Marfrig

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 specific reduction targets for its Scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions, which are also in line with a trajectory to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Moreover, regular reports are provided to track the company’s progress towards scope 1 and 2 emissions targets.

Animal welfare
The company discloses a target(s) that addresses animal welfare issues in its supply chain and reports progress against it.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has time-bound targets to achieve a 100% deforestation or conversion-free supply chain by 2025 in the Amazon, and by 2030 in the Cerrado and other biomes.

Water withdrawal
The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

Food safety
The company provides evidence that 100% of its own operations are certified to a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)-recognised food safety scheme.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has implemented its Bezerro Sustentável program in Brazil to provide support to small livestock farmers. This program aims to promote best production practices, offer technical assistance, help with land and environmental legalisation, and provide access to financing.

Act ethically
The company discloses a public commitment to protect personal data. Furthermore, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Moreover, the company has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and by country.

Respect human rights
The company indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to nature-related performance but can further link this policy to improvement in social issues. While stating that the board of directors has the expertise in biodiversity and climate, 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, water, soil health, social inclusion and ecosystem conversion.

Lobbying and advocacy
While the company discloses its membership in some of trade associations, it has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member of 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.

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 discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, water, and ecosystem conversion but could further establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. While the company reports against some targets including climate, 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 decrease its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and report progress against these reduction targets.

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

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

Food loss and waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose its food loss and waste (FLW) reduction targets and report progress against them. Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to align 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 establish a sales-based target to promote the adoption of alternative proteins throughout its product lineup. Additionally, the company should track and report progress made towards achieving this target.

Water withdrawal
The company has the chance to provide measurable proof of reduced water withdrawal in its own operations. While it currently discloses targets for reducing water consumption, absolute water use, and water intensity, it should also consider disclosing a target for reducing water withdrawal across its operations and track progress accordingly. Additionally, the company has the opportunity to collaborate with suppliers in order to decrease water 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 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 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 for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been rolled out.

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to disclose the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

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

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has set up initiatives to improve the productivity of the farms but it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it improves farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it could demonstrate how it identifies living income benchmarks and assesses 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.

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 has an internal audit plan to address corruption. However, there is an opportunity to describe the process it employs to identify its risks and impacts related to bribery and corruption.

Additionally, the company could consider establishing a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement. While the company has a publicly available policy statement that states its adherence to Brazilian law, which prohibits political contributions or donations, it could further clarify that it abstains from making such contributions in all countries where it operates. Moreover, the company has the potential to enhance its transparency by disclosing its expenses associated with its lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company values a healthy workplace and mandates its business relationships to provide resources to ensure employee safety. However, it could reveal a policy statement on respecting the health and safety of workers. This could be coupled with the disclosure of its supplier health and safety monitoring process.

While the company emphasizes fair remuneration benchmarked against market standard, it could commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. Also, it could outline the process of 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.

Furthermore, it could disclose a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment with related time-bound targets.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement aimed at fostering mechanisms to promote human rights and committing to specific workers’ rights. However, there is an opportunity to strengthen this commitment by referencing all the ILO fundamental rights at work and utilising stronger language to formalize this commitment. This commitment could also be extended to encompass its business relationships.

Furthermore, although the company has conducted a materiality study to identify priority areas for its business performance, it has an opportunity to describe a process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across its operations and supply chain. The company could also elaborate on its procedure for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Moreover, the company has the potential to disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.