B&G Foods

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.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company discloses a public commitment to protect personal data and its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a policy statement. It also includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships and has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. 

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a public policy statement committing it to respect the health and safety of workers in its operation and supply chain. It also discloses how it monitors the performance of its suppliers on health and safety standards.

Moreover, the company reports the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements as well as the proportion of women for each employee category. Additionally, it discloses a target to increase female representation to 50% in its total workforce and to 38% in leadership positions by 2027. The company currently has 30% women on its board of directors.

Respect human rights
The company has a public policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO fundamental rights at work in its operations. It also has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
While the company states that it has a corporate social responsibility committee that is responsible for implementation of its corporate social responsibility strategy, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its corporate social responsibility strategy covers both environmental and social strategy. It also could link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives that cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Moreover, 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 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 by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process, including frequencies and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including water, there is room to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, it could report consistently on progress against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has an opportunity to disclose reductions in scope 1 and 2 and scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, and set time-bound targets aligned with the Paris agreement’s 1.5 degree pathway.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose its efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation or restoration. The company could develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to enhance its disclosures relating to soil health and agrobiodiversity.

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 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 has an opportunity to demonstrate that 100% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme or other widely recognised (industry-specific) certification. Additionally, it could disclose the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to translate its statements and expectations for suppliers on the prohibition of child labour or verifying the age of workers into policy requirements. Furthermore, it could disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts.

Forced labour
The company has expectations for suppliers regarding the prohibition to retain workers’ personal documents and restrict workers’ freedom of movement. However, it has the opportunity to translate the latter into policy requirements for both its suppliers and its own operations. Moreover, the company could disclose a prohibition to pay recruitment fees for its value chain. To conclude, it has an opportunity to indicate how it is building the capacity of its 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 its processes for identifying bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its operations. It could also disclose a public policy statement that specifies its non-participation in political contributions, its expenditures on lobbying activities, and requirements for 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 time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage, and describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. While the company has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment.

Moreover, it could disclose public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and report 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 expects its suppliers to respect specific workers’ rights but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work.  It could describe a comprehensive process for assessing and identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities and supply chain, and its salient human rights issues.

Moreover, the company could specify what it considers to be salient human rights issues, how relevant factors are considered such as geographical, economic and social factors, and how it acts to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issues through a global system.