Jeronimo Martins

Lobbying
Jeronimo Martins discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
Jeronimo Martins discloses the channels it uses to engage with each stakeholder group.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Jeronimo Martins 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.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Jeronimo Martins discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains, and the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free. It also has time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Additionally, the company is committed to restoring ecosystems.

GHG emissions
Jeronimo Martins has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions.

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

Solid and air pollution
Jeronimo Martins reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants. It also partakes in activities and discloses quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, including the proportion of recycled content in its plastic packaging.

Water
Jeronimo Martins discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas and works with its business relationships to improve their practices regarding access to water and sanitation.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Jeronimo Martins is committed to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

Act ethically
Jeronimo Martins discloses a policy on bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contractual agreements with business relationships. Furthermore, it discloses its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption and a grievance mechanism allowing stakeholders to raise related concerns. Additionally, the company specifies that it does not make political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
Jeronimo Martins discloses a policy committing to respecting the health and safety of workers for its operations and supply chain and provides evidence of how it monitors its suppliers’ performance on health and safety standards. The company discloses quantitative information on the health and safety of its workers.

Also, it publicly states that workers shall not be required 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 for each employee category by age group and nationality. Lastly, the company discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category and has 36.36% women on the board.

Respect human rights
Jeronimo Martins has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. It also indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
While the company states there is no misalignment between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its climate position, it has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its engagement activities.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company discloses some short-term sustainability objectives/targets, it has an opportunity to establish mid-/long-term and group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, the company could link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Lastly, it 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
The company does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion 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 report progress against these scope 1 and 2 emissions targets and reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions. Additionally, it should set a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 emissions and report progress against it. Crucially, the company’s 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 could also disclose its dependencies on nature 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
While the company provides insights into species status based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2022 red list for wild fish and utilises the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) Alliance tool for biodiversity assessments, there are still areas where transparency could be enhanced. The company has yet to disclose species in proximity to its operations and specific locations adjacent to biodiversity-rich zones. Similarly, detailing supplier locations near conservation-critical areas, species populations around supplier sites, and a comprehensive listing of species’ conservation status within and around company premises would enrich its disclosure efforts.

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 could also 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 and waste. While it discloses the amount of plastic waste generated, it has an opportunity to report on proportions directed from or to disposal. Additionally, the company could disclose time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

Water
The company has an opportunity to further improve water withdrawal by setting a time-bound target, reducing water withdrawals year by year, and engaging with suppliers. It could also improve on its disclosure on water pollution by disclosing water pollutant metrics and setting time-bound targets to reduce them. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to make a public commitment to rights to water.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose its processes to identify and recognise the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights or 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 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 has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach and specify that it does not make political contributions. Furthermore, it could disclose its requirement for third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company discloses that it pays a fair wage and expects the same in its supply chain, it has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or state that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. It could also describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates and how it works to support its suppliers in paying a living wage. Furthermore, the company could commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment and disclose related targets and the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company discloses statements committing it to respect the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) fundamental rights at work in its operations and supply chain. However, it has an opportunity to use stronger language to turn the statement into a formal commitment and place them in a formal policy document.

Additionally, while the company states that it conducts an annual risk assessment including human rights risks, it could describe a comprehensive process for assessing and identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities and supply chain, along with its salient human rights issues. It could also specify what it considers to be salient human rights issues, how relevant factors are considered and how it acts to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issues through a global system.