Charoen Pokphand Group

Lobbying and advocacy
Charoen Pokphand Group discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member. However, it should make clear if it is a full list of trade associations of which it is a member for all jurisdictions in which it operates. In doing so, the company has an opportunity to enhance its due diligence efforts concerning the trade associations it supports

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses how it engages with stakeholders, the issues raised during such activities, and the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement, beyond materiality assessment. Furthermore, Charoen Pokphand Group’s stakeholder engagement activities includes those related to nature, nutrition, and social aspects.

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 to decrease its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, specifically in scope 1 and 2. In its own operations, the company aims to achieve carbon neutrality by reducing its scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions by 42% by 2030. The company also provides regular updates on the progress it has made towards these targets. Additionally, the company has set a specific time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 GHG emissions. Its targets are in line with a 1.5-degree trajectory, showing its commitment to addressing climate change.

Food loss and waste
The company’s FLW reduction targets are aligned with SDG 12.3 goal (50% reduction by 2030).

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company shows a strong commitment by implementing policies and engaging in activities aimed at reducing plastic use and shifting towards sustainable packaging. Additionally, the company is transparent about its efforts and provides quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and the adoption of sustainable packaging practices.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company demonstrates its dedication to sustainable fishing and aquaculture by offering qualitative evidence, which includes strict adherence to environmental sourcing criteria.

Water withdrawal
Charoen Pokphand Group demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations. The company has a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal in its own operations and reports progress against the target. Additionally, the company transparently discloses the amount of water it withdraws in areas facing water scarcity. Moreover, the company actively collaborates with their suppliers to actively reduce water withdrawal.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company discloses the percentage of its sales that come from consumer goods with lower saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, or added sugar, demonstrating its commitment to providing healthier choices to consumers.

Workforce nutrition
The company has implemented a program/policy for workplace breastfeeding support (e.g. breastfeeding facilities) and a healthy food offering program for its employees (e.g. vegetable greenhouses in vacant farmland to enable employees to access healthy food).

Child labour
The company verifies the age of workers recruited in its own operations.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company reports on the impacts of its projects on farmers’ income.

Forced labour
The company discloses a prohibition to use any recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job and to retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement for its operations and supply chain.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company identifies female workers pregnant workers and elderly workers as being vulnerable in relation to health and safety in its work.

Land rights
The company has a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights.

Act ethically
The company demonstrates a public commitment to safeguarding personal data and provides a privacy statement outlining its use. Additionally, the company discloses a policy that prohibits bribery and corruption and provides a grievance mechanism in place for stakeholders to raise related issues. Lastly, the company is transparent about its lobbying expenditures by disclosing these publicly.

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, as well as a statement expecting its suppliers to make the same commitment. Further Charoen Pokphand Group discloses quantitative information on the health and safety of its own workers and describes how it monitors the performance of its suppliers on the issue.

The company also discloses that 100% of its total direct operations workforce is covered by collective bargaining agreements. Further, the company discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category as well as a commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Respect human rights
Charoen Pokphand Group has a publicly available policy statement that commits it to respecting human rights. It actively engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities and discloses examples. Further, the company demonstrates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism that is accessible to workers and other external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by its operations.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability performance but can further link this policy to enhancements in nature-related objectives and social issues. Furthermore, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose whether its highest governance body has specific expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

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

Sustainable development strategy
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including social inclusion and climate, 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 an opportunity to decrease its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and report progress against these targets.

Food loss and waste
The company discloses its FLW reduction targets, but it does not measure its progress against these targets.

Protein diversification
The company has an opportunity to set a sales-based target to increase alternative proteins across its portfolio, as well as report progress against this target.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
While the company demonstrates its dedication to sustainable fishing and aquaculture, there is an opportunity for the company to present measurable evidence of an increase in sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices. To achieve this, the company can disclose specific targets for implementing sustainable fisheries and aquaculture across its entire portfolio, and regularly report on its progress towards these targets.

Accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to shift its focus from philanthropic to commercial activities to improve the accessibility of nutritious foods, especially for vulnerable groups. It can also implement commercial activities to improve the affordability of nutritious foods. Furthermore, setting targets to improve the accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods, focusing on vulnerable groups through its commercial activities is an opportunity.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to adopt a nutrient profiling system and to set a sales-based target to increase the percentage of more nutritious products, aligning with government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines.

Food safety
The company currently discloses that 17.39% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme. However, it has the potential to expand these certifications to cover 100% of its own operations. Additionally, the company has the opportunity 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 the presence of at least one of these two programs: nutrition-focused health check; nutrition education. Moreover, it could disclose quantitative evidence on its healthy food offerings program and expand its nutrition initiatives to its supply chain workers.

Child labour
The company prohibits suppliers from using child labour and its foreign worker’s recruitment policy mandates audits to ensure age verification systems are in place. However, it could require the implementation of an age verification system for all the workers within its supply chain. Although the company has a monitoring system for child labour, it could indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impact as well as disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has set up initiatives to improve the sustainability of the farms but it could demonstrate how it improves farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Forced labour
The company has an opportunity to indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company has an opportunity to recognise the specific health and safety risks to vulnerable groups.

Land rights
The company could require its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rights holders paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rights holders, and negotiating 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
Charoen Pokphand Group could disclose that it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships, as well as describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts. Further, the company has an opportunity to disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document, as well as specify that it does not make political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
Charoen Pokphand Group 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. Furthermore, it could disclose how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. Finally, the company has an opportunity to 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 the human rights that the ILO has declared to be fundamental rights at work, and publicly expect its suppliers to make the same commitment. Further, Charoen Pokphand Group can increase disclosure on its process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across its supply chain.