Keurig Dr Pepper

Stakeholder engagement
Keurig Dr Pepper discloses the channels it uses to engage with each stakeholder group

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Keurig Dr Pepper 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
Keurig Dr Pepper discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

GHG emissions
Keurig Dr Pepper discloses a target to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 30% by 2030.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Keurig Dr Pepper discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices and has a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and reports progress against it.

Solid and air pollution
Keurig Dr Pepper is reducing the production of hazardous waste. It 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. The company has also set a target to reduce the use of virgin plastic and reports progress against it.

Water
The company reports its water withdrawals in water-stressed areas for its own operations and a decrease in water pollution. Furthermore, Keurig Dr Pepper has a commitment to respect the right to water. The company discloses 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
Keurig Dr Pepper has a requirement for its business relationships to identify and acknowledge Indigenous Peoples who may be affected by their projects. It also emphasizes the importance of obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of these Indigenous Peoples in determining whether and how to proceed with the projects.

Additionally, the company mandates that its business relationships establish a process for identifying legitimate tenure rights holders. Special attention should be given to those who may be vulnerable or marginalized in society. It is also expected that negotiations will take place with these tenure rights holders to ensure they receive appropriate compensation for their involvement in the projects.

Act ethically
Keurig Dr Pepper has a publicly disclosed commitment to protecting personal data, has a policy that prohibits bribery and corruption, and provides a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints about bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
Keurig Dr Pepper has a publicly available policy statement committing to the health and safety of its workers and expects its business relationships to do the same. It discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of these business relationships. The company provides data on its workforce, including the proportion covered by collective bargaining agreements, the proportion of women by employee category, and the racial or ethnic breakdown by employee category. It sets goals to increase the representation of women in director and above positions to 33% by 2025 and aims to increase the number of women and people of color in leadership roles by 25% by 2025. The company also discloses that 36.36% of its board is comprised of women.

Respect human rights
Keurig Dr Pepper has publicly available policy statements committing it to respect human rights and expecting its suppliers to respect the ILO core labor rights. It publicly discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments and provides a case study describing its actions on a salient human rights issue. The company engages with stakeholders potentially affected by its activities and indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to both its workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted.

Lobbying
Keurig Dr Pepper discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member. It however has an opportunity to further show leadership by disclosing all trade association for all jurisdictions where it operates. Furthermore, while the company states some of its processes and commitments, 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.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its ongoing and regular stakeholder engagement activities, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, soil health, social inclusion and nutrition. However, there is an opportunity to establish 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, while the company states that the board of directors has expertise in nutrition, it has an opportunity to disclose 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 does not have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. It also 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 should set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against all of its scope 1,2 and 3 targets. 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
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 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
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
The company has an opportunity to disclose its inputs according to an international standard, and to report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance.

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. It has an opportunity to report on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants and disclose time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain. The company could also report on the amount of plastic waste generated, and proportions directed from or to disposal.

Water
The company has an opportunity to disclose reductions in water withdrawal. While it discloses reduction targets related to water efficiency it has an opportunity to disclose a target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations. The company also has an opportunity to engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. Moreover, it has an opportunity to regularly report on water pollution metrics and to disclose targets to reduce water pollution.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose a commitment to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, 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, and describes 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 could detail its process for identifying risks and impacts related to bribery and corruption across its own operations in specific locations or activities. While the supplier code of conduct prohibits bribery and corruption and includes FCPA compliance as a termination condition, it’s unclear whether anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses are included in contracts with other business relationships. The company outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement in its Political Engagement Approach document but could formalize this further in a public policy document. It states that political contributions are approved by the government affairs team and the general counsel’s office, but could disclose whether such contributions are made only exceptionally and reveal the criteria for making them. While some lobbying expenditures are disclosed, the company has the opportunity to provide this information for all locations where it lobbies or specify if it only lobbies in specific regions or countries. Lastly, the company could disclose that it mandates third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company states it pays its employees a minimum wage, it has the opportunity to commit to a living wage by setting a time-bound target and disclosing how it calculates a living wage for different regions where it operates. Additionally, it can outline how it supports its suppliers in paying a living wage. Although the company has made a statement on gender equality and women’s empowerment, it could formalize these commitments in a public policy document. Furthermore, the company has the opportunity to disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration between women and men across all employee categories and significant locations of operation.

Respect human rights
The company discloses its commitment to respecting the ILO’s fundamental rights at work but could strengthen this by using more formal language. Although it has identified some human rights risks in its own operations, it has an opportunity to clarify the process used for risk identification. While the company does conduct due diligence to identify high-risk supply chains and suppliers related to forced labor, it could expand this to include other human rights risks and impacts across different locations and business relationships. Additionally, while the company identifies its salient human rights issues in its coffee supply chains, it could also describe its process for assessing and disclosing salient human rights issues in its own operations.