Lamb Weston

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, for 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.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company demonstrates commitment to reduce fertiliser use by disclosing a target to reduce 5% use of nitrogen, water, and AI pesticide per ton grown by 2030, and reports on the progress. Additionally, it shares findings and expertise from its Information Edge program with farmers to help them make data-driven farming decisions aligned with best practices.

Food loss and waste
Between 2021 and 2022, there was a quantitative decrease in the amount of FLW generated by the company. The company’s FLW reduction targets are aligned with SDG 12.3 goal (50% reduction by 2030).

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company describes how it will reduce plastic use and transition towards sustainable packaging by reducing fossil-derived resources, designing for recycling, sourcing sustainably and enhancing material innovation.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company provides qualitative evidence of efforts to improve soil health.

Water withdrawal
The company reports the amount of water withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

Food safety
The company demonstrates that all of its operations have received certification from a food safety scheme recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). Additionally, the company reports that 94% of its tier 1 ingredients supplier locations, excluding potatoes, are also certified by a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption. Additionally, it 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 make the same commitment. The company also discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships. In addition, the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements.

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. While it states that the board of directors has expertise in sustainability, 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, climate, water, soil health, social inclusion, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member, however an opportunity to disclose a full list of trade associations of which it is a member for all jurisdictions in which it operates. Also, it 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 discloses certain sustainability objectives/targets, including those related to climate and water. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, it could report consistently across all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has an opportunity to disclose reductions in Scope 1 and 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, and set time-bound targets aligned with the Paris agreement’s 1.5 degree pathway.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
While the company discloses a target to reduce nitrogen use and reports progress against it, it is not clear if it leads to the optimization of fertilizer use. The company thus has an opportunity to disclose a target to optimise the use of fertilisers in its production and/or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Food loss and waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose its FLW reduction targets and report progress against them.

Plastic use and packaging waste
While the company reports some data with regard to its packaging, it has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence of plastic use reduction and the use of sustainable packaging.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Water withdrawal
The company has several opportunities to demonstrate its commitment to reducing water withdrawal. Firstly, it can disclose quantitative evidence of the reductions in water withdrawal across its own operations. Secondly, it can establish a time-bound target to further decrease water withdrawal and regularly report on its progress towards achieving this goal. Lastly, the company can also engage with its suppliers to actively reduce water withdrawal.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate how it is improving the nutritional quality of its products and to set targets to increase the share of more nutritious products in its portfolio.

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

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 prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it could require them to have an age-verification system in place.

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.

Act ethically
The company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships, but has an opportunity to specify the consequences of breaching these clauses, and to process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities.

The company outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement and states that it makes political contributions only after approval from the Legal Department. However, it could formalise this approach in a public policy document and disclose the criteria for approval. The company could also disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities, and a requirement for third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company states that it pays minimum wage to its employees, it has an opportunity to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. Similarly, while the company has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment.

While the company is committed to diversity and equal pay for equal work, it has an opportunity to explicitly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment and to disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. The company discloses the portion of board members that are women, but it is currently below the 30% threshold.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement committing it to respect human rights. Currently, the company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect specific workers’ rights and expects its suppliers to make the same commitment, but it has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work, including freedom of association. The company could also describe the process for identifying and mitigating its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities, covering its supply chain, and disclose the results of its human rights risk assessment.