Sociedad Quimica y Minera

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses a list of the associations of which it is a member but it could further disclose a full list for all geographies where it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its regular and ongoing stakeholder engagement activities as well as the engagement channels, for each stakeholder group.

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 has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

Water withdrawal
The company has taken steps to water withdrawal in its own operations. It has also set a specific target with a time-bound deadline to decrease water withdrawal, and consistently tracks its progress towards achieving this goal. Additionally, the company transparently discloses the amount of water being withdrawn for its operations in areas facing water scarcity.

Workforce nutrition
The company discloses that it has Nutrition Assistance program as a part of its employees’ Supplemental Health Insurance plan, which provides nutritional care and monitoring, including nutritional guidelines based on each patient’s needs.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company works to increase the competitiveness of local farmers’ associations in Chile and optimise the processes used to sell their products, for example by providing trainings and financing agricultural equipment and certified seeds.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Additionally, it has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to prioritizing the health and safety of its workers, and expects the same from its business relationships. Additionally, the company provides quantitative information about the health and safety of its workers. It also discloses the percentage of its direct operations workforce that is covered by collective bargaining agreements. The company has signed the UN Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs), publicly pledging its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Furthermore, the company has set a target to increase female representation in staff by 20% by 2022.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. It describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations, and discloses its global system to take action action to prevent, mitigate or remediate such risks and impacts. Additionally, the company publicly discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments.

The company also discloses the categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities, and shares examples of how it has engaged with some of these stakeholders, highlighting its engagement with indigenous communities in the municipalities of Huara, Pozo Almonte, María Elena and San Pedro de Atacama, located near its operations in Chile.

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.

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and water but could establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. While it reports consistently against some targets including climate and water, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has an opportunity to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from scope 1 and 2. It also has the chance to report progress on these emissions targets. Furthermore, the company’s targets for scope 1 and 2 emissions could be aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. In addition, there is an opportunity for the company to decrease its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Although the company discloses its targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for scope 1 and 2, including specific categories like lithium, potassium chloride, and iodine products becoming carbon neutral by 2030, and all products by 2040, using 2019 as the base year, it does not specify an overall target for reducing scope 3 emissions. Nevertheless, the company can report progress on its scope 3 targets and work towards aligning them with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company has an opportunity to disclose targets to optimise the use of fertilizers and minimise the use of pesticides in its production and/or sourcing practices, and report progress against the targets.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence regarding plastic use reduction and use of sustainable packaging.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to disclose its commitment and activities to address malnutrition and food insecurity.

Workforce nutrition
The company could disclose the length covered by its parental leave policy, as well as any other breastfeeding supports such as dedicated breastfeeding rooms or flexible working hours for breastfeeding mothers. Furthermore, while it offers healthy snacks at work, it could further provide more information on how it defines these healthy offerings and ensures accessibility for its employees.

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 set up initiatives to improve the productivity of the farms but it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it improves farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it could identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

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.

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.

Land rights
The company could disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights as set out in the relevant part(s) of the VGGT’s or the IFC Performance Standards. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to require its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate 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 a process in place to identify and address incidents of bribery and corruption, but it has not yet provided specific details about this process. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to develop a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement, and to disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers. The company has an opportunity to increase the proportion of women on the board.

Respect human rights
The company currently discloses statements affirming its commitment to uphold the fundamental rights at work as defined by the ILO. However, there is room for improvement by using stronger language to transform the statement into a more formal and binding commitment. Additionally, the company can enhance its expectations of suppliers by explicitly referencing all the ILO fundamental rights at work, including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, in all contexts and locations. Furthermore, the company currently discloses its salient human rights issues. Nevertheless, there is an opportunity to provide a clearer explanation of the process used to assess the significance of these risks.