Yara

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the environment measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the nutrition measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Yara discloses a materiality matrix which was revisited in 2020 through an update on megatrends, the integrated reporting process and the corporate scorecard. The company has divided its strategic goals into three pillars: people, planet and prosperity. Furthermore, it has established time-bound targets for each of its most relevant sustainability topics and reports progress against these targets. However, there is an opportunity for Yara to develop targets and objectives that directly address the nutrition dimension.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company states the board of directors has responsibility for non-financial topics of material importance and signs the integrated reporting. Furthermore, it links its executives’ short-term incentive plan to performance on the company’s own people, planet and prosperity indicators. However, there is room for Yara to enhance its governance and accountability mechanisms by linking this reward system to sustainability performance across the environment, nutrition and social inclusion topics assessed in this benchmark.

Stakeholder engagement
The company states that it engages extensively in institutional stakeholder processes related to sustainable food solutions on the global level and provides an overview of the issues raised via these activities. It further adds it has established a new stakeholder procedure which provides a structured approach to its stakeholder engagement. Nevertheless, the company does not disclose its process for identifying and engaging with stakeholders across its value chain, nor the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement and the integration of these outcomes into its sustainability strategy. There is an opportunity for Yara to enhance its disclosure on its stakeholder engagement.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Yara discloses a time-bound target to reduce by 30% its absolute scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 from a 2019 baseline. It reports progress against the targets, disclosing quantitative reductions in its scope 1 and 2 emissions. However, there is an opportunity for the company to demonstrate further leadership through external verification of the target to show it is aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions
Yara states it is undertaking, in collaboration with Nutrien and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a sectoral decarbonisation approach for the nitrogen fertiliser sector. This will be finalised in 2022 and serve as a basis for setting a science-based emissions reduction target. Furthermore, the company reports quantitative reductions in its scope 3 emissions. However, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose a time-bound target to reduce scope 3 emissions and report progress against the target.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
While Yara discloses qualitative evidence through its analytical services which analyse soil, tissue and water samples from all over the world, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to increase the percentage of production from sustainable practices that improve soil health and reporting progress against the targets. The company could also disclose quantitative data on its impact on soil health and agrobiodiversity.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
While Yara states that it promotes balanced crop nutrition strategies and higher resource use efficiency, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to optimise the use of fertilisers and reporting progress against the targets. The company could also disclose quantitative data on its optimisation of fertilisers.

Water use
While the company states it is a priority to develop environmental road maps for each production site, including the four sites identified as having extremely high or high risk with respect to baseline water stress, it does not disclose that it is reducing water withdrawals across its operations. There is room for Yara to improve its disclosure by providing quantitative evidence and a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawals across own operations.

Availability of healthy foods
Yara states it offers solutions to increase the production of nutritious foods, including through adding micronutrients to adjust for nutrient deficiencies. However, this commitment could be strengthened by increasing (quantitative) reporting on these activities and its contributions to the production, quality and variety of healthy and nutritious foods.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
Yara discloses its Action Africa: Thriving Future initiative, which aims to support smallholder farmers in seven African countries to secure food production and improve food security. The project includes providing farmers with 40,000 metrics tons of high-quality fertilisers with zinc for improved nutrition, together with agronomic support. The company further discloses a target to help feed more than 275 million people by 2025. Nevertheless, it is yet to report progress against its activities. There is an opportunity for Yara to increase its disclosure on the impact of its projects which address food insecurity by improving the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods.

Workforce nutrition
Yara discloses it has multipurpose rooms for breastfeeding at all its locations. The company has an opportunity to further develop its programme on workforce nutrition to ensure the provision of healthy foods at work, nutrition education and nutrition-focused health checks throughout its operations.

Child labour
The company does not disclose a sufficient commitment to prohibit child labour in its operations.

Forced labour
The company does not disclose a sufficient commitment to prohibit forced labour in its operations. Furthermore, it does not disclose a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents and restricting workers’ freedom of movement.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company does not disclose that it specifically recognises the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

Farmer productivity and resilience
The company discloses its Thriving Future initiative, sharing that through the project, it supports 250,000 farmers in East Africa, and two million smallholder farmers are connected to updated agronomic advice. However, there is an opportunity for Yara to enhance its disclosure by reporting on the outcomes and impact of its activities which support the resilience, productivity and access to markets for farmers.

Land rights
The company does not commit to recognising and respecting the legitimate tenure rights related to the ownership and use of land of local communities.

The company commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It also has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its supply chain partners to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. It discloses how it identifies and assesses human rights salient risks in its own operations and its supply chain but does not describe how its system applies to its supply chain. The company has a grievance mechanism available to employees and external stakeholders but could also disclose examples of how it has assessed human right issues for its stakeholders.

Regarding gender equality, Yara is a signatory to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, has set time-bound commitments for its operations and discloses statistics on its gender pay gap in different regions. The company publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of its employees and discloses information on the percentage of employees covered by collective bargaining agreements. However, both areas can be further improved by additional disclosure. The company does not disclose whether it pays its employees a living wage, nor whether it has established policies against working overtime, beyond legal requirements.

The company publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on the use of personal data. The company discloses a global tax strategy and its income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions. It also has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, takes steps to identify and address these issues, has a related grievance mechanism and includes clauses in contracts with supply chain partners on the topic. While the company discloses some information on its political lobbying practices, it does not appear to have a publicly available statement or policy that sets out its lobbying approach.