Murugappa Group

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

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

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

No leading practices were identified in the core social indicators area.

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 targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. 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 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 materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
The company states that it has a materiality assessment but could further disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts at group level. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and 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.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company has an opportunity to disclose targets to optimise the use of fertilizers and minimise the use of pesticides in its production and/or sourcing practices, and report progress against the targets.

Food loss and waste
The company has the chance to share its FLW reduction targets and provide updates on its progress towards achieving them. Additionally, the company can 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.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Water withdrawal
The company currently discloses the total volume of water withdrawn and reports a reduction in water intensity. However, there is an opportunity for the company to further demonstrate a reduction in absolute water withdrawal across its own operations. To achieve this, the company can disclose a time-bound target aimed at reducing water withdrawal and regularly report progress on this target. Additionally, it would be beneficial for the company to provide information on the amount of water withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. Finally, there is also an opportunity for the company to engage with its suppliers and work collaboratively to reduce 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 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 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 that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Child labour
The company can take advantage of an opportunity to share examples of remediation programs when instances of child labor are discovered within its operations. It can also highlight its efforts to enhance the capabilities of its suppliers in order to prevent child labor issues. Although EID Parry, the company’s subsidiary, already prohibits the use of child labor by its suppliers and mandates the implementation of age-verification systems, there is a further opportunity to disclose comparable requirements at the group level.

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.

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.

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.

Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to disclose a publicly available policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption, and incorporate anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. Additionally, it could describe the elaborate on how it identifies bribery and corruption risks and impacts in its own operations. Furthermore, while the company has a mechanism for stakeholders to raise bribery and corruption concerns, it could clarify that this mechanism is accessible to all stakeholders and that complainants have the option to reveal their identity or report anonymously.

Moreover, the company could outline its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a policy document. It could explicitly state that it does not make political contributions and divulge its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement committing to the respect of workers’ health and safety. It could extend this commitment to its suppliers and explain how it monitors their health and safety performance.

Additionally, the company could establish a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or report progress toward achieving this goal. It could also clarify how it determines a living wage for its operational regions and outline its efforts to assist suppliers in meeting this wage standard.

Furthermore, although the company claims to offer equal opportunities, it could explicitly pledge to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Setting specific time-bound targets and reporting information such as the representation of women on the board and the gender pay gap would enhance transparency.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO fundamental rights at work in its operations and supply chain. Additionally, the company could outline its process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts within its operations and supply chain. It could also elaborate on its methods for assessing and identifying its salient human rights issues. Moreover, the company could disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.