Grupo Arcor

Stakeholder engagement
Grupo Arcor discloses the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, its stakeholder engagement covers nature, nutrition, and social issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Grupo Arcor discloses some activities to minimise ecosystem conversion.

GHG emissions
Grupo Arcor has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against them. Additionally, the company reduces its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Key areas and species
Grupo Arcor reveals it maintains two protected natural areas of high conservation value, naming the specific areas. To enhance transparency, the company could benefit from detailing the methodology used to identify these high conservation areas and providing information on any operation sites situated in or near these regions.

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

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

Water
Grupo Arcor reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas, and it discloses improvements in water treatment processes.

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

Act ethically
Grupo Arcor discloses income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions.

Provide and promote decent work
Grupo Arcor has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and it discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships.
The company publicly states that workers shall not be required to work more than 48 hours in a regular work week or 60 hours including overtime. It also has a public expectation that its business shall not require workers to work more than 48 hours in a regular work week or 60 hours including overtime.
Grupo Arcor discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group, gender and the workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. The company publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It discloses a target to ensure that 50% of their new hires to be women and sets the transversal goal of having 50% of management positions occupied by women by 2025. The company currently has 30% women on the board of directors.

Respect human rights
Grupo Arcor indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
Grupo Arcor does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Stakeholder engagement
Grupo Arcor has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While Grupo Arcor 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, the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, water and social inclusion. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, it could report consistently against all its targets beyond climate. 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 performance by disclosing whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Grupo Arcor does not disclose a commitment to minimise ecosystem conversion or to ensure zero conversion, nor does it have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. While the company discloses some evidence of addressing conversion, this does not guarantee DCF-aligned practices. Finally, while the company has a target to achieve conversion-free supply chains, it does not cover all high-risk commodities.
Furthermore, Grupo Arcor is not committed to restoring ecosystems and 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’s targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While Grupo Arcor has made progress in designing a Biodiversity Strategy and has initiatives for biodiversity preservation and ecosystem regeneration, it has an opportunity to assess and disclose its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its operations and upstream relationships. Additionally, the company has the opportunity to evaluate and disclose its dependencies on nature both within its own operations and in its upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
Grupo Arcor has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
While Grupo Arcor highlights the rich biodiversity adjacent to its sugar mill, detailing a variety of species including Neotropical cats, mammals, and birds, there are aspects that can be improved for greater transparency. Specifically, disclosing the species present in or near its own operations, revealing supplier locations adjacent to biodiversity-critical zones, detailing species populations around supplier sites, and specifying the conservation status of species in its locales based on national and international lists are areas the company has the opportunity to address.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Grupo Arcor has an opportunity to disclose its inputs according to an international standard, and to report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. The company 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
Grupo Arcor does not disclose relevant information related to pollution in its operations or supply chains.

Water
Grupo Arcor has an opportunity to further improve water withdrawal by setting a time-bound target, showing year-on-year reductions in water withdrawal, and engaging with suppliers. It has an opportunity to improve on its disclosure on water pollution by disclosing water pollutant metrics and setting time-bound targets to reduce them. Finally, the company does not disclose relevant information on rights to water in its operations or supply chains.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Grupo Arcor does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Grupo Arcor 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
Grupo Arcor has an opportunity to disclose a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts with business relationships. It could also describe its process for identifying bribery and corruption, and indicate the existence of a grievance mechanism through which stakeholders can file related complaints. Further, the company could disclose how it approaches lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document, specify that it does not make any political contributions, and divulge how much it spends on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
Grupo Arcor has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement that expects its suppliers to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. It also 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 describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. Furthermore, it could disclose how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers 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.

Respect human rights
Grupo Arcor has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement committing to respecting human rights and the fundamental rights at work declared by the ILO in its operations and supply chain. Additionally, the company could describe a comprehensive process for assessing and identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities and supply chain, and its salient human rights issues. It could specify what it considers to be salient human rights issues, how relevant factors are considered such as geographical, economic and social factors, and how it acts to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issues through a global system.