K+S

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company provides evidence of linking performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its regular and ongoing stakeholder engagement activities as well as the engagement channels and frequencies, for each stakeholder group.

Sustainable development strategy
The company reports consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company states that it aims to reduce the absolute CO2 emissions (CO2e) which includes scope 1 and 2 emissions of group worldwide by 10% by 2030.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity.

Water withdrawal
The company showcases its commitment to reducing water withdrawal in its own operations, while also reporting the exact amount of water withdrawn in water-stressed areas.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. The company also has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. The company also discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships and the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Additionally, the company discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category and that its Supervisory Board set a target of 25% with regard to the equal participation of women and men in management positions.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments. It also indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders  who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company states that the board of directors has expertise in climate and social inclusion. However, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics including nutrition, water, soil health, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, it can report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainable development strategy
The company states that it has a materiality assessment but could further disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts, including how external stakeholders are involved in the process. While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, 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 can take advantage of an opportunity to decrease its scope 1,2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, it has the opportunity to set time-bound reduction targets for scope 1,2 and 3 emissions in alignment with a 1.5-degree trajectory and report progress against these targets.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company has an opportunity to disclose targets that encompass optimizing the use of fertilizers as part of its R&D and value chain activities, and report progress against these targets.

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 and report progress against it.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and reports progress against the target. Additionally, the company can also engage with its suppliers to find ways to reduce water withdrawal.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment and activities to address malnutrition and food insecurity.

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

Child labour
The company could provide examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company has in place expectations on the prohibition of child labour for its suppliers, it could disclose related policy requirements including the use of an age verification system for the workers recruited.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has set up initiatives to support farmers on the use of fertilisers but it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it improves farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it could demonstrate how it identifies living income benchmarks and assesses living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

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 does not publicly commit to respecting ownership and use of land, natural resources, and related legitimate tenure rights, as outlined in the relevant part(s) of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure (VGGT) or the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards. Additionally, the company does not enforce a requirement for its business relationships to establish a process for identifying legitimate tenure rights holders, with a special focus on safeguarding vulnerable or marginalized holders of such rights. Nor does it mandate negotiations with these holders to ensure fair and 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 suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company has a process for identifying bribery and corruption but could disclose details of this process. The company has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach and disclose a publicly available policy statement that specifies that it does not make political contributions. It could also disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities and that it requires third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company states that it works to ensure full compliance with applicable wages, it has an opportunity to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target and disclose how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. It could also add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment. Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to disclose a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category, by significant locations of operation.

Respect human rights
The company discloses statements committing it to respect the ILO’s fundamental rights at work. However, it has an opportunity to use stronger language to turn the statement into a formal commitment. It also expects its suppliers to respect specific workers’ rights but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities, covering its own operations and supply chain. The company could also describe its process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues and disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.