Keurig Dr Pepper

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member. It however has an opportunity to disclose all trade association for all jurisdictions where it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses the channels it uses to engage with each stakeholder group.

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. Furthermore, it reports consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company discloses its target to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% by 2030.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company is actively engaged in efforts to reduce plastic usage and transition to sustainable packaging. It provides quantitative data related to the reduction of plastic use and the adoption of sustainable packaging. Additionally, the company has established a goal to decrease the use of new plastic materials and regularly updates on its progress towards achieving this target.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses its commitment to regenerative agriculture focused on improving soil health. Specifically, it is committed to supporting regenerative agriculture and conservation on 250,000 acres of land, which represents approximately 50% of the land used to grow three of its priority crops (coffee, corn and apple), by 2030. The company also reports progress against its target.

Water withdrawal
The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company discloses that it has implemented voluntary front-of-pack calorie labeling. It also has an opportunity to adopt an interpretive front-of-pack labeling system.

Responsible marketing
The company has a responsible marketing policy tailored to children.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has partnered with the Sustainable Food Lab to understand the challenges in improving farmer income, and it has identified living income benchmarks for smallholder coffee farmers in Peru. Also, it actively engages farmers in the design and implementation of living income strategies. It has examined different sourcing and financing programs to identify the best mechanisms for increasing profitability among coffee growers, and has sought proposals from farmers for focused impact investments. In addition, it discloses an ambition to address barriers to entry in its supply chains.

Forced labour
The company discloses a prohibition to use any recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job and retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement for its operations and supply chain. Furthermore, it indicates the tools used to assess and address forced labour issues in the supply chain between 2021 and 2023 as the Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project and the Responsible Business Alliance’s Validated Assessment Program (VAP).

Land rights
The company requires its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rights holders paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rights holders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Living wage
The company provides a description of a living wage study carried out in Colombia, which was aligned with the methodology of the Anker Research Institute, as conducted by Verite.

Act ethically
The company has a publicly disclosed commitment to protecting personal data, has a policy that prohibits bribery and corruption, and provides a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints about bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing to the health and safety of its workers and expects its business relationships to do the same. It discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of these business relationships. The company provides data on its workforce, including the proportion covered by collective bargaining agreements, the proportion of women by employee category, and the racial or ethnic breakdown by employee category. It sets goals to increase the representation of women in director and above positions to 33% by 2025 and aims to increase the number of women and people of color in leadership roles by 25% by 2025. The company also discloses that 36.36% of its board is comprised of women.

Respect human rights
The company has publicly available policy statements committing it to respect human rights and expecting its suppliers to respect the ILO core labor rights. It publicly discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments and provides a case study describing its actions on a salient human rights issue. The company engages with stakeholders potentially affected by its activities and indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to both its workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted.

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 nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Furthermore, it states that the board of directors has expertise in nutrition. However, it could further disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics including climate, water, soil health, social inclusion, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Lobbying and advocacy
While the company states some of its processes and commitments, it has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets. Moreover, it could report (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 ongoing and regular stakeholder engagement activities, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, soil health, social inclusion and nutrition, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has an opportunity to set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, in alignment with a 1.5-degree trajectory. It is also encouraged to report progress against all of its scope 1,2 and 3 targets.

Food loss and waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose its food loss and waste (FLW) reduction target and report progress against it. Additionally, the company can consider aligning its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction by 2030.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence of reductions in water withdrawal across its own operations. While the company discloses reduction targets related to water use, it has an opportunity to disclose a target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and report progress against it. The company also has an opportunity to engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has made a commitment to achieve 60% of its U.S. product portfolio to provide “positive hydration”. This means that their products will either include a serving of fruit or vegetable or meet a calorie threshold and a percentage of nutrients to encourage. Furthermore, the company has shared examples of reformulated products in its major brands, aiming to reduce sugar and calories. However, there is an opportunity for the company to provide more data on how it is reducing sugar and calories and increasing the inclusion of fruits and vegetables across its entire product range.
The company can consider adopting a nutrient profiling system and setting a sales-based target to increase the percentage of more nutritious products, aligning with government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to disclose the percentage of products 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 healthier and more nutritious food options.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
While the company discloses that it has carried out studies to determine living income in Peru and Colombia, it has an opportunity to disclose how it assesses living income gaps.

Forced labour
The company has an opportunity to provide an analysis of trends demonstrating progress in relation to eliminating forced labour from its supply chain.

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 could disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rightsas set out in the relevant part(s) of the VGGT’s or the IFC Performance Standards.

Living wage
The company has an opportunity to disclose a target for paying a living wage across its direct suppliers. 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 could clarify how it identifies bribery and corruption risks in specific operations and locations. Though its supplier code forbids bribery and includes FCPA compliance as a termination factor, it’s unclear if similar clauses exist in other business contracts. While the company’s Political Engagement Approach document outlines its lobbying strategy, a formal public policy document would offer more clarity. The firm states that its government affairs team and general counsel approve political donations, but could specify if these are made only exceptionally and list the criteria. Some lobbying expenses are disclosed; however, the company could extend this to all locations or clarify if lobbying is region-specific. Lastly, it could indicate that third-party lobbyists must adhere to its lobbying policies.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company states it pays its employees a minimum wage, it has the opportunity to commit to a living wage by setting a time-bound target and disclosing how it calculates a living wage for different regions where it operates. Additionally, it can outline how it supports its suppliers in paying a living wage. Although the company has made a statement on gender equality and women’s empowerment, it could formalize these commitments in a public policy document. Furthermore, the company has the opportunity to disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration between women and men across all employee categories and significant locations of operation.

Respect human rights
The company discloses its commitment to respecting the ILO’s fundamental rights at work but could strengthen this by using more formal language. Although it has identified some human rights risks in its own operations, it has an opportunity to clarify the process used for risk identification. While the company does conduct due diligence to identify high-risk supply chains and suppliers related to forced labor, it could expand this to include other human rights risks and impacts across different locations and business relationships. Additionally, while the company identifies its salient human rights issues in its coffee supply chains, it could also describe its process for assessing and disclosing salient human rights issues in its own operations.