Parlevliet & Van der Plas

Lobbying and advocacy
The company upholds transparency by providing a list of trade associations of which it is a member.

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. Furthermore, it reports consistently against all its targets.

Antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
Parlevliet & Van der Plas discloses targets to phase out the prophylactic use of antibiotics across all species, geographies and products, and reports progress against them.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company is engaged in activities aimed at reducing plastic use and transitioning to sustainable packaging. Additionally, Parlevliet & Van der Plas provides quantitative data regarding its efforts in reducing plastic use and implementing sustainable packaging.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company demonstrates its commitment to sustainable fishing and aquaculture through the use of qualitative evidence and adherence to environmental sourcing criteria.

Water withdrawal
Parlevliet & Van der Plas demonstrates a reduction of water withdrawal in its own operations. This disclosure reflects the company’s dedication to sustainable and responsible water usage.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

Child labour
The company discloses an age verification system for the workers recruited for its operation and supply chain. Furthermore, it requires suppliers to prohibit child labour.

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 operations.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company recognizes that certain groups of workers are more vulnerable to health and safety risks. This includes migrant and temporary workers, older and younger workers, new and expectant mothers, and workers with disabilities. Furthermore, the company provides specific information about the risks that these groups might face.

Act ethically
The company discloses a privacy statement on the use of personal data. Also, it discloses a policy on bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contractual agreements with business relationships.

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses a policy commitment to respecting the health and safety of workers for its operations and supply chain and provides evidence of how it monitors its suppliers’ performance on health and safety standards.

Respect human rights
The company discloses a policy statement committing to respecting human rights and the fundamental rights at work declared by the ILO in its operations.

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 environmental and social issues. Furthermore, it could 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 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.

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
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, nutrition and water, 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 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.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
Although the company demonstrates a commitment to sustainable fishing and aquaculture, it could enhance this by offering quantitative evidence that reflects the growth of its sustainable practices. Additionally, the company has the chance to disclose targets for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for its entire portfolio and report on the progress made towards these targets.

Water withdrawal
The company is focused on reducing water withdrawals but also has an opportunity to improve in terms of reporting relevant data or showcasing reductions in water withdrawals within a specific timeframe. Additionally, the company can demonstrate transparency by reporting the amount of water it withdraws for its own operations in areas where water scarcity is a concern. Furthermore, the company has the chance to collaborate with its suppliers to actively decrease 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 discloses its target to reduce the proportion of sodium in some of its products by 10% before 2030. It also states that it is developing products with less salt and no additives. However, there is potential for improvement in reporting its overall efforts to reduce sugar, sodium, and fat, across its entire portfolio. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to establish nutrition criteria and to set a sales-based target to increase the proportion of more nutritious products.

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 certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

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 can seize an opportunity by turning its statements and expectations into policy requirements for suppliers. This includes clarifying the prohibition on retaining workers’ personal documents, restricting their freedom of movement, and ensuring there are no payment of recruitment fees. Moreover, the company should outline its collaborative approach with suppliers to prevent forced labor impacts.

Living wage
The company discloses its goal to pilot living wages in one high risk country by 2030. Also, it discloses that next year, it will conduct a living wage baseline research and set-up a pilot plan for one of its high risk countries. However, it has an opportunity to describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it sources and 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 could disclose its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption and a grievance mechanism allowing stakeholders to raise related concerns. Also, it has an opportunity to disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document and state that it does not make political contributions and divulge its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company states that it pays minimum wage to its employees. However, it has an opportunity to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target and describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates.

Additionally, although the company has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it could add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment.

Furthermore, the company could commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment and disclose related targets. It could also disclose the representation of women on the highest governance body and the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company expects its suppliers to respect specific workers’ rights but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work.

Additionally, it could describe a comprehensive process for identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities and supply chain. Also, it could further disclose its processes for assessing its human rights risks, what it considers to be its salient human rights issues and how relevant factors are taken into account, such as geographical, economic, social and other factors. Lastly, the company has an opportunity to describe its global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issues.