X5 Retail Group

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses that it is a member of some industry associations. However, it has an opportunity to provide a full list of the industry associations of which it is a member.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities.

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.

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

Water withdrawal
The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

No leading practices were identified in the nutrition area.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
The company has a public commitment to protecting personal data and it discloses income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions. Furthermore, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, such clauses are also included in its contracts with direct business relationships. It identifies bribery and corruption risks by means of establishing a hotline for anonymous reporting, performing analytical activities with respect to accounting data and other information, performing control and audit of the business and financial operations, maintaining the activity of the security department responsible for protecting the company’s assets, and conducting reviews by the internal audit department and conducting external audits. The company 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 and it specifies that it does not make political contributions.

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 and expects its business relationships to share the same commitment. It discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements as well as the proportion for each employee category by age group and gender.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and ILO core labour rights. Furthermore, it also indicates that 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 nature-related objectives but could further link this policy to improvement in social issues. 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 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 discloses the channels for engaging with some of its stakeholders but could further state the engagement channels with other stakeholders, such as society, local communities, regulators and government officials.

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 has an opportunity to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The company has disclosed targets to reduce the intensity of GHG emissions by 10% compared to 2019 and to reduce GHG emissions per square meter of selling space by 30% compared to 2019 by 2023. However, it should be noted that these targets are intensity-based and there is no evidence that they will lead to absolute emission reductions. The company can also report progress on these targets related to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and align these targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Similarly, the company has the opportunity to reduce its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. It can disclose a time-bound target for reducing its Scope 3 emissions, report progress against them and also align them with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

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

Food loss and waste
While the company discloses its FLW reduction target(s), it does not measure progress against its target(s). While the company has set FLW reduction targets, it has an opportunity to align its target(s) with SDG12.3 (50% reduction by 2030).

Plastic use and packaging waste
While the company discloses some data on reducing plastic use and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, it reported an increase in plastic waste overall.

Protein diversification
The company has an opportunity to establish a sales-based target to boost the presence of alternative proteins throughout its portfolio. Moreover, it can track and communicate progress made towards achieving this target.

Water withdrawal
While the company discloses the total volume of water withdrawn for part of its operation, it has an opportunity to demonstrate a reduction in water withdrawal across its operations.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate how it is improving the nutritional quality of its products and to set targets to increase the share of more nutritious products in its portfolio.

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

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to prohibit child labour in its supply chain and an age-verification system for its value chain. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts.

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.

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 outlines its approach to political engagement in its Policy on Countering Misconduct document but it has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and broader political engagement approach and formalise it in a public policy document. Additionally, it could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities and requirements for third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers, a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage, and describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. Furthermore, it could disclose how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. Additionally, the company could commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment and disclose related targets as well as representation of women on the highest governance body and the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its workforce.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement that expects its suppliers to commit to respect the human rights that the ILO has declared to be fundamental rights at work. It also has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, including its suppliers, and to describe a process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. A description of this process would include how relevant factors are considered, such as geographical, economic and social factors. Additionally, the company could disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.