Kikkoman Corporation

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

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company is working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions across scope 1 and 2. As part of its efforts, it has set goals to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030, using 2018 as the baseline year. Additionally, the company regularly reports its progress in meeting these scope 1 and 2 targets. Moreover, the company has established a time-bound target to reduce scope 3 emissions.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses that it is working to create a better work environment for female employees. It aims to increase the percentage of female managers to 10% by 2025.

Respect human rights
The company has a public policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It also describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, the company discloses categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to climate but can further link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Furthermore, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose whether its highest governance body has specific 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, it could provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets and report any (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 stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process, including frequencies and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
The company states that it has a materiality assessment. However, it has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts, including how external stakeholders are involved in the process. Furthermore, while the company discloses some sustainability objectives or targets including those related to climate and social inclusion, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, while the company reports against some targets including social inclusion, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company states that it has adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015 to keep the average increase in global temperatures well below 2°C compared with before the industrial revolution and try to keep the average temperature rise below 1.5°C. Also, it states that it is committed to science-based targets (SBT). However, it could further disclose whether its scope 1 and 2 targets are aligned with 1.5°C trajectory.

Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emission. It could also report progress against its scope 3 targets and align them with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose its efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation or restoration. The company could develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Food loss and waste
Although the company discloses its food loss and waste (FLW) reduction target, it could further track progress towards this target. To enhance accountability, the company could align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction in food loss and waste by 2030.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company provides examples of reformulated products. However, there is potential for improvement in reporting its overall efforts to reduce sugar, salt, and fat, and/or increase the presence of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains in its entire portfolio. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to adopt a nutrient profiling system and set a sales-based target to increase the proportion of more nutritious products, aligning with government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to adopt front-of-pack labels or any other consumer-facing nutrition labels that support consumers with making healthier food choices. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of products for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been rolled out.

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate that 100% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme or other widely recognised (industry-specific) certification. Additionally, it could disclose the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to prohibit child labour in its supply chain and to require an age-verification system in its value chain. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some commodities and regions. Also, it could adopt procurement practices and develop supply chain relationships that improve farmers’ income resilience.

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.

Act ethically
While the company prohibits bribery and corruption, it has an opportunity to formalise this commitment in a public policy document and to include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contractual agreements with business relationships. Furthermore, it could disclose its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption and a grievance mechanism allowing all stakeholders to raise related concerns.

The company also has an opportunity to disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document and to state that it does not make political contributions and to divulge its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company states that it respects the health and safety of workers in its operations and supply chain, it could formalise this commitment in a public policy document and provide evidence of how it monitors its supplier performance on health and safety standards.

Additionally, the company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or state that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. It could also describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates and how it works to support its suppliers in paying a living wage.

Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It could also disclose the representation of women on the highest governance body and the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
While the company discloses statements expecting its suppliers to respect the ILO’s fundamental rights at work, it has an opportunity to place them in a formal policy document. Additionally, it could describe a comprehensive process for assessing and identifying human rights risks and impacts across its supply chain, and its salient human rights issues. It could also specify what it considers to be salient human rights issues, how relevant factors are considered such as geographical, economic and social, and how it acts to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issues through a global system.