Nisshin Seifun Group

Sustainable development strategy
The company reports consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has set a target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030, with the ultimate goal of reaching net zero by 2050. It regularly reports on its progress towards these targets. Through various initiatives, the company actively works to decrease its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions.

Food loss and waste
The company discloses its FLW reduction target and reports progress against its target. The company’s FLW reduction target is also aligned with SDG 12.3 goal (50% reduction by 2030).

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company shows its commitment by implementing policies and engaging in activities aimed at reducing plastic use and transitioning to sustainable packaging. Additionally, they disclose quantitative data on their efforts to reduce plastic use and promote sustainable packaging.

Water withdrawal
The company reports the amount of water it withdraws for its own operations in water-stressed areas. Additionally, the company collaborates with suppliers to minimize water withdrawal.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company recognises foreign workers and logistic workers as a vulnerable group in terms of health and safety. Furthermore, it discloses specific health and safety risks for these groups.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers. Furthermore, it discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category and has established a target to achieve at least 15% of management positions filled by women in fiscal year 2023.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing to respect human rights and the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) fundamental rights at work. It outlines its process for assessing human rights risks, using risk maps to identify high-risk items based on seriousness and potential occurrence. Moreover, the company discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues and has established a global system to prevent, mitigate, or remediate these issues. This system includes a description of how it applies to the supply chain. Additionally, the company reports the categories of stakeholders whose human rights may have been or could be affected by its activities, including foreign workers, employees, suppliers’ employees, consumers, and non-regular workers.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has an opportunity to link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Furthermore, while it states that the board of directors has expertise in sustainability, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s 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 for engaging with stakeholder groups, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
While the company states that it has a materiality assessment, 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. In terms of sustainability objectives and targets, the company has disclosed some regarding social inclusion, water, and climate. However, 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 the potential to align its scope 1 and 2 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory. In FY 2022, the company reported an increase in scope 3 emissions compared to FY 2021. Furthermore, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and report progress on these targets.

Water withdrawal
The company has the opportunity to provide quantitative evidence of water withdrawal reductions within its own operations. Currently, the company has an intensity-based target to reduce water withdrawal, but it also has the chance to establish an absolute target and track progress accordingly.

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 to set a sales-based target to increase the proportion of more nutritious products.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to adopt front-of-pack labels or any 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 labeling schemes have been implemented.

Food safety
The company has the chance to showcase that all of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme or another widely recognized industry-specific certification program. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to 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 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 is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company prohibits suppliers from using child labour, it has an opportunity to require them to have an age-verification system in place.

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 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.

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 requests it’s suppliers to pay fair wages in excess of the minimum wage and living wage, however, it could explain how it determines this wage and if it is enough to maintain a decent standard of living for employees of its business relationships and his/her family. Also, it has an opportunity to set a target for paying a living wage across its direct suppliers. Also, it could disclose the percentage of workers across its own operations or direct suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationships’ contracts. Additionally, it can establish a process to identify risks and impacts related to bribery and corruption. While the company has a mechanism for stakeholders to raise bribery and corruption concerns, it could further clarify the accessibility to all stakeholders and the option for anonymity.

Furthermore, the company could demonstrate ethical conduct by publishing a policy statement that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement, emphasises its non-participation in political contributions, and transparently discloses lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to workers’ health and safety by translating its expectation to its business relationships into a policy commitment and providing evidence of monitoring their compliance. Additionally, it could set a time-bound target for ensuring all workers receive a living wage, describe the living wage determination methodology, and disclose strategies to support suppliers in paying a living wage.

Furthermore, the company could formalise its statement on gender equality and women’s empowerment into a public policy document. It could also disclose that it has at least 30% women on the highest governing body.

Respect human rights
The company describes a process for identifying its human rights risks; however, it has an opportunity to specify if this covers all its suppliers.