American Crystal

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

No leading practices were identified in the environment area.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company demonstrates how it works to improve farmers’ income resilience by offering long-term contracts to its member sugarbeet farmers.

Act ethically
The company has a clear policy that prohibits bribery and corruption. Additionally, it requires all interactions with government officials to be conducted in an honest and ethical manner. The company ensures that all workers have access to channels to raise complaints or concerns, and provides the option for complainants to either remain anonymous or identify themselves.

Respect human rights
The company states that it has a human rights grievance mechanism that is accessible to all workers. Additionally, the company also ensures that this mechanism is available to external stakeholders who may be adversely affected by the company’s actions.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has an opportunity to report on sustainability accountability within its governance structure.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Furthermore, the company can provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, the company can report any potential misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

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
The company has an opportunity to disclose sustainability strategy with nature and social-related targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company discloses that it will continue to seek and deploy environmental performance improvements which also includes taking necessary actions to reduce air emissions. However, no evidence found that the company discloses quantitative reductions for its scope 1 and 2 emissions. The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and report progress against these targets. It can also align its targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Similarly, the company has an opportunity to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, disclose a relevant time-bound reduction target and report progress against these scope 3 targets. It can also align its scope 3 reduction targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company has an opportunity to set and 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
The company has the chance to disclose its food loss and waste (FLW) reduction targets and report its progress towards achieving these targets. Additionally, the company has the opportunity to align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction in FLW by 2030.

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

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose activities and targets to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, and report progress against the targets.

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

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment and activities to address malnutrition and food insecurity.

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to showcase that all of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme or another widely recognized certification program specific to the industry. Additionally, the company can choose to disclose the percentage of its food suppliers that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Workforce nutrition
The company has an opportunity to disclose evidence of workforce nutrition programmes.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to prohibit child labour in its supply chain and an age-verification system for its value chain. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some commodities and regions.

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 the suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

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 suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy on bribery and corruption, and include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. It could also disclose its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption, along with implementing a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise related complaints. Additionally, the company could disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement, specifying that it does not make political contributions and divulging its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company claims to prioritize the health and safety of its workers, it has the opportunity to formalize this commitment in a public policy document. It could also extend this dedication to its business relationships and enhance transparency in monitoring supplier health and safety performance.

Furthermore, the company can disclose a time-bound target for ensuring a living wage for all workers. The company has the chance to reveal its methodology for defining a living wage in the regions of its operations. Additionally, it can disclose the mechanisms by which it encourages its suppliers to provide a living wage.

Moreover, the company has an opportunity to publicly declare its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and set clear time-bound targets to achieve this. The company currently reports that all 15 members of its board are male, indicating a lack of gender diversity.

Respect human rights
While the company’s policy addresses employment discrimination, it falls short in fully respecting all four fundamental human rights at work declared by ILO, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, both within its own operations and across suppliers.

Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to outline a process for identifying human rights risks in various locations and activities, enhancing disclosure by sharing assessment results.

Additionally, it could detail how it identifies its most significant human rights concerns and establish a global system to address, prevent, or mitigate these issues.