Kyokuyo

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

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups and the impacts of these engagement activities on its sustainability strategy.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
Kyokuyo discloses that it is actively reducing its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

Animal welfare
The company discloses evidence of processes of animal welfare third-party certifications or third-party audits.

Food loss and waste
Between 2021 and 2022, there was a quantitative decrease in the amount of FLW generated by the company. The company discloses its FLW reduction targets and reports progress against its targets.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates commitment, has policies or partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company discloses that it has obtained the CoC certification for fish species registered by MSC / ASC. Moreover, it shares that it started processing MSC and ASC-certified marine products in 2006, and has consistently grown its range of registered fish species and handling quantities, while also extending its certification coverage. Additionally, the company highlights its commitment to increasing its handling of MSC / ASC and MEL certified products.

Water withdrawal
The company has a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal in its own operations and reports progress against the target.

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 has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. Additionally, it discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company disclose that it has a sustainability committee. Yet, it could further clarify if there are specific individuals, teams, or committees dedicated to executing its sustainability strategy. Furthermore, there is an opportunity to assign decision-making and oversight responsibility for its sustainability strategy to the highest governance body. It could link senior executives’ compensation to sustainability targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Additionally, while states that the board of directors has expertise in nutrition, it could disclose if the board has expertise in its most material sustainability topics.

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.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities.

Sustainable development strategy
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. Moreover, while it discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, it could establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has set a target to reduce its CO2 emissions by 1% by 2021 and has reported progress towards this goal. However, there is no evidence that the company has established forward-looking targets to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Although the company discloses its progress in terms of CO2 emissions intensity, it is unclear how it is progressing towards its targets for Scope 1 and 2 emissions. There is an opportunity for the company to align its Scope 1 and 2 emissions targets with a trajectory that aims for a 1.5-degree temperature increase.

The company states that it plans to implement comprehensive controls for CO2 emissions intensity at its food plant sites and cold storage facilities, with the aim of reducing emissions. However, there is no evidence of quantitative reductions being disclosed for its Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Furthermore, the company has the opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for reducing its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. It also has the chance to report progress towards these Scope 3 targets. Aligning its Scope 3 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory would be a valuable opportunity for the company to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability.

Animal welfare
The company has an opportunity to set animal welfare targets applicable to all species, geographies and products.

Antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy on reducing the (prophylactic) use of antibiotics and/or growth promoting substances. Moreover, it can disclose targets to phase out the prophylactic use of antibiotics across all species, geographies and products and report against them.

Food loss and waste
The company has an opportunity to align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3 (50% reduction by 2030).

Plastic use and packaging waste
While the company describes its activities to reduce plastic use and transition towards sustainable packaging, it has an opportunity to disclose the associated quantitative data.

Protein diversification
The company has an opportunity to set a sales-based target to increase alternative proteins across its portfolio, as well as report progress against this target.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company has the chance to provide specific data showcasing its advancements in sustainable fishing and aquaculture. Additionally, it can disclose its set goals for achieving sustainable fisheries and aquaculture across its entire portfolio, and track and report progress towards these goals.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to enhance its disclosures relating to water use and withdrawal.

Accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment and commercial activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods.

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 positive nutrients in its entire portfolio. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to establish nutrition criteria and to set a sales-based target to increase the proportion of more nutritious products.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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
While the company strives to prevent corruption, it has an opportunity to use a stronger language to turn the statement into a formal commitment. It could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts, and include related clauses in its contracts with business relationships. Although a mechanism exists for stakeholders to raise bribery and corruption concerns, it could disclose that it is accessible to all stakeholders, and that complainants have the option to identify themselves or remain anonymous.

Moreover, the company has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach and disclose its expenditure on lobbying activities. While it states that it makes political donations in compliance with relevant laws, it has an opportunity to disclose whether these are made only by exception, declare the criteria for making these exception, and mention about other political contributions apart from donations.

Provide and promote decent work
The company states that it strives to maintain a healthy and safe workplace environment and expects its suppliers to cooperate in its monitoring activities. It thus has an opportunity to use a stronger language to show a commitment to health and safety, and disclose how it monitors supplier performance.

Additionally, while the company pays wages in compliance with local labor laws, it has an opportunity to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. Related, the company has expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, and could add a requirement for them to pay a living wage and disclose how it supports the payment.

Moreover, while the company is committed to diversity, equitable employment and women’s empowerment, it has an opportunity to commit to gender equality, and formalise these commitments in a policy document. It could further disclose related time-bound targets, and divulge information on the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement supporting international norms regarding human rights, as well as specific workers’ rights in its operations and supply chain. It, however, has an opportunity to use a stronger language to turn these statements into a formal commitments, and reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work.

Additionally, while it states that it identifies human rights risks pertaining to its business activities, it can describe the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts covering its operations and supply chain. It could further describe how it assesses and identifies its salient human rights issues. While the company discloses that it remediates human rights violations, it could disclose a global system to act on all its salient human rights issues in all its activities.