SSP Group

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, it discloses the impacts of these engagement activities on its sustainability strategy.

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.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

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, the company discloses quantitative data with regards to plastic use reduction and use of sustainable packaging.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

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.

Act ethically
The company has disclosed its global tax strategy, with overall responsibility for it resting with the board. Moreover, the company has a policy in place that strictly prohibits bribery and corruption. To reinforce its commitment, the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. In addition, the company has publicly committed to protecting personal data.

Provide and promote decent work
The company commits to respecting worker health and safety in a formal policy. It also has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. It asserts that workers shouldn’t exceed 48 hours weekly or 60 hours with overtime, all of which must be voluntary and paid extra. The same expectation applies to its business relationships, ensuring equitable work hours.

Furthermore, it transparently discloses the proportion of women in each workforce category. Aiming for diversity, it targets a 33% female representation in senior leadership by 2025. Notably, the company showcases its commitment to gender equality with 50% women on its board of directors.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement that commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. Additionally, they have a policy statement for suppliers, which expects suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights.

In order to address modern slavery risks, the company has outlined the actions it has taken and plans to take. They also disclose key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets that allow them to measure the effectiveness of their efforts and monitor progress in managing these risks. Moreover, the company provides information about a confidential helpline called the SSP Group Helpline. This helpline allows individuals, including workers, to report concerns anonymously, if necessary, relating not only to human rights but also to other issues.

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
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.

Sustainable development strategy
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including ecosystem conversion, climate and social inclusion, 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 report progress against its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions reduction targets. Crucially, it is encouraged to align its emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose its efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation or restoration. The company could develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Food loss and waste
While the company commits to reducing FLW, it has not set associated targets, nor does it measure progress against them. The company has an opportunity to align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3 (50% reduction by 2030).

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to enhance its disclosures relating to water use and withdrawal.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company discloses that it is working on a new framework to enhance the nutritional values of its food offerings. Nonetheless, there is potential for improvement in reporting its overall efforts to reduce sugar, salt, and fat, and/or increase the presence of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains in its entire portfolio. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to adopt a nutrient profiling system and to set a sales-based target to increase the proportion of more nutritious products, aligning with government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company discloses that it is implementing a system for allergen, ingredient, and calorie labeling to promote healthier choices, yet it has an opportunity to adopt front-of-pack labels or any other consumer- facing nutrition labels that support consumers with making healthier food choices. Additionally, the company can disclose the percentage of menus that have implemented its front-of-pack labeling schemes.

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to showcase that all of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme/certification program or any other widely recognized (industry-specific) certification. Additionally, the company can disclose the percentage of food suppliers who are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

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 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 has an opportunity to prohibit paying recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job, retaining workers’ personal documents or restricting workers’ freedom of movement. Furthermore, it could indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

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 option to outline its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks and impacts, including specific locations or activities within its own operations. While it offers a confidential SSP Group Helpline for workers to report bribery and corruption concerns and complaints, it remains uncertain if this mechanism is accessible to all stakeholders.

Additionally, the company has an opportunity to establish a policy that outlines its approach towards lobbying and political engagement. Although there is a publicly available policy statement indicating that political donations are only permitted with approval from the Government Relations team, it could further disclose whether such donations are exceptional cases and provide the criteria for their approval.

Moreover, the company has the potential to disclose its lobbying expenditure details and assert that it requires third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company can disclose either a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has already achieved paying all workers a living wage. Furthermore, the company has the chance to disclose its method for determining a living wage in the regions where it operates. While the company expects its suppliers to pay a living wage, it also has the opportunity to describe how it actively works to support the payment of such wages. Additionally, it could disclose how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers.

Despite having a statement on gender equality and women’s empowerment, the company should consider translating this into a public policy document. Moreover, the company can disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce, categorized by employee category and significant locations of operation.

Respect human rights
In addition to describing its approach for identifying modern slavery risks within its business and supply chains, the company can further enhance its efforts by identifying all human rights risks and impacts within its own operations. Disclosing the outcomes of its human rights risk assessment would also be beneficial.

While the company acknowledges that it conducts general due diligence, it should explicitly state that this includes human rights due diligence, which involves a systematic process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its supply chain. Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to outline its procedure for assessing and determining what it considers to be its most significant human rights concerns.