Nissui Corporation

Stakeholder engagement
Nissui is committed to transparency in its stakeholder engagement practices. It provides a comprehensive overview of the various issues raised during its ongoing stakeholder engagement activities. Additionally, the company discloses the specific communication channels used and the frequency of engagements for each stakeholder group. This transparent approach ensures that stakeholders are informed about the company’s engagement efforts and highlights its dedication to open and accountable dialogue.

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 reduces its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. The company has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions. The company reports progress against these scope 1 and 2 targets.

Food loss and waste
The company collaborates with value chain partners to prevent FLW from being generated.

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.

Protein diversification
The company provides quantitative evidence of the growing presence of alternative proteins in its portfolio. Additionally, the company shares information about the proportion of alternative proteins and animal proteins.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company demonstrates its dedication to sustainable fishing and aquaculture by providing both qualitative and quantitative evidence. This evidence includes references to environmental sourcing criteria and disclosure of the company’s efforts to increase the percentage of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture operations.

Water withdrawal
Nissui showcases its commitment to responsible water management by implementing measures to reduce water withdrawal within its own operational activities.

Workforce nutrition
The company has implemented healthy boxed lunches to improve the diet and sodium intake of employees and has conducted health seminars on dietary improvements for employees’ health. Furthermore, the company has a policy/programme for workplace breastfeeding support.

Forced labour
The company prohibits the payment of any recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job, and it does not retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement in its supply chain.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement, which requires its business partners to prioritize the health and safety of their employees. Additionally, the company provides information on the percentage of women in various employee categories within its direct operations workforce. Furthermore, the company has set specific targets to maintain a 50% representation of women in its new hires each fiscal year, as well as ensuring that at least 10% of all managers and executive officers or general managers are women by 2025.

Respect human rights
The company publicly commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It extends this commitment to suppliers as well. In 2020, the company conducted a human rights risk assessment through a cross-departmental workshop. This assessment aimed to identify risks related to the company’s value chains, including general and cross-industrial human rights risks.
The company also discloses the categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. Also, it lists the identified risks while engaging with different stakeholders

The company facilitates a whistle-blowing system for its employees, allowing them to report violations anonymously or openly. This initiative demonstrates commitment to accountability and ethical conduct.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability performance but can further link this policy to enhancements in nature-related objectives and social issues. Furthermore, 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.

Lobbying and advocacy
While the company discloses its participation in external organizations, it has an opportunity to state 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.

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses certain sustainability objectives/targets, including those related to climate, water, and social inclusion. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most significant aspects of its value chain. While the company reports on some of their targets, including those related to climate, water, and social inclusion, there is an opportunity to report consistently across all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions targets have an opportunity to be aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. The company has an opportunity to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. The company has an opportunity to report progress against these scope 3 targets. The company’s scope 3 emissions targets have an opportunity to be aligned 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
The company 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 food loss and waste (FLW) reduction target for its global operations, not just limited to Japan. It should also provide regular updates on its progress towards achieving this target. Moreover, the company has the chance to align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction in FLW by 2030.

Protein diversification
The company has an opportunity to set a sales-based target to increase alternative proteins across its portfolio, as well as report progress against this target.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company has the chance to disclose targets for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture across its entire portfolio, and also to report on progress made towards achieving these targets.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to set a time-bound target for reducing water withdrawal in its own operations and track progress towards this target. Additionally, the company can report the amount of water it withdraws in water-stressed areas. Although the company already establishes expectations for suppliers to reduce water withdrawal, there is room for further engagement with them.

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 the chance to implement front-of-pack labels or other consumer-facing nutrition labels to help consumers make healthier food choices. Additionally, the company can disclose the percentage of products that have incorporated these front-of-pack labeling schemes.

Food safety
While the company discloses that 63% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme, it has an opportunity to extend the certifications to 100% of its own operations. Additionally, the company can disclose the percentage of its food suppliers that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Workforce nutrition
he company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence on healthy food offerings in its own operations and/or in its supply chain and to expand its nutrition initiatives to 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 is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it could 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
For its operations, the company could prohibit the use of recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job, retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Furthermore, it could indicate how it is building 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
While the company already prohibits bribery and corruption, there is an opportunity to reinforce this commitment by formalizing it in a public policy document. The company also has the potential to enhance its transparency and mitigation of bribery and corruption risks.

Furthermore, the company could incorporate anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses into its contractual agreements with business partners. The company currently provides a means for stakeholders to report concerns related to bribery and corruption. However, it is unclear whether this mechanism is easily accessible to all stakeholders and if individuals have the choice to remain anonymous.

Additionally, it has the opportunity to publicly disclose a policy statement confirming that it does not make any political contributions. The company could also consider disclosing its expenditures related to lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company could provide a policy statement that demonstrates its commitment to ensuring the health and safety of workers. It also has the chance to reveal its methods for monitoring the health and safety performance of its suppliers.

Although the company claims to pay minimum wage to its employees, it can make a commitment to paying a living wage by setting a specific deadline. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to explain how it determines what constitutes a living wage in the regions where it operates. While the company has established expectations regarding the wages paid by its suppliers, it could also incorporate a requirement for them to pay a living wage.

Furthermore, although the company has a statement on gender equality and women’s empowerment, it could take this further by creating a public policy document that translates this commitment into concrete actions. Lastly, the company could disclose the ratios of basic salary and remuneration between women and men in its total direct operations workforce.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to provide clarity on how it identifies human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities within its supply chain. Currently, the company states that it conducts human rights risk assessments and implements measures to prevent, mitigate, or remediate its salient human rights issues. However, it should also elaborate on how this process applies to its supply chain.