BayWa

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.

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
BayWa discloses the process and outcome of its materiality assessment and reports progress on its material themes, which cover environmental, social and nutritional issues. The company has an opportunity to improve by setting targets covering sustainability topics across the three benchmark measurement areas (environment, nutrition and social inclusion) in relation to both its own operations and its value chain, and reporting progress against them.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
BayWa provides an overview of its sustainability department and discloses that the chief executive officer is responsible for sustainability strategy. The company also states that variable compensation paid to members of the managing board is based on the achievement of annually defined targets, which include sustainability targets such as the achievement of climate neutrality. The company can further strengthen its process by expanding the scope of sustainability targets to include other metrics in the nutrition and social inclusion areas.

Stakeholder engagement
BayWa provides an overview of its stakeholder engagement, including means of engagement, and discloses the outcomes of this engagement and their integration into the company’s sustainability strategy. The company can improve by reporting on its process for identifying stakeholders and ensuring engagement covers sustainability topics across the three benchmark measurement areas across its value chain.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
BayWa has a goal of being climate neutral by 2030, and it reports progress against its interim target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. The company can further strengthen its interim target by aligning it with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
BayWa provides qualitative evidence of efforts towards deforestation and conversion-free supply chains through its own certified responsible soya standard. While it discloses the approximate volumes of certified soya, it is yet to set time-bounds targets to achieve deforestation and conversion-free soya supply chains.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
BayWa provides evidence of optimising the use of pesticides by disclosing quantitative information on the percentage of fruit sourced from organic cultivation. The company can strengthen its commitment by setting targets to increase the percentage of food sourced from sustainable practices that optimise use of fertilisers and pesticides.

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

Food loss and waste
BayWa provides qualitative evidence of food loss and waste reduction initiatives. These include providing organic waste for biogas generation and using artificial intelligence technology to improve the ripening process of avocadoes and limit loss along the value chain through its subsidiaries. However, the company is yet to disclose quantitative evidence regarding its food loss and waste reduction and has not set any reduction targets.

Availability, accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
Given its role as an agricultural trader, BayWa has less impact on nutrition issues than companies involved in the manufacturing of consumer products. However, it is yet to disclose commitments to address food insecurity by supporting the production of healthy and nutritious foods and improving the accessibility of such foods.

Workforce nutrition
BayWa demonstrates that it is committed to workforce nutrition through programmes on nutrition education. The company has an opportunity to further strengthen its commitment by promoting nutrition-focused health checks, providing healthy food at work and disclosing quantitative evidence of the percentage of food offerings with healthy options.

Food safety
BayWa provides evidence that all of its operations are certified by food safety schemes recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) or other widely recognised certification. It also provides evidence that its suppliers are covered by GFSI-recognised food safety schemes, with an opportunity to report if this extends to 100% of its suppliers.

Child and forced labour
BayWa prohibits child labour in its own operations, but no sufficient evidence was found that it requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard. Similarly, while the company commits to prohibiting forced labour in its own operations, it has an opportunity to disclose a requirement for its suppliers to adhere to the same standard as well as prohibiting its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents or restricting workers’ freedom of movement.

Living wage
The company does not disclose that it pays its workers a living wage or requires its suppliers to do the same. Neither has it set targets to do so in the future.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company does not disclose sufficient evidence that it specifically recognises the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
While the company provides evidence of activities supporting farmer productivity and resilience, it is yet to demonstrate that it is measuring the outcomes and impact of its support activities.

Land rights
The company does not commit to recognising and respecting the legitimate tenure rights related to the ownership and use of land of local communities.

BayWa commits to respecting human rights and discloses its process for identifying its salient human rights risks. The company also provides grievance mechanisms that are accessible to its workers as well as external individuals and communities. However, the company does not provide sufficient disclosure on its other human rights due diligence processes, such as assessing and taking action on human rights risks.

While BayWa commits to respecting the health and safety of its workers, it can improve by disclosing quantitative information on the health and safety of its workers and how its monitors the health and safety performance of its supply chain partners. Further improvements can be made regarding disclosing the percentage of employees for each employee category by indicators of diversity and strengthening the company’s commitments and quantitative information on gender equality and women’s empowerment. No sufficient evidence of commitments or disclosure was found regarding living wages, working hours and collective bargaining.

BayWa publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on the use of personal data. There is room for BayWa to improve its score by including anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts with its supply chain partners. No sufficient evidence was found regarding responsible tax and lobbying or political engagement.