Loblaw

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and states the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, the company’s stakeholder engagement covers nature, nutrition, and social issues.

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.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against them.

Food loss and waste
The company has set FLW reduction targets that are in line with the SDG 12.3 goal of a 50% reduction by 2030. To achieve this, the company works closely with its value chain partners to prevent the generation of FLW.

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

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company discloses a commitment to sustainable fishing and aquaculture with reference to environmental sourcing criteria.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company recognizes health and safety as a human rights risk, with different risk profiles for domestic, migrant, and international workers.

Act ethically
The company has a policy commitment prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes similar clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Further, the company discloses a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to voice complaints and concerns related to bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
Loblaw has a policy statement that outlines its commitment to prioritizing the health and safety of its workers. This policy also extends to its business partners, emphasizing the company’s expectation for them to prioritize health and safety as well. In addition, Loblaw discloses how it actively monitors and evaluates the performance of its business relationships in terms of health and safety. The company also discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements.

On workforce diversity, Loblaw discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender, race or ethnicity, and disability. To advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, Loblaw discloses its target to maintain at least 40% female on the board of directors and increase women’s representation in management positions and senior positions to 40% and 43%, respectively, by 2024. Currently, the board of directors is consists of 41.7% women.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement that commits to respecting human rights. It also describes the process for identifying and assessing human rights risks and impacts throughout its operations and supply chains. This process is carried out through a partnership with ELEVATE. Additionally, the company has implemented a human rights grievance mechanism that is accessible to both workers and external stakeholders.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability performance but can further link this policy to improvements in nature-related objectives and social issues. While stating that the board of directors has expertise in environmental and social topics, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose whether its highest governance body has specific 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
While the company discloses its membership in some trade associations, it has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member for all jurisdictions where it operates. 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.

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and social inclusion but could further establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. While the company reports consistently against some targets including climate and social inclusion, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has the opportunity to align its scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
While the company states that some of its products come from animals raised without antibiotics, it has an opportunity to disclose a policy on reducing the (prophylactic) use of antibiotics and growth promoting substances. It could also disclose targets to phase out their prophylactic use across all species, geographies and products, and report progress against the targets.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose its efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation or restoration. The company could develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Food loss and waste
The company discloses its FLW reduction targets; however, it does not track progress towards these targets.

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.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company has an opportunity to disclose specific data illustrating the growth of its sustainable sourcing practices. It is recommended that the company discloses measurable goals for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture across its entire portfolio, and reports on the progress made towards achieving these objectives.

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 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 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. In addition, 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 showcase that all of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme or another well-known (industry-specific) certification. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of food suppliers 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 carries out Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) and identifies child labour as a significant risk. However, there is an opportunity for the company to provide concrete examples of how it supports children’s education and enhances working conditions for young workers. Though the company already prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it can further require an age-verification system. Moreover, it collaborates with suppliers to address compliance issues but could disclose how it collaborates with them to combat child labour.

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 could disclose a prohibition on paying recruitment fees or related costs, as well as retaining workers’ personal documents or restricting their freedom of movement. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to translate its related expectations for suppliers into policy requirements. Although the company collaborates with suppliers to resolve compliance issues, it can also outline how it is actively assisting suppliers in enhancing their capacity to prevent forced labour impacts.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company discloses that it identifies migrant workers, women, and young people as vulnerable populations. However, it has an opportunity to identify vulnerable groups in relation to health and safety.

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
Loblaw has an opportunity to describe its process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts across its own operations. Additionally, the company could disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document. It also has an opportunity to specify that it does not make political contributions and to divulge its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
Loblaw 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, as well as how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. Furthermore, it could disclose how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. While disclosing targets related to gender equality and women’s empowerment, the company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment on the topic. Further, in addition to disclosing the the pay gap between its corporate colleagues (5.73%), Loblaw has an opportunity discloses 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 specific workers’ rights but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work in its operations and supply chain. Moreover, the company could disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.