Suedzucker

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Apart from being a member of relevant industry associations, it is also committed to support the work of these associations through active participation.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups, including political dialogue, supplier communication, certifications, town hall meetings, surveys, and dialogues with rating agencies.

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 a target to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions from its own business operations (Scope 1) and from energy purchase (Scope 2) by 50.4% by 2030 compared to the 2018 baseline year. Additionally, the company has a time-bound target for reducing its Scope 3 emissions.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company engages in activities related to reducing plastic use and transitioning to sustainable packaging. For instance, it has made its product films up to 50% thinner, saving a significant amount of plastic, and switched large parts of its product range to recyclable paper-based materials or mono-materials.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, including the planting of sugar beet every third year to keep the soil healthy, maintaining plot records and implementing multilayered crop rotations.

Food safety
The company provides evidence that 100% of its own operations are certified to a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)-recognised food safety scheme. All food production facility holds at least once certificate, with several facilities holding multiple certifications.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and 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 respecting the health and safety of workers. It extends this commitment to its business relationships and discloses how it monitors supplier health and safety performance.

Additionally, the company discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements, as well as the percentage of its workforce for each employee category by age group and gender. The company also reports that it has a 35% female representation on the board.

Respect human rights
The company indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company’s 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 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 during its stakeholder engagement activities.

Sustainable development strategy
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including 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 can reduce its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, report progress against these targets, and align them with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Similarly, it can decrease scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, report progress, and align these targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

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 enhance its disclosures relating to water use and withdrawal.

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

Food safety
The company has an opportinity to disclose the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

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.

Land rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights. Furthermore, it could describe a process at its operations and supply chain level to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders when acquiring, leasing or making other arrangements to use land and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Act ethically
The company could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in its operations, and include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. Furthermore, it also has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach, specify that it does not make political contributions, and divulge its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company states that it pays minimum wage to its employees, it has an opportunity to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target, and disclose how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. In addition, while the company has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment.

Furthermore, it could also disclose a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and report information including the the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO’s fundamental rights at work in its operations and supply chain, and use stronger language to turn the statements into a formal commitment. The company also has an opportunity to describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations and supply chain. Furthermore, it could describe its process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues.