Carlsberg

Stakeholder engagement
Carlsberg discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, its stakeholder engagement encompasses the areas 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 and reports consistently against all its targets.

GHG emissions
Carlsberg has time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions and reports progress against these targets. Additionally, its scope 1 and 2 emissions targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory and it discloses a reduction compared to the previous year.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Carlsberg is committed to disclosing its efforts to enhance soil health in its production or sourcing practices. It has set a specific target to improve soil health and regularly reports on its progress toward achieving this goal.

Solid and air pollution
The company reports regularly on the emissions of harmful air pollutants. It also demonstrates commitment and partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Water
Carlsberg reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas, and has targets with breweries in these areas to reduce water use. The company discloses its target to improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping, and minimising the release of hazardous chemicals and materials. It also demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations.

Additionally, the company has a commitment to respect the right to water, and discloses its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

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

Act ethically
Carlsberg has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Additionally, it has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. Furthermore, the company discloses a public commitment to protect personal data and discloses a global tax strategy which an executive-level committee has responsibility for.

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. Furthermore, it discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. It also discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements and describes how it works to support the practices of its business relationships in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Moreover, Carlsberg provides the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. While the company currently has 35.7% women on the board, it targets to increase the representation of women in senior leadership to 30% by 2024, 35% by 2027 and 40% over time.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights and expects suppliers to do the latter. Furthermore, it discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments and provides a case study describing how it has acted on a salient human rights risk issue. Carlsberg also has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
While the company states that it engages through trade associations such as IARD, 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 the alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets and to report potential misalignments.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While Carlsberg discloses some sustainability objectives including climate, social inclusion, water, and soil health, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, although it describes a remuneration policy related to sustainability, it could link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Additionally, the company states that the board of directors has expertise in ESG, CSR and health and safety. However, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Carlsberg lacks a commitment to restoring ecosystems, and it does not reveal specifics and results of ecosystem restoration initiatives within areas impacted by its operations or those of its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company should set a time-bound scope 3 reduction target covering all of its scope 3 emissions and report progress against it.

Impact and dependencies assessment
Carlsberg has an opportunity to disclose assessments of its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations and in its supply chain. It also has the opportunity to disclose its dependencies on nature within its own 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
Carlsberg 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
Carlsberg does not disclose its inputs, including its material footprint. While the company states that it voluntarily discloses its eligibility against the EU Taxonomy objectives on circular economy and biodiversity, it does not further report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance.

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

Water
While Carlsberg has set targets to reduce water use, the targets are intensity-based. It has an opportunity to disclose additional information on water pollution, including its water pollution metrics, and targets to reduce the same. 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 the land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Carlsberg 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. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach and a statement that specifies that it does not make political contributions. Additionally, Carlsberg could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities and could require third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company states that health and safety is part of SMETA audits, it has an opportunity to disclose how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers. Furthermore, besides stating that it pays minimum wage to its employees, the company could commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. On that note, while Carlsberg has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, as well as how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates and disclose how it supports the payment.

Regarding gender equality, Carlsberg can consider committing to gender equality and women’s empowerment and could 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 has an opportunity to describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities, covering its supply chain and what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. While Carlsberg has conducted a human rights risk assessment, it has an opportunity to disclose how it identifies human rights risks and impacts. Additionally, it can consider disclosing a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.