Mars

Lobbying
Mars discloses a list of the key industry trade associations where it plays an active role.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Mars discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains and the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free. The company is committed to restoring ecosystems.

GHG emissions
Mars has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 targets which are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

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

Solid and air pollution
The company partakes in activities and discloses quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, including the proportion of recycled plastic in packaging.

Water
Mars discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. Furthermore, the company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas, and it engages with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. Finally, Mars has a commitment to respect the right to water.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Mars is committed to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Act ethically
Mars has a policy on prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationships’ contracts

Provide and promote decent work
Mars has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its business relationships committing to respecting the health and safety of workers and provides evidence on monitoring their compliance. Furthermore, the company publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Respect human rights
Mars has a policy statement committing it to respect human rights. It also details the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its supply chain. It describes the saliency assessment it carried out in 2021 and discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Additionally, it provides a case study to describe its response to a salient human rights risk issue and discloses examples of its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

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 by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process, including frequency and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. Also, it discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and biodiversity. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Similarly, while the company reports consistently against some targets including climate, it could report consistently against all its targets. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to assign decision-making and oversight responsibility for its sustainability strategy to the highest governance body. Furthermore, although it discloses a remuneration policy related to climate, it could link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives 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
The company does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion. While the company has a target to achieve conversion-free supply chains, the certification models specified are not DCF-aligned.

Furthermore, the company 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 reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and report progress against its targets.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company is committed to maintaining productivity on existing agricultural land and protecting natural ecosystems for their biodiversity, it has an opportunity to assess and disclose its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations and upstream business relationships. Additionally, the company could assess and disclose its dependencies on nature, to provide a holistic view of its environmental considerations.

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 ensures it doesn’t source endangered fish species as per the IUCN Red List and sponsors certain species studies, there’s an opportunity to reveal species existing near its operational sites. Similarly, enhancing disclosure about locations near biodiversity-rich zones, both for its operations and suppliers, would strengthen transparency. Addressing the status of species near their locations in line with national and international conservation lists can further affirm their commitment to preserving biodiversity.

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 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. 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 quantitative evidence of reductions in water withdrawal across its own operations. While the company discloses reduction targets related to water intensity, it has an opportunity to disclose a target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and report progress against it. The company has an opportunity to disclose additional information on water pollution, including water pollution metrics and targets to reduce them. The company does not disclose 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
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. Additionally, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to establish a process to identify risks and impacts related to bribery and corruption. While it has a mechanism for stakeholders to raise bribery and corruption concerns, it could further clarify if this mechanism is accessible to all stakeholders and if complainants can file concerns and complaints without fear of reprisals.

Furthermore, the company can demonstrate ethical conduct by publishing a policy statement that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement, emphasizes its non-participation in political contributions, or alternatively, states the criteria of exceptions. It discloses some information regarding its lobbying expenditures. However, it has an opportunity to disclose the expenditures in all locations where it carries out lobbying activities or specify it only does so in specific countries or regions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to its workers’ wellbeing by disclosing a public policy document committing it to respect their health and safety. Additionally, it could set a time-bound target for ensuring all workers receive a living wage and describes the living wage determination methodology in regions where it operates. While it has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment.

Furthermore, the company could make its gender equality and women’s empowerment target time-bound and disclose that it has at least 30% women on the highest governing body. While it reports the mean and median gender pay gap for different entities within its UK operations, it could further discloses 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
The company discloses statements committing it to respect the ILO’s fundamental rights at work. However, it has an opportunity to use stronger language and place them in a policy document. It could also extend this commitment to its business relationships and ensure its applicability across all contexts and locations. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities within its own operations.