Albertsons Companies

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has set targets to reduce its emissions from its own operations by 47% and reports progress against these scope 1 and 2 targets. Furthermore, these targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory and the company has reduced its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions compared to the previous year.

Animal welfare
The company discloses evidence of processes of animal welfare third-party certifications or third-party audits. It also has a target that addresses animal welfare issues in its supply chain and reports progress against it.

Food loss and waste
The company’s FLW reduction targets are aligned with SDG 12.3 goal (50% reduction by 2030).

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company discloses that it is reducing the use of plastic in its products and accelerating its transition to a more circular economy.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company demonstrates its dedication to sustainable fishing and aquaculture through qualitative evidence that adheres to environmental sourcing criteria. Additionally, Albertsons Companies provide quantitative data that showcases their progress in increasing the proportion of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture operations and sourcing.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company has a strict policy against bribery and corruption. It also makes a public commitment to safeguard personal data. Vendors who collaborate with Albertsons Companies are obliged, under the terms of their contract, to comply with anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). They are explicitly prohibited from offering any form of payment or making promises to foreign government officials in order to gain or maintain business relationships. Furthermore, the company provides clear channels for reporting grievances, including concerns related to bribery and corruption, without the risk of facing any reprisals.

Provide and promote decent work
The company openly commits to worker health and safety in its policy statement. Moreover, it expects business relationships to uphold the same standard, as stated in another policy. Additionally, the company reveals the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Furthermore, the company shares the percentage of women in various employee categories, including the board of directors and corporate leadership. Lastly, it also discloses the workforce proportion by race or ethnicity across different employee categories.

Respect human rights
The company provides various channels for all workers to raise complaints or concerns, including a telephone number, email address, and website. These channels are open to everyone and offer the option for complainants to remain anonymous or identify themselves. Additionally, the company has implemented a human rights grievance mechanism that is accessible to external stakeholders who may be negatively affected by the company.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has an opportunity to link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on sustainability-related issues, and whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose how it engages with stakeholders, the issues raised during such activities, and the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement.

Sustainable development strategy
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Moreover, while it reports against some targets including climate, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has an opportunity to set a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with a 1.5-degree trajectory and report progress against its emission targets.

Animal welfare
The company has an opportunity to set animal welfare targets applicable to all species, geographies and products.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose activities and time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company has an opportunity to disclose targets to optimise the use of fertilizers and minimise the use of pesticides in its production and/or sourcing practices, and report progress against the targets.

Food loss and waste
While the company discloses its FLW reduction targets, it does not measure progress against them.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence regarding plastic use reduction and use of sustainable packaging.

Protein diversification
The company has an opportunity to set a sales-based target to increase alternative proteins across its portfolio, as well as report progress against this target.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company has an opportunity to disclose targets for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for 100% of its portfolio and has the chance to report progress against this target.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to enhance its disclosures relating to water use and withdrawal.

Accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment and commercial activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate how it is improving the nutritional quality of its products and to set targets to increase the share of more nutritious products in its portfolio.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to disclose how it provides nutritional information on its products and how it supports consumers with making healthy food choices through its labelling schemes.

Food safety
The company currently discloses that all of its food manufacturing facilities are GFSI-certified. However, there is an opportunity for the company to further enhance its certifications by extending them to 100% of its vendors. In addition, the company can disclose the percentage of food suppliers that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Responsible marketing
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment to responsible marketing and its marketing activities to promote healthy food options.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and to indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company prohibits suppliers from using child labour, it has an opportunity to require them to have an age-verification system in place.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company discloses how it purchases local products directly from farmers but it could provide more details on how it improves farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices. Also, it could demonstrate how it identifies living income benchmarks and assesses living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Forced labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose forced labour requirements for its operations and supply chain such as a prohibition to pay recruitment fees, to retain workers’ personal documents or to restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company provides health and welfare benefits to inactive disabled employees prior to retirement but has an opportunity to identify vulnerable groups in relation to health and safety.

Land rights
The company does not disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights as set out in the relevant part(s) of the VGGT’s or the IFC Performance Standards. Moreover, it could require its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rights holders and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Living wage
The company has an opportunity to set a target for paying a living wage across its direct suppliers and describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it sources. Also, it could disclose the percentage of workers across its own operations or direct suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company can enhance its transparency by describing the process it uses to identify bribery and corruption risks and their impacts in specific locations or activities, particularly within its own operations.

To demonstrate its commitment to transparency, the company can publish a policy statement that states it does not make political contributions. Additionally, the company has the chance to establish a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement. Furthermore, the company can disclose information about its expenditures on lobbying activities and make it known that third-party lobbyists are required to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to enhance its health and safety commitment by disclosing the methods it employs to monitor business relationships’ health and safety performance.

Shifting to wages, the company’s minimum wage policy could be bolstered by setting a time-bound target for a living wage commitment to employees. Moreover, it holds an opportunity to detail its living wage determination process across operating regions. It could also reinforce expectations by adding a requirement for suppliers to pay a living wage. Simultaneously, transparency could be increased by disclosing mechanisms supporting this payment.

Turning to gender equality, the company’s existing statement can be elevated through translation into a public policy. This commitment could further be solidified by unveiling time-bound targets for gender equality and women’s empowerment. The company could declare a commitment to achieving at least 30% women on the board.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. However, the scope of the policy is only limited to its seafood supply chain, and it has an opportunity to expand its commitment across all operational aspects. Moreover, the company publicly commits to upholding specific workers’ rights in a policy statement, but there’s an opportunity to expand it to encompass all ILO fundamental rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining. Similarly, its supplier expectations could be fortified by referencing all ILO fundamental rights.

Shifting to risk assessment, the company outlines a process for identifying human rights risks in specific locations, mainly covering its own operations. However, it’s unclear if this extends to all suppliers. Furthermore, while it delineates its process for assessing human rights risks, there’s room to specify its salient human rights concerns. Globally, the company could introduce a system addressing, preventing, and mitigating significant human rights issues.