Ferrero

Lobbying
Ferrero discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member.

Stakeholder engagement
The company’s stakeholder engagement activities cover its most material sustainability topics, including nature, biodiversity, nutrition and social areas.

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.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company commits to ensure zero conversion, and it discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Moreover, it discloses the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free. Furthermore, the company is committed to restoring ecosystems.

GHG emissions
The company discloses its target to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 by 50% from a 2018 base year and these targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Key areas and species
The company discloses that it maps its plants according to the world database on protected areas (WDPA). Further, it discloses that some of its factories are located near protected areas (less than 2 km away), and provides a list of its plants name and protected areas.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

Solid and air pollution
The company partakes in activities and discloses quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Water
The company reduces water withdrawal in its own operations.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company requires its business relationships to identify and recognise affected Indigenous Peoples and to obtain their free, prior and informed consent regarding whether and how to carry out projects.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company is committed to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment by recognising that a safe, clean and sustainable environment is integral to the full enjoyment of human rights.

Act ethically
The company discloses a public commitment to protect personal data as well as a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption. Furthermore, the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships and reserves the right to terminate the commercial agreement if non-compliance is found. Moreover, the company specifies that it does not make political contributions.

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 make the same commitment. It also discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships. It requires its suppliers to provide all employees with a fair and competitive salary in line with the relevant ILO Conventions and supports its suppliers to do so. Moreover, the company complies with the applicable laws and supports ILO Conventions on working hours and rest periods and expects its suppliers to comply with the same conventions. Additionally, the company discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. It also describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations as well as its supply chain, and discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments. The company further discloses its global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate salient human rights issues, and this includes a description of how its global system applies to its supply chain. Additionally, it engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. It 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 to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets and to report (potential) misalignments.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities. It also has an opportunity to describe its process, including frequency and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and social inclusion. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Also, while the company reports consistently against some targets including climate, it could report consistently against all its targets. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to 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
While the company has a target to achieve conversion-free supply chains, it does not provide details of a plan which includes specific actions for engaging suppliers, developing alternative land-use practices, and investing in sustainable sourcing, as well as dedicated resources and KPIs for monitoring progress. Furthermore, the company does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
In terms of scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, the company discloses quantitative data, but overall scope 1 and 2 emissions have increased from the prior year. The company should reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions. Furthermore, while it discloses its target to reduce scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, intensity-based targets are not considered for this indicator. As a result, the company should set a target to reduce its scope 3 emissions, report against it, and reduce its scope 3 emissions in the future. Additionally, these scope 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 nature dependencies 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 in its supplier locations. It could also disclose existing species populations existing in or adjacent to both its own and its suppliers’ locations. In addition, it could disclose the conservation status of species identified at its own sites according to national and international lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company has an opportunity to disclose its inputs according to an international standard, and to report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. It also has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and to report progress against it.

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

Water
The company has opportunities to increase disclosure on water withdrawal by setting targets and engaging with suppliers. Moreover, it does not disclose relevant information on water pollution and does not disclose a commitment to respect the right to water. Furthermore, 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 mentions Indigenous Peoples’ rights but does not show a commitment to respecting these rights. There are no references provided to the relevant part(s) of ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Additionally, the company fails to disclose its processes for identifying and recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples when its operations may impact these rights. The company also does not describe how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior, and informed consent.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company has an opportunity to commit 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 Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy which sets out its commitment to ensuring no detrimental treatment of any person as a result of reporting in good faith their suspicion that an actual or potential violation of the standards has taken place. However, it could describe the process to identify its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, while the company has a mechanism for employees to raise bribery and corruption concerns and complainants have the option to identify themselves or remain anonymous, it is unclear if this mechanism is accessible to all stakeholders including external stakeholders.
The company has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach, and require third-party lobbyists to comply with this policy. It discloses some information regarding its lobbying expenditures, however, it has an opportunity to disclose the expenditures in all locations where it carries out lobbying activities or specify it only does so in specific countries or regions.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company sets a goal to provide all employees with a fair and competitive salary in line with the relevant ILO Conventions on wages, it has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. While the company has a statement that it treats all employees equally and has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination, it has an opportunity to disclose a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. The company states that it has a target to increase the representation of the women in decision-making roles by 2030, but could disclose the percentage increase that it is striving for.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respecting the right not to be subject to discrimination and forced labour, and expects its suppliers to make the same commitment. However, it has an opportunity to use stronger language in its statements on child labour and freedom of association to turn them into formal commitments. The company discloses its salient human rights issues but has an opportunity to disclose the process for assessing saliency of these risks more clearly.