Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail

Lobbying
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member for all jurisdictions in which it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised in stakeholder engagement activities, as well as its engagement process.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts in relation to its sustainability strategy.

Solid and air pollution
The company partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, discloses its target to have 100% sustainable packaging by 2025, and reports progress against it. The company reports relevant metrics on proportion of hazardous waste treated, on metrics of recycled plastics, and on its harmful air pollutants.

Water
The company reports the proportion of water withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas, and its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion and community impact area.

Act ethically
The company maintains a publicly available policy that prohibits bribery and corruption. It has a vendor code of conduct which explicitly forbids bribery, with stipulations that business contracts can be terminated if a vendor fails to meet their contractual commitments or breaches the code. This includes a prohibition on any corrupt offers, payments, or promises to any official to influence decisions or secure improper advantages. The company asserts the right to withhold payments and terminate relationships with any vendor found in violation of these policies.

Provide and promote decent work
The company publicly commits to worker health and safety, evidenced by its detailed disclosure of work-related injury data, including fatality rates, high-consequence injuries, recordable injuries, types of injuries, and total hours worked. It also maintains a policy that mandates its business partners respect worker health and safety, ensuring safe and clean working conditions through clear occupational health and safety procedures.

Respect human rights
The company maintains a comprehensive human rights policy, approved by its highest governance body, to respect human rights universally, as aligned with frameworks like the UN Global Compact Principles. They enforce a policy against the use of child labour, bonded, or prison labour, and prohibit discrimination across various grounds including race, gender, and religion. Additionally, they uphold the rights of workers to unionise and bargain collectively. These commitments extend to all business units, including contractors and suppliers.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets, as well as potential misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics. While the company discloses some sustainability targets, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide, time-bound targets for the most material parts of its value chain. While the company has an executive renumeration program, it is not clear how it is explicitly tied to company performance in sustainability issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promote restoration. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

GHG emissions
The company should set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against them. Crucially, the company needs to reduce its scope 1,2 and 3 emissions and its targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company has not holistically assessed its impacts or how it depends on nature, including biodiversity. It has an opportunity to start such an assessment across its value chains, focused on quantification of its impacts or dependencies.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
The company does not disclose key species or areas important for biodiversity affected by its operations or suppliers. It has an opportunity to increase its transparency.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Solid and air pollution
While the company mentions its chemical management policies, it does not provide evidence of reducing the production or use of hazardous chemicals. The company does not commit to avoiding the development or marketing of new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties. Additionally, it is not reducing the production of hazardous waste. The company reports an increase of plastic waste generated, but does not disclose proportions directed to or diverted from disposal. Furthermore, it does not provide time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

Water
The company reports an increase in water use. While it discloses a goal to become water positive, no evidence found that the company has a target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and reports progress against the target. The company does not engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. It also does not report adecrease in water pollution, does not regularly report on water pollution metrics, and has not set targets to reduce water pollution. Additionally, the company does not disclose a commitment to respecting the right to water or outline its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its operations.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
While the company identifies and mitigates fraud risks, it does not disclose processes for identifying bribery and corruption risks. It provides internal reporting mechanisms but lacks clarity on accessibility for external stakeholders. The company has an opportunity to disclose publicly its political engagement strategy and requirements for third-party lobbyists.

Provide and promote decent work
The company recognises safety as integral to its business operations, yet it lacks a public policy commitment to worker health and safety. Its internal and external auditing processes for supplier compliance are mentioned but lack clarity on continuous monitoring. While the company indicates adherence to minimum wage laws, it does not confirm whether these wages are adequate for a decent living, nor does it set targets for achieving a living wage. The company shows initiatives in non-discrimination and supporting women in leadership, yet it falls short of making a broad commitment to gender equality and quantitatively demonstrating progress in women’s empowerment.

Respect human rights
While the company provides a policy statement respecting ILO-declared fundamental human rights and has established a human rights assessment framework, it does not adequately describe the processes for identifying human rights risks across operations and business relationships. There is also a lack of clarity on its commitment to freedom of association and collective bargaining, as it states compliance ‘in accordance with local law’. The company has an opportunity to clarify its commitment to these rights universally and to enhance transparency by publicly disclosing the results of its human rights assessments and refining its global system for addressing identified human rights issues.