LDC Groupe

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

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.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company discloses that it uses production contracts, which guarantee prices and protect farmers’ income. Additionally, it provides investment aid to support farmers in adapting their farms to meet the company’s requirements.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company publicly states that workers shall not be required to work more than 48 hours in a regular work week or 60 hours including overtime. Furthermore, it has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers. Additionally, it has 40% women on the board.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the ILO core labour rights and indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has an opportunity to strengthen its sustainability governance and accountability by designating an individual or body to implement its sustainability strategy and by assigning decision-making and oversight to its highest governance body. It could link senior executives’ compensation to sustainability targets/objectives. Additionally, it could disclose if the highest governance body has expertise in its 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 can provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, the company 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 how it engages with stakeholders, the issues raised during such activities, and the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement.

Sustainable development strategy
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. Furthermore, while it discloses some sustainability objectives including those related to water and ecosystem conversion, there is a room to establish group-wide targets for the most material topics of its value chain. Additionally, while the company reports consistently against some targets including water and nutrition targets, it has an opportunity to report consistently against 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.

Animal welfare
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment and targets that address key animal welfare issues in its supply chain.

Antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment and targets to reduce the use of antibiotics and growth promoting substances in its supply chain. Further, it could disclose a reduction in the total use of antibiotics classified as medically important antimicrobials by the World Health Organization.

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

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence regarding plastic use reduction and use of sustainable packaging.

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.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to enhance its disclosures relating to soil health and agrobiodiversity.

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 currently 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 to set a sales-based target to increase the proportion of more nutritious products.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to disclose how it provides nutritional information on its products and how it supports consumers with making healthy food choices through its labelling schemes.

Food safety
The company currently discloses that 89% of its own operations are certified to IFS, BRC, or FSSC 22000. Furthermore, it has set a goal to have 95% of its plants certified by 2025. However, there is an opportunity for the company to further extend certifications to reach 100% coverage across its own operations. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of food suppliers that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Responsible marketing
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment to responsible marketing and its marketing activities to promote healthy food options.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to prohibit child labour in its supply chain and an age-verification system for 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 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.

Land rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights. Furthermore, it could describe a process at its operations and supply chain level to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders when acquiring, leasing or making other arrangements to use land and to negotiate with them to provide 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 an opportunity to include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. Additionally, it could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, it could disclose a confidential and anonymous mechanism accessible to all stakeholders to raise bribery and corruption concerns and complaints without fear of reprisals.

Additionally, the company has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach and specify that it does not make political contributions. Furthermore, it could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities and its requirement for third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement that expects its suppliers to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers and how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers.

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

In terms of gender equality and women’s empowerment, the company has an opportunity to disclose a public commitment along with time-bound targets. It could further disclose 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 has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. However, it has an opportunity to use stronger language to turn the statement into a formal commitment. Additionally, while it expects its suppliers to respect specific workers’ rights, it could reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work.

Moreover, 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 its supply chain. Furthermore, it could disclose the results of its human rights risk assessment and its process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Lastly, the company has an opportunity to disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.