Cargill

Stakeholder engagement
Cargill’s stakeholder engagement covers nature, including biodiversity, nutrition and social issues.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company reports consistently against all its targets.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Cargill is dedicated to achieving conversion-free supply chains and discloses certain activities towards this goal. It has set time-bound targets to ensure the completion of conversion-free supply chains. Additionally, the company discloses the extent to which high-risk commodities have achieved conversion-free status. It holds a commitment to maintaining a zero conversion rate. Moreover, Cargill strives to restore ecosystems and shares relevant details and outcomes of restoration projects in areas impacted by its operations or suppliers. Finally, the company has established a time-bound target for its ecosystem restoration activities.

GHG emissions
Cargill has time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and reports progress against these targets. Additionally, the company reduces its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Cargill is committed to disclosing its efforts to enhance soil health and agrobiodiversity in both its production and sourcing practices. Moreover, the company has set a specific target to improve soil health and regularly provides updates on its progress towards achieving this goal.

Solid and air pollution
Cargill demonstrates commitment and partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Water
Cargill reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company engages with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal, and reports a decrease in water pollution against its target to reduce water pollutants. Finally, the company has a commitment to respect the right to water.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Cargill is committed to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, the company discloses 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
Cargill discloses that it respects the rights and freedoms of human rights and environmental defenders.

Act ethically
Cargill is committed to protecting personal data and publicizes this commitment. It also has a policy that firmly prohibits bribery and corruption. In addition, the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in all contracts with its direct business relationships. To address concerns and complaints related to bribery and corruption, the company has established a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to utilize. Moreover, the company openly communicates its approach to lobbying and political engagement through a policy statement.

Provide and promote decent work
Cargill publicly states its commitment to respecting the health and safety of workers as well as expects its business relationships to abide by the same commitment through a readily available policy statement. Furthermore, the company transparently discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. In line with its dedication to gender equality and women’s empowerment, the company publicly commits to achieving gender parity in leadership globally by 2030.

Respect human rights
Cargill has a publicly available policy statement committing to respect human rights, including the ILO core labour rights. Additionally, the company expects its suppliers to uphold the ILO core labour rights as stated in its public policy statement. Moreover, the company demonstrates its commitment to human rights by providing a grievance mechanism that is accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be negatively affected by its operations.

Lobbying
While Cargill discloses some of the trade associations it is member of, it has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member for all jurisdictions where it operates. Additionally, it 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
Cargill has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe the channels it uses to engage with stakeholder groups, beyond materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While Cargill states that it has a materiality assessment, it has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts, including the outcome of the process. Also, it discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including social inclusion, ecosystem conversion, water and climate. However, it could establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, although the company discloses a remuneration policy related to climate, it has an opportunity to link this policy to improvement in social issues. Lastly, the company could disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics beyond nutrition.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding Cargill’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
Crucially, Cargill 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
Cargill states that it evaluates water impacts and dependencies across its value chain. However, there is no evidence to suggest that it assesses dependencies on nature beyond water, either within its own operations or in its upstream business relationships.

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

Key areas and species
Cargill 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
Cargill does not disclose the inputs it uses, including its material footprint. Additionally, the company does not provide quantitative reports on its overall circularity performance across the entire organization.

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

Water
Cargill discloses an increase in water withdrawal. While it has set water efficiency targets, it has an opportunity to set targets to reduce water withdrawal as well as disclose water pollution metrics regularly. 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
Cargill does not disclose its processes to identify and recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights or describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Cargill has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
Cargill could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to disclose a publicly available policy statement that specifies that it does not make political contributions. The company could also disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
While Cargill discloses that it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships, it has an opportunity to disclose the specific methods it employs for this monitoring. In relation to its oil palm plantation operations, the company discloses that it pays a living wage to its employees. Nonetheless, there is an opportunity for the company to extend this commitment to cover all workers. The company mentions that it conducts living wage assessments but should disclose the specific methodology it uses to determine what constitutes a living wage in the regions it operates in. Furthermore, the company could further enhance its wage expectations for suppliers by requiring them to pay a living wage and should also disclose the measures it takes to support this payment.

Although the company discloses the proportion of females in global leadership positions, no evidence was found that the company has achieved a minimum of 30% representation of women on its highest governance body. While the company discloses the mean and median pay gap between men and women for its different legal entities in the UK, no evidence was found that the company discloses the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce.

Respect human rights
Cargill has identified human rights risks and impacts in its own operations. To provide more clarity, the company should describe the risk identification process. While the company states that it conducts general due diligence, it should specify that this includes human rights due diligence for identifying risks and impacts in its supply chain. Additionally, the company discloses its salient human rights issues, but it should provide a clearer disclosure of the process used to assess the significance of these risks and the results of its human rights risk assessment. 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.