General Mills

Lobbying
General Mills discloses some of its trade associations. It has however an opportunity to show further leadership by providing a full list for all geographies where it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company’s stakeholder engagement covers 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.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
General Mills discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains, and the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free. Additionally, the company has a time-bound target for its ecosystem restoration activities.

GHG emissions
The company has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions and reports progress against scope 1 and 2 targets. Additionally, the company reduces its scope 1 and 2 emissions and all its scope 1, 2 and 3 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. The company has a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and reports progress against it.

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

Water
The company demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations and reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company has a commitment to respect the right to water.

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.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. It also has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

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 commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers, and discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships. The company also discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category and the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by race or ethnicity. Furthermore, it publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment and discloses that 50% of the board are women.

Respect human rights
The company has publicly available policy statements committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights, and expecting suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. Additionally, the company 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 provides a case study describing how it has acted on a salient human rights risk. The company also indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and 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 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 and to describe its process, including frequency and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and soil health. 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 and soil health, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets. Furthermore, although the company discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability, it could link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives 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
The company does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion, and it does not have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains.
Furthermore, the company is not committed to restoring ecosystems and it does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company should set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against them. Crucially, the company 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
While the company is investing in innovative methods like microphones and light sensors to monitor biodiversity across farms, it has an opportunity to assess and disclose the impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations and upstream business relationships. Similarly, the company has an opportunity to assess and disclose its dependencies on nature within its operations and upstream 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
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

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

Water
The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and reports progress against the target. While the company sets relevant expectations on suppliers to reduce water withdrawal, it has an opportunity to further engage with them. The company has an opportunity to improve its disclosure on water pollution by providing relevant information and setting targets.

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 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. It could also have a policy setting out its political engagement approach and, as well as disclosing that political contributions can be made only after approval from the operating executive, the General Counsel and the Vice President, Government Relations, disclose that these are also made only by exception and the criteria for making them. Furthermore, 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, and disclose that it requires third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company 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, and how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. While the company has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, could add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment. The company also has an opportunity to disclose time-bound targets on gender equality and women’s empowerment and 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.