Costco Wholesale

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy area.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company has a commitment to ensure zero conversion.

GHG emissions
The company has targets to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 39% by 2030 compared to a 2020 baseline and it also reports progress against these targets. Additionally, the company reduces its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions compared to previous year.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company openly shares its efforts to enhance soil health and agrobiodiversity through responsible production and sourcing practices.

Solid and air pollution
The company demonstrates commitment to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging and discloses related quantitative data.

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

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and incorporates related clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. It also has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding related misconduct. Moreover, the company discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a policy statement, and specifies that it does not make political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement that commits it to respecting the health and safety of workers in its operations and supply chain. It also reveals its approach to overseeing the health and safety performance of its business relationships. Additionally, the company provides information on the percentage of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Moreover, it discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and racial or ethnic background.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement expecting suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. Furthermore, the company indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, as well as all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. 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
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 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. This should include how external stakeholders are involved in the process. Also, it discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate. However, it could establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and report consistently against all its targets beyond climate. Additionally, although the company assigns decision-making and oversight responsibility for its sustainability strategy to senior management, it has an opportunity to assign decision-making and oversight responsibility for its sustainability strategy to the highest governance body. Lastly, the company describes a remuneration policy related to sustainability. However, it could link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues and disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company refrains from disclosing its actions to attain conversion-free supply chains. Additionally, it has not established time-bound goals for achieving such supply chains. Despite not being committed to ecosystem restoration, the company also withholds information regarding details and outcomes of any restoration projects in areas impacted by its own operations or its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company should set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against them. Crucially, the company needs to reduce its scope 3 emissions and all of its scope 1,2 and 3 targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company 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
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 currently does not disclose its inputs, such as its material footprint, nor does it report quantitatively on its overall circularity performance. The company has the potential to make a positive impact by revealing a target aimed at enhancing soil health in its production or sourcing practices, and tracking and reporting progress towards this goal.

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 related to water, in its operations or supply chains.

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 states that it has a responsibility to source its products in a way that is respectful to the environment and to the people associated with that environment. Nevertheless, it still 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 an opportunity describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, the company could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company states that it pays wages in compliance with applicable wage laws and sets similar expectation from its suppliers, it has an opportunity to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. It could further require and support suppliers in paying the same wage standard, and explain its method for determining a living wage for regions where it operates. Additionally, while the company commits to diversity, it could commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It could also disclose related time-bound targets, along with information on the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement on respecting human rights and an opportunity to place it in a formal policy document. While it commits to specific workers’ rights, it could reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work.
Additionally, it has identified human rights risks and impacts in its own operations but could describe the risk identification process, both internally and within its supply chain. It could also elaborate on its method for assessing and identifying its salient human rights issues.
Moreover, while it discloses its efforts to address human rights issues in business relationships, it could unveil a comprehensive a global system to act on all its salient human rights issues in all its activities.