Hormel Foods

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

Plastic use and sustainable packaging
Hormel Foods discloses a 2020 target to reduce its product packaging by 25 million pounds compared to a 2011 baseline. It reports that it surpassed this by a further 1.5 million pounds in 2019. The company has also set a new goal to focus on sustainable packaging efforts across its own operations but is yet to report on this. It has an opportunity to work with partners to tackle this issue across its supply chain as well.

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
Hormel Foods discloses a ‘20 by 30’ sustainability strategy, building on previous sustainability efforts and addressing topics across all three benchmark dimensions of environment, nutrition and social inclusion. In the company’s latest Corporate Responsibility Report, it sets targets for these material topics. However, it could further strengthen its commitment to food system transformation by setting additional targets which address the company’s influence throughout its value chain, as well as in its own operations.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development strategy
The company assigns accountability for its sustainable development strategy to its highest governance body, the board of directors, and has a specific Corporate Responsibility Steering Committee, whose role is to provide direction for and approval of the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities. Hormel Foods also reports that 10% of its chief executive officer’s remuneration package is based on the achievement of key ESG objectives, although it has an opportunity to improve its performance by confirming that these objectives address topics across all three benchmark dimensions.

Stakeholder engagement
Hormel Foods outlines how it undertakes stakeholder engagement activities, disclosing its key stakeholder groups, how it engages with them, how it responds to their interests and how outcomes are integrated into its sustainable development strategy. The company could strengthen its reporting by disclosing how it identifies and prioritises its key groups of stakeholders.

Water use
The company had a 2020 goal to reduce water use by 10% against a 2011 baseline and exceeded this in 2016. The company then went on to implement additional projects, eventually exceeding its original goal by 82% by 2020. Hormel Foods has also calculated its operational footprint in water-stressed areas using the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct tool. It could further demonstrate leadership by tackling issues of water withdrawal in its supply chain.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
Hormel Foods had a 2020 time-bound target to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 10% against a 2011 baseline and reported progress against it. As part of its new goals, the company aims to establish important science-based GHG emissions reduction targets by 2023, yet many of its peers have already set such targets aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative’s 1.5-degree warming trajectory. The company could improve its performance by accelerating the formation of such targets and addressing its scope 3 emissions within this.

Protection of natural terrestrial habitats
The company sources two high-risk commodities. For palm oil, it commits to sourcing only sustainable palm oil that is fully traceable to the plantation level. For beef, it reports sourcing from suppliers who follow Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef principles. However, it is yet to report on these commitments or disclose the primary geographic locations from which it sources.

Food loss and waste
Hormel Foods aims to achieve zero food waste by 2030. As a member of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, it supported the Food Waste Reduction Alliance’s efforts to halve food waste by 2020, based on 2016 levels. However, does not report on its own contributions to this target.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
Hormel Food’s Applegate brand was founded with a mission to ‘change the meat we eat’. At the company level, Hormel Foods promises to utilise an ecological outcome verification programme to measure its efforts and work with producers to adopt regenerative agriculture principles. However, it could further strengthen this commitment by setting targets or disclosing quantitative data to demonstrate an increased proportion of production of food from such sustainable practices.

Availability of healthy foods
While the company discloses a target to reduce sodium levels in selected products by an average of 15% by 2020, and reports progress against the target, it does not accompany this with similar targets for sugar, trans fats, calories or addressing nutrient deficiencies. Similarly, while the company does disclose a sales-based target related to new products, it does not link this to the adoption of a nutrient profiling system to address the healthiness of these new products.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company has a commitment towards improving the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods and supports this with its work with the Twin Cities Mobile Market, a grocery store on wheels that sells fresh fruits, vegetables and other healthy products at below-market prices in low-income neighbourhoods. Hormel Foods could strengthen its commitment by setting targets to further improve accessibility and affordability.

Clear and transparent labelling
Hormel Foods complies with USDA and FDA regulatory requirements in relation to back-of-back labelling in the United States (US). While the company reports on its internal processes to ensure nutrition-panel information is accurate, it does not demonstrate that it has adopted an (interpretive) front-of-pack labelling scheme, nor disclosed the proportion of products for which such schemes have been rolled out.

Food safety
The company reports that 26 of its production sites are certified to a scheme recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative, although it is unclear if this covers 100% of its operational footprint. Similarly, the company does not disclose food safety data for its supply chain.

Farmer productivity and resilience
While the company has a commitment to support the resilience, productivity and access to markets for family farmers in its supply chain, it has an opportunity to disclose evidence of related activities.

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 policy requiring its suppliers to have an age-verification system in place.

Forced labour
While the company commits to prohibiting forced labour in its own operations and supply chain, and prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents, it has an opportunity to disclose a similar requirement that prohibits restricting workers’ freedom of movement in its 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.

The company commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights in its own operations and expects the same of its suppliers. It also has a grievance mechanism which is available to both employees and external stakeholders. While Hormel Foods conducts a human rights topic assessment biannually, it could improve its score by disclosing further information on its process to identify, assess and take action to address its human rights salient risks, as well as disclosing the groups of stakeholders whose human rights are potentially or actually impacted by its activities.

Hormel Foods publicly commits to the health and safety of its workers and codifies similar expectations in its Supplier Responsibility Principles. The company also discloses the percentage of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements and the gender diversity of its board, although it does not accompany the latter with a commitment towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. It also does not disclose commitments or targets related to paying its workers a living wage.

The company publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on the use of personal data. It also discloses a policy that prohibits bribery and corruption and a grievance mechanism to report violations. The company specifies that it does not make political contributions and discloses its annual lobbying expenditures in relation to its US-based activities. However, Hormel Foods does not disclose a global tax policy or its income tax payments for all relevant tax jurisdictions.