KWS

Lobbying
KWS discloses the list of its significant memberships. It has however an opportunity to show further leadership by disclosing all the industry associations it is a member for all geographies where it operates.

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.

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

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company is committed to enhancing soil health and agrobiodiversity in its production and sourcing practices, and actively shares information about these activities to promote sustainable agriculture.

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

Act ethically
The company has a clear policy against bribery and corruption. It also incorporates anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses into its contracts with direct business partners.
In addition, the company provides a compliance reporting platform that allows individuals to report concerns and complaints about bribery and corruption without fear of retaliation. This mechanism is easily accessible to everyone through the company’s website.

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses that over 50% of its entire direct operations workforce is protected by collective bargaining agreements. It also has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. In order to ensure compliance with these standards, the company conducts regular audits to monitor adherence to its suppliers’ code of conduct, which includes provisions for health and safety.
Moreover, the company provides detailed information regarding the composition of its direct operations workforce, disclosing the proportion of employees in each age group. Furthermore, the company also discloses the proportion of women within its direct operations workforce, broken down by different employee categories. To further promote gender equality, the company has set specific targets to achieve by 2022.

Respect human rights
The company has a compliance reporting platform that allows external stakeholders to raise complaints or concerns regarding human rights issues. This platform is accessible to all individuals who may be negatively affected by the company’s operations.

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 during its stakeholder engagement activities and its process for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and report consistently against all its targets beyond climate. Also, it could link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, 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
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promote restoration. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

GHG emissions
The company should reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions and report against its target. It should also set a target to reduce its scope 3 emissions as well as report progress against it. Crucially, all of its targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company plans to use special scorecards for assessing the environmental performance of its seed production sites, covering criteria such as biodiversity, water protection, and emissions, it still has an opportunity to disclose the methodology and results of these assessments. The company also has yet to assess and disclose its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, in its supply chain, as well as 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. 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
The company does not disclose relevant information related to pollution in its operations or supply chains.

Water
The company does not disclose relevant information related to water, in its operations or supply chains.

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 has an opportunity to outline its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities related to its own operations. Furthermore, the company could establish a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement.
While the company states that it does not provide funding to political parties or politicians, it could strengthen this commitment by documenting it in a public policy document. Additionally, the company could provide transparency by disclosing its expenditures on lobbying activities. Lastly, the company could require third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
To ensure fair compensation, the company has the chance to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target, moving beyond minimum wage for its employees. This commitment could be bolstered by disclosing how the company determines a living wage tailored to the regions of its operations. Extending its influence, the company also has the opportunity to require its suppliers to pay a living wage, adding a crucial dimension to its expectations and disclosing the mechanisms it employs to support this.
Shifting focus to worker safety, while the company acknowledges its respect for health and safety, formalizing this commitment within a public policy document would further underline its dedication. Similarly, the company’s statement on gender equality and women’s empowerment can be elevated through translation into a dedicated public policy, solidifying its stance. This commitment can be complemented by the disclosure of gender pay ratios across different employee categories and significant operational locations, emphasizing transparency and progress in these crucial areas.

Respect human rights
In terms of human rights commitment, the company showcases its dedication through statements acknowledging the ILO’s fundamental rights at work. However, an opportunity exists to elevate these statements by formalizing them within a comprehensive policy document. Going further, the company could extend its influence to suppliers by disclosing a policy that compels them to uphold the ILO-declared fundamental rights at work.
To enhance transparency, the company has the potential to share the outcomes of its human rights risk assessment. It could also detail the systematic process for identifying human rights risks and impacts across specific locations and activities. Moreover, while the company discloses that it conducts due diligence in general, it has an opportunity to specify that it conducts human rights due diligence that includes a process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its supply chain.
Furthermore, on a global scale, the company has the chance to introduce a system that effectively tackles, prevents, and mitigates salient human rights issues.