ED&F Man

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company reduces its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

Child labour
The company discloses that it works with its supply chain to eliminate child labour by means of a joint project promoting child education in Uganda.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has modified its purchasing strategy in Honduras by establishing direct relations with local smallholder farmers instead of buying from intermediaries. It demonstrates how it partners with coffee farmers through its Volcafe Way programme. The program enables farmers to access markets directly by selling to Volcafe and supports them in professionalizing their businesses. Additionally, works with farmer associations and assists farmers in diversifying their income. Further, it reports on the impacts of the programme.

Act ethically
The company ensures transparency across various aspects of its operations. It discloses a privacy statement regarding the use of personal data, underlining its commitment to data protection. Additionally, the company shares its global tax strategy, overseen by the Group’s Chief Financial Officer and approved by the main Board.

Furthermore, the company maintains a policy that strictly prohibits bribery and corruption, and enforces a supplier code of conduct that bars bribery and corruption. It also emphasizes its commitment by reserving the right to ensure compliance, whether through its internal processes or independent third-party verification, reaffirming its dedication to responsible business practices.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement that outlines its expectation for business relationships to prioritize the health and safety of their workers. It also has a publicly available commitment to ensuring the well-being of workers in terms of health and safety.

Respect human rights
The company has a policy statement that commits to respecting human rights. It also has a publicly available policy statement which expects suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights.

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, the company can provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, the company can report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to explain how it has responded to key issues raised by each stakeholder group and disclose specific outcomes implemented to respond to key issues for each stakeholder group, beyond materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a sustainability strategy with nature and social-related targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company can take advantage of the opportunity to announce reductions in Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, it can establish time-bound targets that are in line with the 1.5-degree trajectory.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose activities and time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

Food loss and waste
The company has the chance to share its FLW reduction targets and track progress towards achieving them. Additionally, it has the opportunity to align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction by 2030.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence regarding plastic use reduction and use of sustainable packaging.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production and sourcing practices, and to report progress against the target.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to enhance its disclosures relating to water use and withdrawal.

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 disclose its commitment and activities to address malnutrition and food insecurity.

Food safety
The company has the chance to showcase that all of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme or any other widely recognized certification program specific to the industry. Additionally, the company can also disclose the percentage of food suppliers that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Workforce nutrition
The company has an opportunity to disclose evidence of workforce nutrition programmes.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and to demonstrate a progressive trend in eliminating child labour from its supply chain. While the company prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it could require them to have an age-verification system in place.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
While the company indicates that it works to improve living income, it has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some commodities and/or regions.

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 direct suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to describe its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks and impacts, specifically in relation to its own operations and activities in specific locations. While the company provides an email address for employees to report concerns about bribery and corruption, it is unclear if this channel is accessible to all stakeholders.

Additionally, the company has the opportunity to establish a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement. The company currently states that political donations require written approval from the Group Legal department. However, it could further clarify whether such donations are only made under exceptional circumstances and the specific criteria for approving them.

Furthermore, the company could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities as part of its transparency efforts. It could also require third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy, thus ensuring consistency in their practices.

Provide and promote decent work
The company currently pays its employees minimum wage, but it could demonstrate commitment to fair wages by setting a specific target for achieving a living wage. It would also benefit from disclosing how it determines a living wage within its operational regions.

Moreover, while supplier wage expectations are in place, the company could fortify its stance by mandating a living wage requirement and disclosing associated support measures. It also has an opportunity to reveal its supplier health and safety monitoring process.

Furthermore, the company could solidify its support for gender equality and women’s empowerment by translating these statements into a dedicated public policy. Alongside this, revealing specific, time-bound targets for gender equality and women’s empowerment would be constructive. Currently, women comprise 25% of the leadership team, a percentage that could be further elevated. Disclosing the ratio of women’s basic salary and overall remuneration to that of men in its direct operations workforce would bolster transparency.

Respect human rights
The company states that it allows freedom of association and recognise the right to collective bargaining. However, it has an opportunity to use stronger language to turn the statement into a formal commitment. Additionally, the company could outline the specific process it employs to identify human rights risks and impacts in particular locations or activities, encompassing both its own operations and its supply chain. Furthermore, it could elaborate on its process for assessing and determining its salient human rights issues. Lastly, the company could disclose a global system aimed at addressing, preventing, or mitigating its salient human rights issues.