Givaudan

Stakeholder engagement
The company 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 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. Furthermore, it 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
The company has a commitment to ensure zero conversion.

GHG emissions
The company has time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions which are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Additionally, the company reports progress against its scope 1 and 2 targets as well as reduces its scope 1 and targets compared to previous year.

Key areas and species
The company discloses the locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations.

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

Solid and air pollution
The company is reducing the production of hazardous waste, has reduction targets, and reports progress against them. It also discloses the proportion of hazardous waste treated to reduce pollution compared to total waste, the hazardous waste diverted from disposal, and the waste directed to disposal. The company engages in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. Additionally, it reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants.

Water
The company reports its water withdrawal in water-stressed areas for its own operations. The company engages with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company regularly reports on water pollution, and discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. The company has a commitment to respect the right to water and 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. The company also works with its business relationships to improve their practices regarding access to water and sanitation.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company is committed to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, the company 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. The company tracks its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company discloses a global tax strategy, and reveals that an executive level individual has responsibility for its global tax strategy. Moreover, the company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a policy statement committing it respect the health and safety of workers in its operations and supply chain, and provides evidence on how it monitors supplier compliance. Additionally, it publicly states that overtime work of its workers must be consensual and be paid at a premium rate. It also has a public expectation that its business relationships shall not require workers to work more than 48 hours in a regular work week or 60 hours including overtime.

Furthermore, it discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Moreover, it discloses information on the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age and by gender. It further reveals that it has 33.33% women in the board, and sets a target to achieve 50% of women in senior leadership before 2030.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO fundamental rights at work in its operations and supply chain. Additionally, it describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities and supply chain. It also delineates its approach in assessing and identifying its salient human rights issues. Furthermore, the company provides a case study describing how it has acted on a salient human rights risk issue, and engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. Moreover, it 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 it participates in multiple industry associations, it has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member for all the jurisdictions where it operates. 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.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, social inclusion, and water, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Also, although the company states that the board of directors has expertise in ESG, it could 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 revealing its strategies for attaining conversion-free supply chains. Moreover, it has not set any time-bound objectives to achieve such supply chains. In addition, the company is not committed to undertaking ecosystem restoration efforts, and does not report details or results of any ecosystem restoration projects in areas influenced by either its operations or those of its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company has opportunities to reduce its scope 3 emissions.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company plans to strengthen its biodiversity-specific risk assessment for current and new sites, there’s no evidence to indicate that these assessments are actually being performed within its own operations or that the methodology and results are publicly disclosed. Furthermore, the company does not assess or disclose its dependencies on nature either within its operations or in 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 the company does disclose the proximity of its headquarters in Vernier, Switzerland, to the Rhône riverbanks, designated as a Ramsar site of international importance with numerous protected species, it fails to provide detailed information about species within or near its own locations. Additionally, there is no evidence of the company disclosing the locations of its suppliers situated in or near vital biodiversity areas, or sharing data regarding species populations in or around its suppliers’ locations. Furthermore, the company does not reveal the conservation status of species found within its own sites in accordance with national and international conservation lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
While the company provides information on its inputs according to an international standard, it has an opportunity to provide more details on its different raw materials. The company also does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. Finally, the company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Solid and air pollution
The company should commit to avoid developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties, as well as work on reducing the production of hazardous substances. While it describes its activities to reduce plastic use and transition towards sustainable packaging, it has an opportunity to disclose the associated quantitative data. The company reports on the amount of waste generated, and proportions directed from or to disposal, however, it has an opportunity to report on plastic waste in particular. Additionally, it could also disclose time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

Water
The company has an opportunity to show year-on-year reduction in water withdrawal, and set targets to reduce water pollutants.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not currently require its business relationships to establish a process for identifying legitimate tenure rights holders. This includes paying specific attention to vulnerable or marginalized tenure rights holders, and engaging in negotiations with them to ensure adequate compensation is provided.

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 opportunity to describe the process for identifying its risks and impacts related to bribery and corruption. Although the company provides a confidential and anonymous mechanism that all employees and suppliers can access to report concerns and complaints related to bribery and corruption without fear of reprisals, the company could clarify whether the separate grievance channel intended for other stakeholders can also be utilized for raising complaints without the risk of retaliation.

Additionally, while the company discloses that it actively engages in advocacy activities through local industry associations, there is still an opportunity for the company to formalise its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a policy document. The company could further disclose that it does not make political contributions, and divulge its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose how it determines a living wage in each region. While the company states that it pays a living wage in line with local legal standards and the ETI Base Code, the company has an opportunity to disclose that this wage is enough to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and his or her family. Relatedly, while the company has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to require them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment. Additionally, the company is committed to diversity, and could explicitly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Relatedly, it has the opportunity to disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company explains the measures it has taken to prevent and mitigate its key human rights issues within its own operations and throughout its supply chain. However, it can elaborate on its global global system designed to address, prevent, mitigate, or remediate all of its salient human rights issues.