners in the kiwi industry, Zespri provides qualitative evidence of its efforts to improve soil health. Specifically, the company has established a goal to access tools and knowledge to protect and foster healthy soils. Moreover, the company demonstrates it has crop protection standards and provides evidence of programmes focused on the optimised use of pesticides. However, there is an opportunity to strengthen its commitments by setting targets to increase production from sustainable practices. Additionally, the company can improve its performance by disclosing quantifiable data on its impact on soil health and pesticides use.

Water use
The company does not disclose that it is reducing water withdrawals across its operations and supply chain.

Food loss and waste
While Zespri provides evidence of reductions in food loss and waste across its operations, it is yet to establish a time-bound target.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company commits to making its packaging 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. This commitment includes a target that plastic packaging will be made from at least 30% recycled plastic by 2025, and the packaging footprint, per kilo of fruit, will be reduced by 25% by 2030. Nevertheless, Zespri is yet to report progress against this target.

Availability, accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company primarily produces and distributes fresh fruit and it commits to offer 6 billion healthy eating occasions to people around the world. However, it can improve its commitment by providing evidence of value chain collaborations or initiatives designed to address food insecurity by improving the accessibility and affordability of healthy and nutritious food.

Workforce nutrition
The company does not disclose a workforce nutrition programme that prioritises making healthy foods the standard in the workplace.

Child labour
While the company commits to prohibiting child labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standards, it has an opportunity to disclose a policy requiring its suppliers to have an age verification system in place.

Forced labour
While the company 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/or restricting workers’ freedom of movement. The company is encouraged to explicitly mention forced labour in its code of conduct.

Living wage
While Zespri provides evidence of paying a living wage to its workers in New Zealand, it lacks a commitment that covers all its operations. The company has an opportunity to increase its public disclosure regarding the payment of a living wage and set a time-bound target for paying a living wage across all its operations.

Farmer productivity and resilience
The company does not disclose a commitment or examples of activities to support the resilience, productivity and access to markets for farmers and/or small-scale producers in its supply chain.

Zespri provides grievance mechanisms for both workers and third parties. The company has a policy statement that expects its suppliers to respect the core ILO labour rights, but it lacks a statement on respecting the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in its own operations. Moreover, Zespri provides no evidence of a human rights due diligence process and does not disclose that it engages with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

The company publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers in its own operations and supply chain but can strengthen its disclosure by reporting on key quantitative metrics related to this topic. Moreover, no evidence of commitments or policies related to other key decent work issues – collective bargaining, workforce diversity and gender equality – was found in the public domain.

Zespri has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it demonstrates that it takes steps to identify and address these risks and incidents. While the company has a publicly available commitment regarding the protection of personal data, it can strengthen its commitment by clarifying how it protects its stakeholders’ data. Furthermore, the company does not provide a publicly available policy statement setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach, and no evidence of a global tax policy was found in the public domain.