Nichirei

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses some industry associations it is a member. It could further disclose a full list for all geographies where it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and states the frequencies and 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 time bound target related to climate and social inclusion. It reports consistently against all its targets.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates commitment, has policies or partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. Additionally, it discloses quantitative data with regards to plastic use reduction and use of sustainable packaging.

Water withdrawal
The company demonstrates commitment in reducing water withdrawal in its own operations. Additionally, it reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

Workforce nutrition
The company has implemented a nutrition-focused health check and nutrition education programmes for its employees. Since 2016, the company has been providing lectures and participatory events led by professionals, covering topics such as a healthy diet.

Child labour
The company requires suppliers to prohibit involving children who are under the minimum working age. Furthermore, it discloses that suppliers shall verify the age of recruited workers to avoid violation of the minimum working age.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company shows how it works to enhance farmers’ income resilience by buying the entire crop, which generates a stable income for contract farmers. Additionally, the company helps improve their cultivation skills.

Act ethically
The company has a publicly available policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption. Furthermore, it discloses data on its expenditures on lobbying activities domestically and specifies it does not make political contributions overseas.

Provide and promote decent work
Nichirei demonstrates its commitment to workers’ health and safety through accessible policy statements. It sets expectations for business partners to uphold the same standards. Furthermore, the company shares the percentage of women in various employee categories and aims to increase the representation of female line managers to 30% by FY 2031.

Respect human rights
Nichirei’s commitment to human rights is evident through publicly available policy statements, including respect for ILO core labour rights. It also extends its commitment by setting expectations for suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. Furthermore, the company maintains a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability performance but can further link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. While stating that the board of directors has the expertise in sustainability, 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
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, it can report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainable development strategy
The company states that it has a materiality assessment; however, it has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts, including how external stakeholders are involved in the process and how regularly the assessment is undertaken. Additionally, while the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and social inclusion, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has a target to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and reports progress against this target specifically for Japan. However, it could further establish a group-wide target and report progress against such targets, covering all operations and locations. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to decrease its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by disclosing a time-bound target and reporting progress against the target. It could further enhance its environmental commitments by aligning its scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

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

Antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
While the company states that it sells antibiotic-free chicken, it has an opportunity to disclose a policy on reducing the use of antibiotics and/or growth promoting substances. Moreover, it can disclose targets to phase out the prophylactic use of antibiotics across all species, geographies and products and report progress against them.

Food loss and waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose its target(s) for reducing food loss and waste (FLW) and to provide updates on the progress made towards these target(s). Additionally, the company can align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims to achieve a 50% reduction in FLW by 2030.

Protein diversification
While the company discloses its intentions to partake in protein diversification activities, it has an opportunity to set a sales-based target to increase alternative proteins across its portfolio, as well as report progress against this target.

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 other consumer-facing nutrition labels that assist consumers in making healthier food choices. Additionally, the company can disclose the percentage of products or menus for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been implemented.

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, the company can disclose the percentage of food suppliers who are certified under a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

Workforce nutrition
The company has an opportunity to disclose evidence of other workforce nutrition programmes, such as workplace breastfeeding support and healthy food offerings. Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to implement workforce nutrition programmes for its supply chain workers.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and to indicate how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and to assess living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Forced labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose requirements related to forced labour 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.

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
The company has an opportunity to enhance transparency by describing how it identifies bribery and corruption risks within its operations. While it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts, it could specify the consequences from breaching these clauses. Furthermore, it could further clarify if its mechanism for raising concerns ensures anonymity and protection from reprisals.

Additionally, the company can develop a policy outlining its approach to lobbying and political engagement, promoting responsible practices. Disclosing a policy statement affirming no political contributions and requiring third-party lobbyists to adhere to company standards would further demonstrate ethical engagement.

Provide and promote decent work
The company can enhance transparency by revealing its approach to monitoring the health and safety performance of suppliers. While it currently pays minimum wage, there is room to demonstrate a stronger commitment by setting a time-bound target for a living wage. It can also elaborate on how it determines this wage for different regions. Additionally, it can extend its expectations for supplier wages by including a living wage requirement and detailing its support mechanisms.

A public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment can further bolster its responsible practices. Increasing the representation of women on the board to a minimum of 30% would also demonstrate commitment. Furthermore, the company could disclose the ratio of women’s to men’s remuneration across different roles and locations.

Respect human rights
While the company acknowledges the importance of due diligence to prevent negative impacts on human rights, it can further elaborate on its process for identifying such risks in specific locations and activities within its operations. Similarly, the company can extend this process description to encompass its supply chain. The company also has room to enhance its transparency by disclosing the outcomes of its human rights risk assessment.

Furthermore, the company could elaborate on its process for identifying salient human rights issues, building upon its existing list of human rights concerns. Additionally, the company has the opportunity to reveal a comprehensive global system for addressing, preventing, or mitigating its salient human rights issues.