Archer Daniels Midland

Lobbying
Archer Daniels Midland discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member. It has however an opportunity to disclose a full list for all geographies where it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company’s stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, nutrition, and social areas.

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 and reports consistently against all its targets. Furthermore, it provides evidence of linking performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company has a commitment to ensure zero conversion, has time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains, and discloses the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free. Furthermore, the company discloses details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, it reports progress against its scope 1 and 2 emissions targets.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, and has a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and reports progress against it.

Solid and air pollution
The company partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, including plant-based alternatives.

Water
The company demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations, and has a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal in its own operation. Additionally, the company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company  also requires access to water and sanitation, including refraining from negatively affecting access to safe water, to be included in contractual arrangements with its business relationships.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company requires its business relationships to identify and recognise affected Indigenous Peoples and to obtain their free, prior and informed consent regarding whether and how to carry out projects.

Act ethically
The company discloses income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions as well as its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a policy statement. Moreover, it  has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, along with a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints.

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 it expects its business relationships to have the same commitment. It also discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships.

Furthermore, the company reports the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. It also discloses a target to achieve gender parity in its senior leadership team by 2030 and currently has 36% of women on the board.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and ILO core labour rights, as well as expecting suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. Furthermore, it describes the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its supply chain and engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. The company also indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets and to report (potential) misalignments.

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 for engaging with stakeholder groups, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, social inclusion, soil health, and ecosystem conversion. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, while the company states that the board of directors has expertise in climate, nutrition, social inclusion and water, it could disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to other key material sustainability topics including biodiversity, ecosystem conversion and soil health.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company does not disclose activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains, and is not committed to restoring ecosystems.

GHG emissions
Crucially, the company’s its targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory and it should report progress against its scope 3 targets.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company integrates sustainability risks, such as climate change and deforestation, into its Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) system and has goals for biodiversity mapping by 2024. It also conducts assessments for social and environmental risks in its value chain. However, there’s no public evidence that these assessments extend to the company’s own impact on nature or biodiversity. Additionally, it lacks disclosures about its dependencies on nature both within its operations and upstream business relationships.

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
While the company recognizes the significance of biodiversity and has even sponsored studies to monitor species, there’s room for improvement. Specifically, the company could disclose locations adjacent to biodiversity hotspots within its own operations and among its suppliers. It also has the opportunity to disclose a complete list of species near both its own and its suppliers’ locations, indicating the conservation status of these species according to national and international lists such as the IUCN.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company has an opportunity to disclose its inputs according to an international standard, and to report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance.

Solid and air pollution
The company does not disclose relevant information related to pollution in its operations or supply chains.

Water
The company does not disclose relevant information on water pollution. The company has an opportunity to engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal, and make a public commitment to rights to water.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company mentions Indigenous Peoples’ rights but does not show a commitment to respecting these rights. There are no references provided to the relevant part(s) of ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Additionally, the company fails to disclose its processes for identifying and recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples when its operations may impact these rights. The company also does not describe 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
The company could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. However, it does not specify the consequences of breaching these clauses.

The company states that it makes political contributions after approval from its CEO or the Government Relations department. However, the company could further disclose whether such contributions are exceptions and what criteria guide these decisions. Additionally, the company discloses some information regarding its lobbying expenditures but could further clarify if this disclosure covers the company’s global operations.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose 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 the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its workforce.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities, covering its own operations. While the company describes its process for assessing its human rights risks, it has an opportunity to disclose what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Additionally, it could disclose a global system to act upon, prevent, or mitigate its salient human rights issues.