Asia Cement Corporation

Stakeholder engagement
Asia Cement discloses how often and through which channels it engages with various stakeholder groups. The company’s stakeholder engagement covers nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Moreover, the company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities. Asia Cement also 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.

Resource exploitation and circularity
Asia Cement discloses its inputs, including its material footprint. It also discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

Water
Asia Cement has a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal in its own operations and reports progress against the target. It also demonstrates it is reducing water withdrawal in its own operations and reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

Solid and air pollution
Asia Cement has time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain. The company also reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants.

Indigenous peoples’ and land rights
Asia Cement discloses its processes for identifying and recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights, and it describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company discloses some sustainability targets, no evidence that the company has group wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain based on the SBTN Sectoral Materiality Tool could be found in the public domain. No evidence was found that the company links performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. The company does not disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise regarding nature-related topics.

Lobbying
Asia Cement does not disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with nature-positive policies. The company does not report (potential) misalignment between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and nature-positive policies.

Impact and dependencies assessment
Asia Cement 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.

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

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Asia Cement does not disclose a commitment to ensure zero conversion, any activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains or any time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Moreover, the company does not disclose a commitment to minimise ecosystem conversion, any activities to minimise ecosystem conversion or a commitment to restore ecosystems.

Resource exploitation and circularity
Asia Cement does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. Moreover, it does not disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices.

Water
Asia Cement does not disclose a commitment to respect the right to water. Moreover, it does not regularly report on water pollution or disclose any targets to reduce water pollution. The company does not report a decrease in water pollution or its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. Furthermore, the company does not disclose its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations. The company also does not engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal.

Solid and air pollution
No evidence that Asia Cement is reducing the production of hazardous waste was found. Moreover, no evidence that the company reduces plastic use and waste in its own operations was found. The company does not report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal.

GHG emissions
While Asia Cement has decreased its scope 1 and 2 emissions and has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions, which it reports against, there is no evidence that this target is aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Moreover, no evidence that the company reduces its scope 3 emissions was found. The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target, aligned with a 1.5-degree, to reduce its scope 3 emissions.

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

Safe, healthy, clean environment
The company does not disclose a commitment to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment or to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Indigenous peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose a commitment to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights or to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights, as set out in the relevant part(s) of the VGGTs or the IFC Performance Standards. No evidence was found that the company requires its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders, paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rightsholders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Asia Cement has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially through its business relationships. The company has an opportunity to describe a process for assessing the human rights risks it has identified and to disclose what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. A description of this process would include how relevant factors are considered, such as geographical, economic and social factors. No evidence was found that the company has a global system to act on its salient human rights issues. The company discloses categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. No evidence that the company provides multiple examples of its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities was found.

Asia Cement has a publicly available policy statement where it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers. Moreover, it expects its suppliers to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. 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. It could also describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. The company has an opportunity to disclose the coverage of collective bargaining agreements and to describe how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Asia Cement discloses a global tax strategy. No evidence that the company describes the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations was found. The company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. However, it does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document.