Lindt & Sprüngli

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.

Ecosystem conversion
The company discloses that since 2015, it has sourced 100% of its palm oil, palm kernel oil, and their fractions with RSPO certification.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company is committed to reducing plastic use and transitioning to sustainable packaging. It actively participates in activities related to these objectives. Additionally, the company provides quantitative data on its plastic use reduction efforts and the use of sustainable packaging. It has also set a target to reduce total virgin plastic use by 20% by 2025 and consistently reports on the progress towards this target.

Water withdrawal
The company takes action to reduce water withdrawal in its own operations and collaborates with suppliers to achieve the same in its supply chain.

Responsible marketing
The company has a responsible marketing policy tailored to children, which includes restrictions that apply when a minimum of 30% of the audience consists of children under the age of 16 years. Furthermore, the company provides evidence of compliance with its responsible marketing policy for children through third-party auditing.

Child labour
The company provides training for its Program staff at the supplier level. Additionally, it actively encourages its suppliers to implement preventive measures at a systemic level, with a focus on eliminating child labor and enhancing working conditions for young workers in the community. Furthermore, the company presents an analysis of trends to showcase the progress made in eradicating child labor from its supply chain.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company discloses that, since 2020, all of its cocoa beans can be traced back to the farmers and have been externally verified. It partners with cocoa farmers through its Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in which suppliers receive additional funds on top of the market price to offer premiums to the farmers. Also, it purchases cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana at the full Living Income Differential price. Further, the program supports farmers to professionalise their operations, diversify their sources of income and access financial knowledge and services, including start-up capital.

Forced labour
The company discloses that assessed suppliers gain access to human rights training materials and resources to help them meet our human rights commitments, which includes materials on forced labor, through EcoVadis.

Act ethically
The company maintains a strict policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, which is incorporated into its contracts with direct business relationships through anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses. It provides a transparent channel for raising concerns and complaints related to bribery and corruption via an email address and a dedicated website. Importantly, this channel is open to all, with options for anonymity or self-identification.

Additionally, the company actively discloses its lobbying expenditures, demonstrating transparency in its political engagement activities. Furthermore, it ensures that third-party lobbyists adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy, reinforcing its commitment to ethical practices in this domain.

Provide and promote decent work
The company demonstrates a strong commitment to worker health and safety through publicly available policy statements for both its own operations and its business relationships. Furthermore, it upholds fair labor practices by publicly expecting that workers should not exceed 48 hours in a regular work week or 60 hours, including overtime.

Moreover, the company promotes labor rights by disclosing that 48% of its workforce benefits from collective bargaining agreements. It emphasizes gender equality and transparency by disclosing the proportion of women in various employee categories and setting a clear time-bound target of achieving 40% women in senior leadership positions by 2025.

Respect human rights
The company publicly commits to respecting human rights and expects its suppliers to adhere to ILO core labor rights. It openly shares the results of its human rights risk assessments. In addressing child labor in its cocoa supply chain, it focuses on high-risk countries, aiming to cover all cocoa from these regions with a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) by 2025. They’ve developed the Community Child Protection System (CCPS) and engaged stakeholders in reviews, monitoring, and staff training.

Moreover, the company actively involves a wide range of stakeholders whose human rights may be affected by its activities. It maintains accessible human rights grievance mechanisms for both its workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company’s operations.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to non-financial targets but can further link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Moreover, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has 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 human rights due diligence process.

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including ecosystem conversion and social inclusion but can further establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Moreover, while it reports qualitative progress against all its targets, it has an opportunity to disclose quantitative information regarding its current status.

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.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to set a time-bound target for reducing water withdrawal in its own operations and to report on its progress towards that target. Additionally, the company can also disclose the amount of water it withdraws for its operations in water-stressed areas.

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 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/menus 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/certification programme or other widely recognised (industry-specific) certification. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations. While the company prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it has an opportunity to require them to have an age-verification system in place.

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 a prohibition to pay recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job, to retain workers’ personal documents or to restrict workers’ freedom of movement in its operations and supply chain.

Act ethically
The company could outline its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks and their impacts in specific locations or activities, focusing on its own operations. Furthermore, the company can develop a policy that clearly states its approach to lobbying and political engagement. Additionally, the company has the chance to make a public declaration stating that it does not make any political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company can enhance its reporting by detailing its health and safety monitoring process for suppliers and setting clear targets for achieving a living wage. Additionally, it could provide insights into how it determines living wage rates in various regions and consider introducing mandatory living wage requirements for suppliers while disclosing support mechanisms. Moreover, there’s an opportunity to publicly commit to gender equality, work towards achieving a minimum of 30% women on the board, and disclose gender-based salary ratios across different job categories and significant locations.

Respect human rights
The company could consider using stronger language to turn its statement into a formal commitment in which it commits to respect the ILO’s fundamental rights at work. Additionally, the company can take the opportunity to outline a clear process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities, both within its own operations and throughout its supply chain. While the company currently discloses its salient human rights issues, there is room for improvement in terms of clearly disclosing the process for assessing the significance of these risks.