Maruha Nichiro

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups.

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.

Solid and air pollution
The company demonstrates commitment, partakes in activities and discloses quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. For example, it has set target to reduce the rate of plastic usage for container and packaging by 30% by 2030 in its corporation including switching to bioplastic, recycled materials, etc.

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

Act ethically
The company discloses a public commitment to protect personal data, and discloses a privacy statement on how it uses personal data.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers, and discloses how it monitors supplier compliance. Additionally, The company discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. It discloses a target to maintain a 50% female recruitment ratio, increase percentage of female employees to at least 35%, have at least 30% women on the board, and raise female management job ratio to at least 15% in by 2030.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights, and describes the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its supply chain. Moreover, the company indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers.

Lobbying
While the company discloses some trade associations, it has an opportunity to disclose a full list of trade associations of which it is a member for all jurisdictions where it operates. Additionally, 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.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including social inclusion and 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. Furthermore, 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 set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against them. 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
While the company has conducted a survey on its seafood products and set a goal to confirm the resource status of all seafood products by FY2030, it still has an opportunity to assess its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, and disclose the methodology and results of these assessments. The company also has yet to disclose assessments of its impacts on nature in its supply chain, its dependencies on nature within its own operations, and dependencies on nature in its 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 discloses its involvement with IUCN Red List Category I fish species and plans for stock recovery, the company has an opportunity to disclose the status of all species found in or adjacent to its own locations, as well as those adjacent to its suppliers’ locations, aligned with national and international conservation lists. Additionally, the company could further disclose areas important for biodiversity within its own operations and among its suppliers.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

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 discloses that it will work to reduce the environmental impact and strive to create a sustainable society in order to contribute to the enrichment of people’s lives and their happiness. Nevertheless, 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 aligns with specific regulations on bribery and corruption, but it has an opportunity to disclose a general commitment on prohibiting such practices, and describe the process for identifying potential risks and impact related to bribery and corruption. Relatedly, while it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships, it could specify the consequences of breaching these clauses. Additionally, while the company has a mechanism for employees to raise bribery and corruption concerns, a mechanism where all stakeholders can raise complainants either by identifying themselves or remaining anonymous could be disclosed.

Moreover, it has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach and specifying that it does not make political contributions. The company could further disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses that it is working to promote health and safety of workers, but it could formalise this commitment in a public policy document. Additionally, it has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or declare that it has achieved this goal. It also has an opportunity to disclose how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. Relatedly, 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.

Moreover, the company has an opportunity to disclose a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It could increase transparency by disclosing information on the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect specific workers’ rights both in its operations and supply chain, but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work. It could further place this expectation from its business relationships in a formal policy document. Additionally, it has an opportunity to describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts, and how it identifies what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Moreover, while the company states that it continues to develop and implement a process of human rights due diligence, it could disclose a global system to act on all its salient human rights issues in all its activities.