BayWa

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups.

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. Furthermore, it reports consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company is actively working towards reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and has set a clear target to accomplish this. Regular progress reports are provided to track the company’s advancements towards these targets. Additionally, the company is also committed to reducing its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company discloses quantitative evidence on optimising the use of fertilisers in its production and/or sourcing practices.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates commitment and partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Water withdrawal
The company demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations.

Workforce nutrition
The company has implemented a nutrition education program via free face-to-face seminars for its employees in Germany.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company openly shares its global tax strategy, which is overseen by the Board of Management. Furthermore, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. It also has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. Additionally, the company discloses income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and expects its suppliers to comply with applicable law, relevant industry standards or relevant ILO Conventions, whichever is more stringent. Furthermore, it reports that 54.9% its total employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.

The company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. Likewise, it also discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Additionally, the company discloses a target to to increase the female representation in the parent company to at least 24% at the first management level and at least 23.5% at the second management level by the end of June 2027.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement expecting suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. Furthermore, it describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations and in its supply chain. It also discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments. Additionally, it indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted 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 environmental and social issues. Furthermore, it could 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 disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Furthermore, it could provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets and 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 an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities.

Sustainable development strategy
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and social inclusion, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has the potential to align its scope 1 and 2 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Additionally, it could disclose a time-bound target for reducing its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and report on its progress towards it, while also aligning it with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Ecosystem conversion
The company discloses some evidence of addressing conversion. However, this does not guarantee DCF-aligned practices. The company has an opportunity to disclose 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 fertilisers 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 on the progress made towards achieving these goals. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction by 2030.

Plastic use and packaging waste
While the company describes its activities to reduce plastic use and transition towards sustainable packaging, it has an opportunity to disclose the associated quantitative data.

Water withdrawal
The company has the chance to set a specific target for reducing water withdrawal in its own operations and regularly update its progress. Additionally, it can disclose the amount of water withdrawn in areas facing water scarcity. While expecting suppliers to minimize water consumption and any negative impact on natural resources, the company can collaborate with them to further reduce water 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 demonstrate that 100% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme/certification programme or other widely recognised (industry-specific) certification. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of food suppliers who are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Workforce nutrition
The company could disclose the length covered by its parental leave policy, as well as any other breastfeeding supports such as dedicated breastfeeding rooms or flexible working hours for breastfeeding mothers. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to implement a programme to offer healthy food options to its employees.

Child labour
The company has certificates for Social standards for sites in the Global Produce Segment such as the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX), Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audi (SMETA), or Fairtrade. However, it has an opportunity to disclose practical examples of how it enables children to attend education or to improve working conditions for young workers. It could also indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. To conclude, it prohibits its suppliers from using child labour but could require them to have an age-verification system in place.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has set up initiatives to improve the productivity of the farms but it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it improves farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it could identify living income benchmarks and assess 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 has an opportunity to recognise and assess the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers. Furthermore, it could provide evidence of support activities that improve the health and safety of vulnerable groups.

Land rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights. Furthermore, it could describe a process at its operations and supply chain level to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders when acquiring, leasing or making other arrangements to use land 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 suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, while it has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach, it can also consider disclosing a publicly available policy statement that specifies that it does not make political contributions. Additionally, it could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities and that it requires third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement that expects its suppliers to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers and to disclose how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers. Moreover, it has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage and how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. It could also describe how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its business relationships.

While the company is committed to diversity, it has an opportunity to explicitly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment. The company currently has 25% women on the board and could increase this to at least 30%. It could also disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category, by significant locations of operation

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement committing it to respect human rights and specific workers’ rights but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work. Moreover, it could describe its process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Additionally, the company could also disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.