Zespri

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

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company discloses quantitative evidence on optimising the use of fertilisers in its production and/or sourcing practices.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates a commitment to reducing plastic use and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. Additionally, it has set specific targets for reducing the production of virgin polymer and regularly reports on its progress towards these targets.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses activities and targets to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity such as requesting its farmers to be certified by GlobalG.A.P. on good agricultural practices. Furthermore, it reports progress against the related targets.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company primarily produces and markets fresh produce. The production of fruits and vegetables contributes to achieving healthy and sustainable diets.

Food safety
The company discloses that all its post-harvest facilities are required to have a certification to a GFSI approved food safety programme. Additionally, it states that all growers who want to export fruit must be certified to GLOBAL G.A.P.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
Zespri emphasizes its commitment to safeguarding personal data and holds a strong policy against bribery and corruption. This stance is further reinforced through anti-bribery clauses in contracts with direct business relationships. By conducting due diligence and compliance audits, the company identifies potential bribery and corruption risks in specific areas.

To encourage transparency, the company provides a confidential, anonymous channel for reporting grievances accessible to all stakeholders. This mechanism, available on its website, ensures that concerns related to bribery and corruption can be raised without apprehension of reprisals.

Provide and promote decent work
The company expresses its dedication to worker well-being through a public policy statement that emphasizes its commitment to upholding health and safety standards. Additionally, the company extends this responsibility by outlining its expectation for business relationships to share the same dedication in their own policies.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement expecting suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights.

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 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 an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process, including frequencies and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
The company states that it has a materiality assessment. However, it has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts, including how regularly the assessment is undertaken. Furthermore, while the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, it could establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company could set clear targets, aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory, to reduce its own emissions (scope 1 and 2) while reporting on related reduction progress. Moreover, it has an opportunity to set targets and track progress on its scope 3 and align the latter with a 1.5-degree plan.

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.

Food loss and waste
The company has the chance to disclose its FLW reduction targets and track progress in achieving these targets. Additionally, it can align its FLW reduction goal with SDG12.3, which aims for a 50% reduction by 2030.

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.

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

Workforce nutrition
While the company offers a nutrition education program for external stakeholders, there is an opportunity to engage its employees as participants. Moreover, it has an opportunity to disclose evidence of workforce nutrition programmes.

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
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 can enhance its transparency by establishing a policy outlining its lobbying and political engagement strategy. Moreover, it could make a public statement clarifying its non-participation in political contributions. Additionally, the company has the potential to provide insights into its lobbying efforts by disclosing expenditures related to such activities. To reinforce ethical conduct, the company might consider revealing its requirement for third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company could disclose data on worker health and safety, including fatalities due to work-related injuries and total work hours. Additionally, it could provide insights into its suppliers’ health and safety performance monitoring processes. While the company affirms fair wages, it could set a time-bound target for achieving a living wage. Transparently detailing the methodology for determining a living wage in various regions would further demonstrate the company’s responsible practices. Additionally, it could require suppliers to pay a living wage and explain its supportive measures.

Furthermore, the company could disclose specific targets and timelines for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. It could consider increasing its female board representation beyond the current 12.5% to better reflect gender diversity. Furthermore, disclosing the gender-based salary and remuneration ratio would provide a comprehensive overview of gender equity in the workforce.

Respect human rights
The company holds potential to bolster its commitment to human rights by revealing policy statements aligned with both general human rights principles and ILO’s fundamental rights at work. It also possesses the opportunity to offer insight into its method of identifying human rights risks across its operations and supply chain, potentially showcasing results from its risk assessment. Furthermore, the company could elaborate on its process for identifying salient human rights issues and explore the creation of a global system to address these concerns proactively.