WH 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.

Animal welfare
The company discloses evidence of animal welfare third-party certifications or third-party audits.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company shares information about its efforts to reformulate its product portfolio to decrease the amount of added sugar and salt.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and incorporate anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Furthermore, the company 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 respecting the health and safety of workers. Furthermore, 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.

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.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability at subsidiary level but could further link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues at group level. Moreover, it has an opportunity to 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
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, it could report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company can take advantage of an opportunity to decrease its scope 1,2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, it has the opportunity to set time-bound reduction targets for scope 1,2 and 3 emissions in alignment with a 1.5-degree trajectory and report progress against these targets.

Animal welfare
The company has an opportunity to set animal welfare targets applicable to all species, geographies and products.

Antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
While the company states that it follows veterinary approval procedures and government regulations, it has an opportunity to disclose a policy on reducing the (prophylactic) use of antibiotics and growth promoting substances. It could also disclose targets to phase out their prophylactic use across all species, geographies and products, and report progress against the targets.

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

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose activities and targets to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, and report progress against them.

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.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company 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, it can disclose the percentage of products for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been rolled out.

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 its food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Responsible marketing
The company can provide evidence of marketing activities to promote heathier and more nutritious food options (in accordance with a government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines). Moreover, it has an opportunity to disclose a responsible marketing policy specifically tailored to children that is aligned with international codes and guidelines and applicable across all media channels.

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 set up initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint and support minority farmers but it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it improves farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it could demonstrate how it identifies living income benchmarks and assesses 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.

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 an opportunity to describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Additionally, it can create a policy outlining its lobbying and political engagement approach. It could also specify that it does not make political contributions, and divulge its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company recommends its suppliers to improve working environment for its employees. It could however establish a policy expecting suppliers to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers, and disclose how it monitors their performance.

Additionally, although the company pays fair wages, it can commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. It could also elaborate on its methods of determining a living wage for its operational regions, and detail how it works to support suppliers in paying this wage standard.

Furthermore, in alignment with its commitment to diversity and equal opportunity, the company can explicitly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment in a broader sense. Despite the company targeting to increase female representation to least 35% of supervisors and above, it has an opportunity to make this target time-bound. The company could also report data including the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
While the company states that it respects and protects individual rights within its operations and across its value chain, it has an opportunity to explicitly commit to protecting human rights and formalize this commitment in a policy document. Additionally, although it discloses statements committing to respect the ILO’s fundamental rights at work, it could use stronger language to formalize this commitment and extend it to its business relationships.

Furthermore, the company 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 the supply chain. The company could also elaborate on its process for assessing and identifying its salient human rights issues. Moreover, the company could disclose a global system to address, prevent, or mitigate its salient human rights issues.