Ajinomoto Group

Stakeholder engagement
The company provides an overview of the issues raised during stakeholder engagement activities and discloses its channels to engage with stakeholder groups. It also describes how its stakeholder engagement activities impact its sustainability strategy. Furthermore, the company’s stakeholder engagement encompasses aspects of nature, including biodiversity, nutrition, and social issues.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
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. Also, it has group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain and reports consistently against all its targets. Additionally, it provides evidence that its highest governance body has expertise concerning the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company is committed to achieving zero conversion and has taken steps to disclose some of its activities in this regard. To effectively monitor progress, the company has set time-bound targets for achieving conversion-free supply chains. The company also discloses the proportion of its high-risk commodities that are conversion-free.

GHG emissions
The company discloses its target to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% versus fiscal 2018 levels by FY2030 and reports progress against them. Additionally, the company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Moreover, the company discloses a reduction in scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions compared to the previous year. Lastly, its scope 3 emissions targets also align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company generally follows an international standard in disclosing its inputs. However, it could provide a clearer overview of its main raw materials. The company also discloses its efforts to enhance soil health and promote agrobiodiversity through its production or sourcing practices.

Solid and air pollution
The company discloses the proportion of hazardous waste treated to reduce pollution of the hazardous waste diverted to and from disposal. It partakes in activities related to reducing plastic use and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, disclosing quantitative data and reports on the proportion of recycled plastic. The company also reports regularly on the emissions of harmful air pollutants. It has time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across most material parts of its value chain and reports regularly against these targets.

Water
The company has a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal in its own operations and reports progress against the target. It discloses that it withdraws less than 1% of its water from water-stressed areas. The company also demonstrates a reduction in water withdrawal in its operations and regularly reports on water pollution.

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

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. The company identifies bribery and corruption risks using periodic audits regarding the compliance and execution of the shared policy on bribery prevention and the provisions related to this policy. Additionally, it publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a global tax strategy.

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 do so. Moreover, the company publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. While the company currently has 30% women on the board, it aims to increase female representation by 30% in directors and 30% in line managers by fiscal 2030. Additionally, it discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights. Additionally, it expects its suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights.
The company describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations, including its supply chain. It also describes its process for assessing its human rights risks. It discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues and provides a case study explaining how it has acted on a salient human rights risk issue. Moreover, the company discloses categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities and provides a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers.

Lobbying
While the company discloses that it is a member of alliances, it can disclose a list of trade associations it is a member of for all jurisdictions where it operates. Additionally, it has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets and to report (potential) misalignments.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company discloses a remuneration policy related to nature-related objectives, it has an opportunity to link this policy to improvement in social issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company lacks a commitment to restoring ecosystems. It fails to disclose important details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company discloses its target to reduce its scope 3 emissions, however the target does not apply to overall scope 3 emissions as it targets to reduce by 24% per volume unit by FY2030 relative to F2018 levels. In addition to this, the company has an opportunity to report progress against these scope 3 targets.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company conducts environmental assessments for new products and business ventures but has an opportunity to disclose the findings, specifically regarding its impact on nature and biodiversity. Additionally, the company has opportunities to assess and disclose its environmental impacts and dependencies within its operations and supply chain.

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 has the opportunity to disclose locations within or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity, both in its operations and supplier locations. It could also disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to its own and its suppliers’ locations, as well as the conservation status of species identified at its own sites according to national and international lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company has not provided a quantitative report regarding its group-wide circularity performance. There is an opportunity for the company to set a goal for enhancing soil health in its production or sourcing methods and consistently report the progress made towards achieving this target.

Solid and air pollution
The company should commit to avoid developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties and work on reducing the production of hazardous substances and waste. It could also report on the amount of plastic waste generated and the proportions directed from or to disposal.

Water
The company can further improve water withdrawal by engaging with suppliers. The company does not disclose relevant information on water pollution or rights to water in its operations or supply chains.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose a commitment to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, the company does not disclose its processes to identify and recognise the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights and describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent.

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 has a mechanism for employees to raise concerns, it is unclear if this mechanism is to raise bribery and corruption concerns, is accessible to all stakeholders and if complainants have the option to identify themselves or remain anonymous. Additionally, while the company outlines its approach to political engagement in a policy, it has an opportunity to outline its lobbying approach in a policy.
Moreover, the company states that it allows political contributions only after obtaining approval. However, it could disclose whether these are made only by exception, and the criteria for making them. Moreover, it has an opportunity to disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities and whether it requires third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work.
The company can consider disclosing how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers. While the company states that it pays adequate wages to its employees, it can commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. Additionally, it could disclose how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates and how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. Moreover, it could also disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by significant locations of operation.

Respect human rights
The company could disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.