Barilla

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Barilla 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.

GHG emissions
The company has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions and reports progress against it.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Barilla follows an international standard in disclosing its inputs. Additionally, it discloses its activities related to improving soil health and agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

Solid and air pollution
Barilla has policies, engages in activities, and discloses quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. The company also discloses the proportion of hazardous waste treated to reduce pollution, as well as the hazardous waste diverted to and from disposal.

Water
Barilla discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. It also reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

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

Act ethically
Barilla has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption. In addition, they have implemented a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
Barilla discloses multiple data points related to work-related injuries. Furthermore, the company publicly shares the percentage of women in each employee category within its total direct operations workforce. This transparency highlights the company’s commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Respect human rights
Barilla has a publicly available policy statement that commits it to respecting human rights and the ILO core labor rights. Additionally, the company expects its suppliers to adhere to the ILO core labor rights, as stated in their publicly available policy statement. Furthermore, the company has established a human rights grievance mechanism, accessible to all workers, as well as external stakeholders who may be negatively affected by the company.

Lobbying
While Barilla discloses some of its trade associations, it has an opportunity to disclose a full list of trade associations of which it is a member for all jurisdictions in which it operates. The company has also 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 between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Stakeholder engagement
The company does not disclose how it engages with stakeholders, nor the issues it raises during such activities.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and report consistently against all its targets. Furthermore, it could link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Lastly, the company could improve its transparency by disclosing whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

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 a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 emissions and report progress against it. Furthermore, the company discloses that its current emission targets are aligned with 2 degree trajectory and it has a future commitment to align its scope 1 and scope 2 emissions with the 1.5-degree trajectory. It should align all of its scope 1, 2 and 3 targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company declares a commitment to environmental responsibility, including the application of the “precautionary principle,” it has an opportunity to bolster its credibility by disclosing specific methodologies and results of its assessments on impacts on nature and biodiversity. This could extend not only to its own operations but also to its upstream value chain. Additionally, the company could enhance transparency by assessing and disclosing its own dependencies on nature as well as those of its 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
The company has an opportunity to disclose locations within or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity, both in its own operations and its supplier locations. It could also disclose existing species populations existing in or adjacent to both 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 does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. The company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Solid and air pollution
The company has an opportunity report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. It could also report on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants and set time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, the company should work on reducing the production of hazardous substances and waste.

Water
The company has an opportunity to disclose additional information on water withdrawal by showing a reduction in absolute water withdrawal, setting targets, and engaging with suppliers. reduce absolute water withdrawal, set targets, and engage with suppliers. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect the right to water. 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.

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
The company has a process for identifying bribery and corruption but could disclose details of this process. Additionally, the company has the chance to incorporate anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts with business relationships. Additionally, the company could transparently disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document, stating it does not make political contributions. While the company does disclose some details about its lobbying expenditures, it has the opportunity to provide this information for all locations where it engages in lobbying activities or specify it only does so in specific countries or regions. Lastly, the company could also reveal that it requires third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
Although the company claims to prioritize the health and safety of its workers, it should solidify this commitment by creating a public policy document. Additionally, the company should ensure that its business relationships adhere to the same standards of worker health and safety by translating its statements into a policy commitment. It could also demonstrate how it monitors its suppliers’ performance to health and safety standards. The company has the chance to disclose a deadline for achieving or confirmation of having achieved payment of a living wage to all workers. In addition, it could detail how it determines a living wage for the regions it operates in and how it encourages its suppliers to pay a living wage. Furthermore, the company could make its gender equality and women’s empowerment target time-bound. It could also disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
While the company has conducted an ERM project, which carries out analysis for the identification and assessment of potential risks including human rights, it has an opportunity to disclose the process it uses to identify human rights risks and impacts in both its operations and supply chain. Furthermore, the company has the possibility to describe its method for determining its most salient human rights issues, considering factors like geographical, economic, and social aspects. Lastly, it has the chance to disclose a global system to act on its salient human rights issues, aiming to prevent, lessen, or remedy them.