Danone

Lobbying
Danone discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member in locations where it operates, showcasing some transparency around its advocacy activities.

Stakeholder engagement
In its engagement with stakeholders, the company addresses several themes relevant to its type of business – nature, including biodiversity, nutrition and social issues.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Danone 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. Also, it has group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain and reports consistently against all its targets. Furthermore, the company provides evidence of linking performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Danone has a commitment to ensure zero conversion, with time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. It discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains, and discloses the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free.

Furthermore, the company is committed to restoring ecosystems and it has a time-bound target for its ecosystem restoration activities.

GHG emissions
Danone discloses its target to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 energy and industrial GHG emissions by 47.2% by FY2030 from a FY2020 base year and to net zero by 2050 and it reports progress against these targets. Additionally, it has also set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and reports progress against them. Finally, the company reduces its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and its targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices. Additionally, it has a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and reports progress against it.

Solid and air pollution
Danone demonstrates commitment and discloses quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, including the proportion of recycled plastic in packaging. The company has also set targets regarding the reduction of virgin plastic.

Water
The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas, and it engages with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. Furthermore, it demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations.

Danone regularly reports on water pollution, and has targets to reduce water pollution and reports progress against them. Moreover, it discloses that it has enabled a reduction of the net COD ratio per tonne of product by 18% compared to 2021, and that it initiated new industrial facilities for treatment and reclamation of wastewater as well as helped farmers improve water quality by reducing fertiliser.

Finally, the company has a commitment to respect the right to water, and it requires access to water and sanitation, including refraining from negatively affecting access to safe water, to be included in contractual arrangements with its business relationships.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Danone is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, it 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
The company is committed 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.

Act ethically
Danone publicly commits to safeguarding personal data and discloses a global tax strategy overseen by the Vice President Tax. Furthermore, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and describes its processes for identifying bribery and corruption risks within the company. In addition to these measures, the company includes anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships, and provides accessible channels for reporting grievances related to bribery and corruption. Moreover, Danone states that it does not make political contributions and requires its third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

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. It expects its business relationships to uphold similar health and safety standards, and monitors their performance. Additionally, Danone commits to ensuring that all overtime work is consensual and compensated at premium rates, and discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Furthermore, the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group and gender. It is also a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles and thus commits to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. It has set ambitious targets for achieving gender balance in management and the Executive Committee, which is already reflected in its board composition, with 50% representation of women among its 12 directors.

Respect human rights
Danone has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and ILO core labour rights in its operations and supply chain. It describes the process for identifying and assessing its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations and supply chain, and discloses its salient human rights issues.

Additionally, it has a global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate salient human rights issues, including a description of how it applies to its supply chain. Furthermore, it indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
Danone has an opportunity to report on its specific lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, and whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities. Also, while it discloses having a general channel available for its employees and other stakeholders to raise their concerns, it could specify channels it uses to engage with each stakeholder group, beyond its materiality assessment or an equivalent.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While Danone states that the board of directors has expertise in CSR or climate, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics including nutrition, water, soil health, social inclusion, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While Danone identifies water risks through a three-step approach and has developed policies for biodiversity impacts in the upstream supply chain, it has an opportunity to assess and disclose its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations. The company also engages in projects like the vanilla plantation and the Regenerative Coconut Agriculture Project (ReCAP) to protect natural ecosystems, but could extend this by assessing its impacts on biodiversity in its upstream business relationships. Further, the company can deepen its environmental commitment by evaluating and disclosing its dependencies on nature both internally and within 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
While Danone has safeguarded numerous faunal and floral species through a project and preserved local biodiversity in the Pointe à Larrée protected area, it has an opportunity to disclose species existing near its own locations. Additionally, although it has disclosed the location of its subsidiaries in biodiversity-sensitive areas, this transparency could be extended to all its own operations. The company could also provide information about its suppliers’ proximity to areas important for biodiversity, as well as the conservation status of species in its operational areas according to international and national lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Danone has an opportunity to disclose its inputs according to an international standard, and to report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance.

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

Water
Danone does not disclose its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. It has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and report progress against the target. The company discloses that it supports the access of drinking water to communities in the places it works, however, it has not identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Danone does not disclose its processes to identify and recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights nor describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
Danone could set a time-bound target for achieving living wages for all workers and describe how it determines living wages in different regions. Also, it could add expectations for its suppliers to pay living wages for their workers, and describe how it supports them in doing so. Moreover, it could disclose the salary and remuneration ratios between men and women across employee categories in significant locations.