ICL

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
ICL annually undertakes a materiality assessment to evaluate the company’s and its stakeholders’ most important topics which results in its sustainability targets. The resulting materiality matrix feeds into the company’s sustainability vision and strategy, which encompasses environmental targets, social targets, and keeping supplier and procurement policies up to date, including with regard to social issues. However, ICL has an opportunity to set similar targets and objectives in the nutrition area.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development strategy
ICL’s board of directors discusses sustainability topics every meeting and approves the Sustainability Report. However, the company does not disclose its highest governance body’s remuneration policy or if it is in any way linked to environmental, social or nutrition targets.

Stakeholder engagement
ICL explains how it identifies material topics via surveying different stakeholders. The company has Community Advisory Panels to engage with different stakeholders, but it is unclear what its activities consist of. Individual business units, investors and trade associations are engaged with directly. The findings of the engagement are organised in a materiality matrix. However, ICL has an opportunity to disclose the process for identifying relevant stakeholders.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
ICL targets reducing all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 45% by 2030, against a 2008 baseline year, and achieved 24% by 2020. A disaggregation of the target into scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions is not provided. The company reports that it has transitioned most of its sites in Europe to 100% renewable electricity in 2018-2019. ICL has an opportunity to align with a 1.5-degree warming pathway.

Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions
While the company provides evidence that it is measuring scope 3 GHG emissions by disclosing segments of these emissions, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets and reporting progress against them.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
ICL partners in CocoaSoils, a long-term project in West Africa, which aims to deploy an integrated soil fertility management approach in the region’s cocoa farms by training farmers to embrace an integrated systematic approach to cocoa intensification by using improved planting materials, canopy cover management and pest/disease control together with targeted fertiliser application to enhance sustainability and avoid deforestation. Reuse of locally available organic nutrient sources and appropriate intercropping are also features of this programme. ICL could benefit from measuring its impact on the ground in the context of these programmes.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
ICL reports efforts to optimise fertiliser use through the production of controlled release fertilisers and discloses quantitative data regarding its impact. While the company discloses that it has reduced its production of internationally-recognised harmful pesticides such as methyl bromide, it is yet to phase out the use of such products nor has it set targets to increase the percentage of production from sustainable practices that optimise use of both fertilisers and pesticides.

Water use
ICL does not disclose targets for reducing overall water withdrawals. Despite efforts to reduce potable water use, the company reports that its overall withdrawal peaked in 2017 and is expected to increase in the coming years.

Plastic use and packaging waste
ICL is one of the initiators of the PolyStyrene Loop recycling project. This project introduces a recycling scheme for polystyrene foams containing the flame-retardant hexabromocyclododecane. However, it is not a commitment nor an effort to reduce plastic use. Evidence of ICL’s plastic use reduction efforts is limited to phasing out single-use plastics for consumption in its Israeli plants. As such, the company has an opportunity to set targets to reduce plastic use and reporting against these targets.

Availability of healthy foods
ICL reports to help tackle micronutrient deficiency by creating biofortification products via its participation in the HarvestZinc project, which aims to create fertiliser sprays enriched with zinc, iodine, iron and selenium. The project is part of HarvestPlus, which develops and promotes new, more nutritious varieties of staple food crops with higher amounts of vitamin A, iron or zinc. ICL has an opportunity to disclose supporting quantitative data to demonstrate the impact of its own contribution to the project, including changes in the nutritional value of the resulting products.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
ICL collaborates in the Feed the Future Tanzania – Mboga na Matunda (fruit and vegetables) project, aimed at increasing productivity and profitability of smallholder horticultural farms in Tanzania. The project’s objectives included increasing smallholders farmers access to affordable and quality fertilisers products, together with trainings and nutrition education. However, ICL has an opportunity to disclose the impact of its projects that address food insecurity by improving accessibility and affordability of healthy foods.

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

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
ICL discloses multiple programmes, partnerships and projects to support farmers. These include Potash for Life (farmer training in India), CocoaSoils (integrated soil fertility management in West Africa), USAID nutrition training in Tanzania and HarvestZinc (a global project for biofortification of grains with zinc, iodine, iron and selenium). While ICL reports that these projects have reached over 375,000 farmers, it has an opportunity to disclose data that demonstrate the impact of all of these 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 coordinated and consistent monitoring system for its own operations and supply chain.

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

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.

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.

ICL commits to respecting human rights and the relevant ILO Conventions, but it has an opportunity to take that commitment further by requiring its business relationships to do the same. The company provides grievance mechanisms for its workers and external parties alike.

ICL provides qualitative evidence of how it cares for the health and safety of its workers, discloses workforce diversity and commits to gender equality. The company can improve by increasing women in leadership and improving gender pay gap disclosures. Importantly, the absence of living wage and working hours commitments shows a lack of concern for the wellbeing of workers along the supply chain.

The company has an anti-bribery and anti-corruption commitment and a whistle-blower mechanism, but it does not disclose how it identifies those cases and their impacts. ICL does not disclose any policies regarding personal data protection, responsible tax or political engagement, showing a lack of transparency and commitment towards these issues.