NorgesGruppen

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses sustainability targets in topics, including climate, nutrition, and social inclusion. It reports consistently on progress against all of its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company reduces its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. It reduces its scope 1 emissions from 25,960.1 tCO2 in 2021 to 23,183.7 tCO2 in 2022, and its scope 2 emissions, from 65,806.9 tCO2 in 2021 to 58,870.4 tCO2 in 2022.

Food loss and waste
Between 2021 and 2022, there was a quantitative decrease in the amount of food loss and waste (FLW) generated by the company. Moreover, the company discloses its FLW reduction targets, which are in line with SDG12.3 (50% reduction by 2030), and also reports progress against them.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates commitment and partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. Moreover, it provides quantitative data to disclose their progress in reducing plastic use and adopting sustainable packaging. It has also set a target to decrease the proportion of virgin fossil plastic in their packaging and products made from plastic, and regularly reports on its progress.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company sets goals for reducing the volume share of food products and sold weight of sugar, saturated fat, and salt by 2025, and provides updates on its progress. Additionally, the company aims to increase the value share of Keyhole labelled products, and reports its progress towards this target. Furthermore, the company strives to increase the percentage of fruit and vegetables, and also provides updates on its progress towards this goal.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company discloses that it has adopted the Keyhole front-of-pack labelling system, which helps consumers identify the healthier options when buying food.

Land rights
The company has a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights. It states that it ensures respect for the individual and collective rights to land and other resources of local communities through negotiation. This includes cases where such rights have not been formally registered or in cases of conflict.

Act ethically
The company has a policy against bribery and corruption. Additionally, it incorporates clauses specifically addressing anti-bribery and anti-corruption measures into all its contracts with business partners.

Provide and promote decent work
The company’s commitment to health and safety is evident in its publicly available policy statement that extends to its business relationships, expecting them to prioritise workers’ well-being. Moreover, it sets clear expectations that workers should not exceed 48 hours in a standard work week or 60 hours including overtime.

The company also discloses the proportion of women in various employee categories within its direct operations workforce. It also has a specific target to increase women’s representation to 40% in management positions and store managers by 2025. Furthermore, the company demonstrates its commitment to gender equality at the board level, disclosing that out of 13 board members, 6 are female, resulting in a board composition of 46.15% women.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement, committing it to respecting the ILO core labour rights. It also has a publicly available policy statement, expecting its suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. Additionally, the company indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers. The channel is open for anyone to make a report, and complainants have the option to either remain anonymous or identify themselves.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company states that it has a Sustainability Director and departments responsible for climate and sustainability but could further clarify whether its sustainability strategy covers both environmental and social issues. It could link senior executives’ compensation to targets and objectives that 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, including how external stakeholders are involved in the process, how regularly the assessment is undertaken, and the outcome of the process. While it discloses certain sustainability objectives, including those related to nutrition, there is room 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 an opportunity to align its scope 1 and 2 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory. It could also disclose a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions that is aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory and report progress against the target.

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

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.

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 disclose that it uses a nutrient profiling system that is aligned with government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to disclose the percentage of products for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been rolled out.

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment to food safety and demonstrate that its operations and supply chain adhere to food safety standards.

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 discloses that it phases out child labour in its operations and supply chain by ensuring that children are provided with the opportunity to earn a livelihood and receive an education until they reach the age where schooling is no longer compulsory. However, it 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. Moreover, the company prohibits its suppliers from using child labour but could require them to have an age-verification system in place.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company discloses how it purchases ingredients from local food producers, but it could provide more details on how it improves farmer resilience through its procurement practices. Also, it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it identifies living income benchmarks and assesses living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Forced labour
The company discloses a prohibition to retain workers’ personal documents for its operations and supply chain. However, it has an opportunity to disclose a prohibition to pay recruitment fees or related costs in its value chain. Furthermore, it could indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Land rights
The company could require its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rights holders paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rights holders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

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 the opportunity to enhance its transparency regarding bribery and corruption risks and impacts within specific locations or activities, particularly within its own operations. While it maintains a mechanism for stakeholders to report concerns related to bribery and corruption, it could further clarify the accessibility of this mechanism to all stakeholders and the options for anonymity.

Furthermore, the company could establish a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement and emphasises its non-participation in political contributions. The company could go a step further by disclosing its expenditures related to lobbying activities, and mandating third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose its monitoring mechanisms for assessing supplier health and safety performance. Additionally, while the company pays its employees a minimum wage, it could commit to paying a living wage and set a related time-bound target.

Furthermore, the company has the opportunity to elaborate on how it determines the living wage for the specific regions where it operates. It could also add a requirement to its suppliers to pay a living wage and describe its strategies to support them in meeting this requirement.

Moreover, the company has an opportunity to make a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Additionally, it could disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration between women and men within its total direct operations workforce.

Respect human rights
The company could enhance its commitment to human rights by disclosing a policy statement explicitly committing to respect human rights. It could also provide insight into its process for identifying human rights risks and impacts, especially within specific locations or activities that encompass its own operations.

While the company mentions conducting due diligence, it could further clarify whether this process includes human rights due diligence for identifying risks and impacts within its supply chain. Additionally, the company could explain how it assesses and identifies its significant human rights issues and share the results of its human rights risk assessment. To demonstrate a comprehensive approach, the company could establish a global system aimed at addressing, preventing, or mitigating its significant human rights issues.