Bayer

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

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
Bayer aims to become carbon neutral by 2030 by reducing its emissions by over 40% for direct emissions compared to 2019, while offsetting the rest with carbon credits. The reduction targets cover all scopes and are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory verified by the Science Based Targets initiative.

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
Bayer has a corporate strategy addressing issues that are considered material to the company via the creation of time-bound targets. It engages with stakeholders to create a materiality matrix to inform strategy creation. However, among the topics prioritised by Bayer – climate protection, protection of the environment, innovation, business ethics, product stewardship, sustainable food security and access to health care – it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitments in the nutrition measurement area.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development strategy
Bayer assigns responsibility and accountability for its sustainable development strategy to its management board. A supervisory board designs executive remuneration packages and includes sustainability targets in those packages. In 2020, four out of five management board members had individual sustainability targets linked to variable income. There is an opportunity for Bayer to enhance its governance and accountability by establishing its sustainability targets for remuneration across all three of the environment, nutrition and social inclusion dimensions.

Stakeholder engagement
The company engages with multiple groups of stakeholders and outlines how it engages with them as well as key topics raised as part of the engagement. Bayer could further improve by providing additional details on how the outcomes of its activities have specifically influenced its sustainability strategy.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
Bayer reports on research and development activities related to harnessing microbes in plant nutrition as well as reducing the overall environmental impact of its crop protection products by 30%, in addition to farmer training in practices that conserve soils. However, the company has an opportunity to improve disclosure and strengthen its performance by setting targets to help improve soil health and agrobiodiversity, reporting progress against the targets and disclosing quantifiable data on their impact.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
Bayer reports to support activities on integrated pest management, reducing reliance on any single chemical product by training farmers on crop rotation or cover crop planting. The company reports to also contributing to fertiliser use optimisation by developing seed varieties for crops that need less fertiliser. However, Bayer does not have targets related to fertiliser and pesticide use optimization nor does it disclose quantitative data related to its influence in this area.

Water use
Bayer discloses its water-stressed area dependency and absolute volume withdrawn from each site, alongside measures taken with suppliers to address possible water stress in those sites. Water management requirements are codified in a supplier code of conduct, and the company discloses reductions in its water withdrawals over time. Associated with all these activities, Bayer has an opportunity to set time-bound targets to reduce its water withdrawals company-wide.

Availability of healthy foods
Bayer reports on plant breeding initiatives to provide farmers with seeds that are more weather and pest resistant and with increased nutritional value, often collaborating with partners such as the International Rice Research Center and the International Crops Research for Semi-Arid Tropics. It further reports on efforts to enhance access to fresh produce, particularly fruits and vegetables, through increasing access and variety of seeds. However, the company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence that its products or those it enables have become more diversified, nutritious or higher in quantity.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
Bayer has a commitment to work with farmers to help ensure a consistent, nutritious and stable food supply. As such, Bayer reports on its partnership with the non-profit organization Fair Planet in the ‘Bridging the Seed Gap’ project, which improves access of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia to high-quality vegetable seeds. However, the company does not disclose data on the impact of this program or its commitment, particularly on the accessibility of healthy and nutritious foods.

Workforce nutrition
Bayer does not disclose sufficient evidence of having any workforce nutrition programmes.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
Bayer has a commitment to support smallholder farmers, including improving resilience against climate change. It already reaches 45 million farmers and has set a target to reach 100 million by 2030, helping them to earn sustainable farm incomes and improve rural livelihoods. Bayer has several non-commercial activities that supplement its commercial ones in this area, including agronomy knowledge training, offering cost-effective financing and risk mitigation solutions and market linkages to help farmers sell their produce. However, the company does not disclose quantitative evidence of the impact of its programmes.

Living wage
Bayer has a living wage policy and hires an external organisation to establish living wage levels by country. However, the living wage definition does not include the dependents of the workers, providing an opportunity for the company to improve its performance on this topic.

Child labour
While the company commits to prohibiting child labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard, it has an opportunity to disclose a coordinated and consistent monitoring system for its own operations and supply chain.

Forced labour
The company commits to not using forced labour in its operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard. It also commits to respecting workers’ rights to collective bargaining and freedom of association in its own operations and supply chain. It has an opportunity to disclose a commitment that prohibits any form of intimidation of workers seeking to exercise these rights in its own operations and supply chain.

Bayer is committed to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights, has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its supply chain partners to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights and provides a grievance mechanism for both workers and third parties. However, the company does not provide evidence of a human rights due diligence process or substantial engagement with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

Bayer publicly commits to health and safety, paying a living wage, collective bargaining, workforce diversity and gender equality. The company does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours. However, there is an opportunity for Bayer to improve its performance by increasing its disclosure on these topics. Notably, there is room to strengthen its living wage performance, as no targets for paying a living wage in its own operations were found in the public domain.

Bayer has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and takes steps to identify and address the issue. It also has a grievance mechanism as well as clauses in contracts with supply chain partners relating to the subject. The company also publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on the use of personal data. There is room for Bayer to improve its policies and disclosure on lobbying and political engagement as well as on income tax payments by reporting on a country-by-country basis.