Conagra Brands

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company is actively working to decrease its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and has set a specific timeframe to achieve these reductions. Also, the company regularly reports on the progress against its emissions reduction targets.

Animal welfare
The company discloses evidence of processes of animal welfare third-party certifications and third-party audits. It also discloses a target that addresses animal welfare issues in its supply chain and reports progress against it.

Ecosystem conversion
The company discloses that 100% of its virgin for fiber-based packaging was certified under Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and/or Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) chain of custody certifications. Also, 77% of its paper supply was certified under PEFC. Additionally, it discloses that all its suppliers have either Rainforest Alliance Chain of Custody certification, NDPE policy or 2025 no deforestation goals that include reforestation and agroforestry efforts that support biodiversity.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company is committed to reducing plastic usage and transitioning to sustainable packaging. It actively participates in activities aimed at achieving these goals. Moreover, the company discloses quantitative data relating to plastic reduction and its usage of sustainable packaging. The company has established a target to avoid the use of 33 million pounds of plastic by 2025 through thoughtful design and the use of renewable and more readily recyclable or compostable materials, and consistently reports its progress.

Water withdrawal
The company reports the amount of water it withdraws for its own operations in water-stressed areas. Additionally, the company actively collaborates with suppliers to decrease water withdrawal.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

Forced labour
The company prohibits the payment of any recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job, and it does not retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement in its supply chain.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. It also discloses a public commitment to protect personal data.

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 business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. It also discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Furthermore, the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group and by race or ethnicity, and the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. It also discloses a target to increase the female representation by at least 40% in management-level roles by 2025.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and indicates that it 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
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 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 states that it has a materiality assessment but could further disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts, including how external stakeholders are involved in the process and how regularly the assessment is undertaken. While it discloses certain sustainability objectives, including those related to climate and soil health, there is room to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. The company reports against some targets including climate and plastic; however, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has an opportunity to align its scope 1 and 2 emissions targets with the 1.5-degree trajectory. Additionally, there is potential for the company to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. While the company currently discloses a target to reduce scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services by 20% per metric ton of material sourced by 2030, compared to the fiscal year 2020 baseline, it could set a target to reduce all of its scope 3 emissions and align it with the 1.5-degree trajectory.

Animal welfare
The company has an opportunity to set animal welfare targets applicable to all species, geographies and products.

Ecosystem conversion
While the company has a target to achieve conversion-free supply chains, it has an opportunity to specify the certification models used to guarantee that they are DCF-aligned.

Food loss and waste
The company has the chance to disclose its FLW reduction targets and report on the progress made towards achieving these targets. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction by 2030.

Water withdrawal
The company discloses that its total water withdrawals in FY21 increased approximately 8% over FY20, however, no evidence found that the company discloses quantitative reductions in water withdrawal across its own operations.The company discloses that it has set site specific water use intensity reduction targets beginning in 2012 and has implemented a number of water use reduction projects, however, no evidence found that the company has a target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and reports progress against the target.

Accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment and commercial activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods.

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 adopt front-of-pack labels or any other consumer- facing nutrition labels that support consumers with making healthier food choices. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of products/menus for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been rolled out.

Responsible marketing
The company has an opportunity to provide evidence of marketing activities to promote heathier and more nutritious food options (in accordance with a government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines).

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations. Further, it prohibits its suppliers from using child labour but could require them to have an age-verification system in place. The company has an opportunity to indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts.

Forced labour
For its operations, the company has an opportunity to disclose a prohibition to pay recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job, to retain workers’ personal documents or to restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Further, it could 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 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.

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, and include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. It could have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach and, although it states that it makes political contributions after approval from the Vice President & Chief Counsel of Marketing & Government Affairs, it could disclose that these are made only by exception and the criteria for making them. Furthermore, the company discloses some information regarding its lobbying expenditures but could disclose expenditures in all locations where it carries out lobbying activities or specify it only does so in specific countries or regions. It could also disclose that it requires third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company could 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. 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. Additionally, it could disclose how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers and a public commitment to women’s empowerment. 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 a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect specific workers’ rights but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work. It also expects its suppliers to respect specific workers’ rights but could reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work. Furthermore, the company could describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities, covering its operations and supply chain. It could also disclose its process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human right risks, and its global system to act on, prevent or mitigate those risks.