Salling Group

No leading practices were identified in the governance and strategy area.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company is committed to reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and has set a time-bound target to achieve this reduction. Progress against these targets is reported. The company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory, demonstrating its dedication to addressing climate change. Furthermore, the company also focuses on reducing its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, with scope 3 emissions targets also aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates commitment related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company demonstrates its dedication to sustainable fishing and aquaculture by offering qualitative evidence and using environmental sourcing criteria.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company provides information on the number of products with the Keyhole and Whole grain labels. In addition, the company sets a goal to increase the number of products with the Keyhole label by 32% and the number of products with the Whole grain label by 16% compared to the beginning of 2022.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company maintains transparency in its global tax strategy, which includes disclosing that an executive-level individual/body is responsible for its implementation. Additionally, the company publicly reveals its income tax payments across all tax jurisdictions. In line with its commitment to ethical business practices, the company has established a robust policy prohibiting bribery and corruption. This anti-corruption stance extends to its contractual agreements, as the company incorporates anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses into contracts with direct business partners. Furthermore, to address any concerns or complaints related to bribery and corruption, the company has established a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to voice their issues.

Provide and promote decent work
The company’s commitment to responsible business practices is evident through its publicly available policy statement, which mandates that its business relationships prioritize the health and safety of their workers. Moreover, the company sets a clear expectation that workers should not be compelled to work beyond 48 hours in a standard work week, or 60 hours when including overtime.

In the spirit of transparency, the company also discloses the proportion of women within its direct operations workforce across various employee categories. Furthermore, the company demonstrates its dedication to gender diversity by reporting specific targets for increasing the representation of women in key positions, including the executive committee, vice presidents, directors, managers, and the total workforce, by the year 2030.

Respect human rights
The company, in its publicly available policy statement, firmly expects its suppliers to uphold and respect the core labor rights defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO). In addition to this commitment, the company demonstrates its dedication to human rights by maintaining a grievance mechanism that is accessible to all of its workers, ensuring their voices can be heard.

Moreover, the company extends this commitment to external stakeholders who may be negatively affected by its operations. It provides a human rights grievance mechanism that is readily accessible to these external stakeholders, emphasizing its commitment to addressing and rectifying any adverse impacts on human rights resulting from its activities.

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 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 how it engages with stakeholders, the issues raised during such activities, and the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement.

Sustainable development strategy
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. While it discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and ecosystem conversion, it could establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, it reports against some targets including climate; however, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has the chance to set a time-bound target for reducing its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the company has the opportunity to report on its progress in achieving these scope 3 targets.

Plastic use and packaging waste
While the company describes its commitments to reduce plastic use and transition towards sustainable packaging, it has an opportunity to disclose the associated quantitative data.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
The company has an opportunity to provide quantitative evidence of its efforts in boosting sustainable fishing and aquaculture. It can further disclose its targets for achieving sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture for the entirety of its portfolio, and provide regular reports on the progress made towards these targets.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to enhance its disclosures relating to water use and 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 has an opportunity to adopt a nutrient profiling system that aligns with government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines and to set a sales-based target to increase the percentage 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 reveal the percentage of food suppliers that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Child labour
The company could provide examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company has in place expectations on the prohibition of child labour for its suppliers, it could disclose related policy requirements including the use of an age verification system for the workers recruited.

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.

Act ethically
The company has the opportunity to provide a clear process for identifying bribery and corruption risks in specific locations or activities related to its own operations. Additionally, the company has the chance to establish a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement. This policy could be made publicly available as a statement that ensures no political contributions are made. Furthermore, disclosing the company’s lobbying expenditure and enforcing compliance with its lobbying and political engagement policy for third-party lobbyists would be beneficial.

Provide and promote decent work
The company’s commitment to worker health and safety is commendable, but it can be further strengthened by formalizing this commitment in a publicly accessible policy document. This step would enhance transparency and underscore the company’s dedication to ensuring safe working conditions across its operations and supply chain.

Another critical aspect is the living wage for workers. The company could disclose a specific, time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or proudly announce that it has already achieved this goal. Additionally, providing insights into how the company determines a living wage for the regions in which it operates would offer transparency in its wage policies.

Furthermore, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is essential. The company can reinforce its commitment by publicly disclosing its dedication to these principles. Additionally, highlighting that it has at least 30% women on its highest governing body would showcase its commitment to diversity and inclusivity.

Respect human rights
The company has a significant opportunity to proactively address human rights. It can begin by disclosing a comprehensive policy statement committing to respect human rights, specifically those declared as fundamental rights at work by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Additionally, the company can describe its process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its own operations and extend this process to cover its supply chain activities.

Furthermore, the company can elaborate on how it assesses and identifies its salient human rights issues, potentially even disclosing the results of its human rights risk assessment. To enhance transparency and responsibility, the company could establish a global system to respond to, prevent, or mitigate its salient human rights issues. This holistic approach would underscore its commitment to human rights and responsible corporate behavior.