Mars

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

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Mars has set targets to reduce scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 42% by 2025 and 100% by 2040 compared to 2015. These targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and are aligned with a 1.5 degree warming scenario. The company also reports progress against the targets via CDP disclosure.

Availability of healthy foods
Mars has developed Food Nutrition Criteria to guide its approach to product (re)formulation. The criteria include limits for sugar, salt, and fat content, as well as targets for the inclusion of vegetables, wholegrains and legumes. The company aims to have 95% of Mars Food products meet Mars Food Nutrition Criteria and reports on the proportion of products that currently meet these criteria.

Workforce nutrition
Mars demonstrates that it supports healthy food at work, nutrition education and nutrition-focused health checks. Moreover, the company discloses quantitative evidence that most of the food offerings on all workdays are healthy and that the majority of cafeteria provide healthy options for employees.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Mars discloses objectives covering sustainability topics across the three dimensions in environment, nutrition, and social inclusion. However, the company does not disclose sufficient evidence on its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics, as well the outcome of this process in relation to its boarder sustainability strategy.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Mars discloses that it has a Vice President of Sustainability within the company who leads and reports directly to the CEO on sustainability issues. The company confirms that accountability and oversight of its sustainability strategy lie with the highest governance body. Moreover, the company has linked the remuneration of its highest governance body with climate targets. However, the company could strengthen its highest governance body’s remuneration policy by including social and nutrition targets as well.

Stakeholder engagement
The company does not disclose stakeholder engagement activities, including how it selects the stakeholders, nor an overview of the topics discussed or their outcomes.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
Mars has set time-bound targets for all of its relevant high-risk commodities (palm oil, soya, cocoa, beef) regarding deforestation. For example, Mars discloses that it is committed to sourcing 100% deforestation-free palm oil by the end of 2020. However, it does not report the proportions of its portfolio or supply chain which are currently deforestation and conversion-free (DCF). Going forward, the company could also disclose the sourcing regions of all of its high risk commodities.

Food loss and waste
Mars provides details of efforts to reduce food and other waste at all 126 production facilities around the world. For example, it is one of the participating suppliers of the 10x20x30 initiative, which aims to halve food loss and waste by 2030. However, the company has an opportunity to improve its disclosure by providing quantitative evidence of reducing food loss and waste, setting a time-bound target and reporting progress against it.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company discloses a target that by 2025, it plans to reduce its virgin plastic use by 25% and that it aims for 100% of its plastic packaging for products to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. Mars also discloses collaborations and partnerships with value chain partners which look to address the issue, such as the Consumer Goods Forum. However, Mars does not currently report progress against this target, presenting an opportunity for the company for future reporting.

Responsible marketing
Mars has a responsible food marketing policy. This is aligned with international codes and guidelines and includes a specific provision for marketing to children and young people. The company can improve by disclosing activities supporting the policy which applies to children and young people, including efforts which support the promotion of healthy food options.

Food safety
Mars is a member of the steering committee of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). However, it could improve by disclosing the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme or certification programme, where relevant to the business.

Child labour
Mars indicates that it will not use child labour in its own operations and codifies this in a supplier code of conduct. In addition, suppliers are required to have an age verification mechanism in place. While the company has set a target to deploy child labour monitoring and remediation systems at 100% of its high-risk cocoa suppliers by 2025, the company does not yet demonstrate that it monitors its full operations and all high-risks suppliers for the presence of child labour.

Forced Labour
Mars commits to prohibiting forced labour in its own operations and supply chain. In addition, suppliers are required to refrain from retaining workers’ personal documents and restricting workers’ freedom. The company has an opportunity to demonstrate that it is monitoring its full operations and all high-risk suppliers for the presence of forced labour.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
Mars has a commitment to improve farmer productivity and increase smallholder farmers’ incomes by 2025. It also provides training on good agricultural practices to farmers in its supply chain. However, there remains room for the company to disclose the specific impact of a proportion of these activities.

While Mars publicly commits to respecting human rights in its value chain, it lacks disclosure on how it implements and monitors this commitment as well as on other key human rights indicators. This includes how and whether it identifies human rights risks and impacts. Moreover, it does not provide disclosure on how it engages with potentially affected stakeholders and whether it provides a grievance mechanism for both workers and external parties, presenting an opportunity for future reporting.

Mars has commitments to health and safety and gender equality but does not provide evidence of how these are enforced. For example, the company could disclose time-bound targets towards addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. Moreover, there is a lack of sufficient information on whether the company provides and promotes decent work, including commitments towards paying a living wage, expectations regarding working hours in its own operations and supply chain and collective bargaining and workforce diversity issues.

While Mars has a privacy statement, it is unclear whether the company protects the data of every stakeholder who engages with the company. Moreover, regarding responsible lobbying, the company could increase the level of disclosure on expenditures. Similarly, while the company provides a channel for its workers to raise bribery concerns, it is unclear whether the mechanism is also accessible to external individuals and community members. There is a lack of sufficient evidence on responsible tax policies also, including a global tax strategy which has been approved by the board of directors.