Corteva Agriscience

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
The company discloses that it has established 14 goals to achieve by 2030 in order to increase the resilience of the global food system. These goals are based on its materiality assessment. It further discloses time-bound targets for its most relevant sustainability topics. However, there is an opportunity for Corteva Agriscience to establish targets covering sustainability topics across all three benchmark dimensions (environment, nutrition and social inclusion) in relation to both its own operations and its value chain.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company reports that its Sustainability, Safety and Innovation Committee’s responsibilities include overseeing and advising the board on the company’s corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility programmes and activities. Nevertheless, it does not disclose its executive-level or highest governance body’s remuneration policy regarding sustainability. The company could also improve by establishing a policy covering sustainability topics across all three benchmark dimensions.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses that it undertakes stakeholder engagement activities and provides an overview of the issues raised. However, it does not provide information on its processes to identify and engage with relevant stakeholders, nor on the outcomes of its activities and how they are integrated into its sustainability strategy.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
Corteva Agriscience discloses a target to achieve a 65% intensity reduction in scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a 20% intensity reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2030. However, the company has yet to report progress against the targets.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
Corteva Agriscience discloses a target to improve soil health on 30 million hectares by 2030. Furthermore, the company states in its 2025 sustainability criteria for new products that they should provide a statistically significant improvement in the soil health index score in more than one key indicator. These indicators notably include a comprehensive assessment of soil health. Nevertheless, the company has yet to report progress against both targets.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
While the company is committed to pursuing more sustainable delivery systems, including targeted delivery, low use rates and technologies that reduce drift and waste, it does not provide quantitative evidence of optimising the use of fertilisers and pesticides. Therefore, the company has room to strengthen its commitment by disclosing quantitative evidence of optimising the use of fertilisers and pesticides. It could also set a time-bound target to optimise use of fertilisers and pesticides and report progress against the target.

Water use
While the company discloses a target for new products to have at least a 10% improvement in water use efficiency by 2025, it has yet to report progress against it. Furthermore, the company states it will use the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct tool to identify sites in high water stress and water-stressed areas. However, it does not demonstrate quantitative reductions in water withdrawals across its operations.

Food loss and waste
Corteva Agriscience discloses a target for new products to achieve a 5% reduction in food waste at production (e.g. harvest loss) or post-harvest stages under standard conditions for food crops by 2025. However, it does not report progress against it.

Availability of healthy foods
The company discloses that it supports the production of healthy and nutritious food through its biofortification activities of staple crops. The company reports that it is part of the Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project, a public-private partnership that it is working on biofortification of sorghum by increasing the level of vitamin A. There is an opportunity for Corteva Agriscience to enhance the reporting of its activities’ impact and demonstrating they contribute to increasing the production and variety of healthy and nutritious foods.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company commits to addressing food insecurity and discloses evidence of activities and value chain partnerships to improve the accessibility of healthy and nutritious foods. For example, it discloses its partnerships in Tanzania with USAID to support farmers access to high-quality inputs. However, it does not report quantitative evidence of the impact of its projects.

Workforce nutrition
The company does not disclose sufficient evidence of having any workforce nutrition programmes.

Child labour
While the company commits to prohibiting child labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard, it has an opportunity to disclose a coordinated and consistent monitoring system for its own operations and supply chain.

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 that it specifically recognises the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

Farmer productivity and resilience
Corteva Agriscience discloses a target to increase the productivity, incomes and sustainable farming practices of 500 million smallholder farmers cumulatively by 2030. Nevertheless, there is a lack of transparency on the support activities the company conducts. Furthermore, the company does not demonstrate that it is measuring the outcomes and impact of its support activities. Overall, there is an opportunity for Corteva Agriscience to increase disclosure on its activities supporting the resilience, productivity and access to markets for farmers.

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.

Corteva Agriscience provides grievance mechanisms for workers and commits to respecting the human rights of workers in its supply chain. However, the company does not commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights in its own operations. Moreover, no commitment to human rights was found in the public domain, and the company does not provide evidence of a human rights due diligence process or engagement with affected and potentially affected stakeholders. No grievance mechanism accessible to external stakeholders was found.

While Corteva Agriscience commits to health and safety, it can improve its performance by increasing its disclosure on quantitative information for its workers. Moreover, no evidence of policies or commitments related to living wages, working hours, collective bargaining, workforce diversity or gender equality was found in the public domain.

Corteva Agriscience publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a global privacy statement on the use of personal data. There is room for the company to strengthen its policies on bribery and corruption as well as lobbying and political engagement. Moreover, Corteva Agriscience does not disclose evidence of a global tax strategy or its income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions.