Meiji

Lobbying
Meiji discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses channels used to engage with stakeholder groups. Moreover, its stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, including biodiversity, nutrition and social areas.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company reports consistently against all its targets.

GHG emissions
The company has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions and report progress against its scope 1 and 2 targets. Additionally, the company reduces its scope 1 and 2 emissions, and all its targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company states that it investigates the impact of its operations on biodiversity through the use of the IBAT (an independent tool for evaluating biodiversity). Further, it discloses that it has discovered that 53 sites were within a 10 km radius of an area of significant biodiversity.

Key areas and species
The company has undertaken environmental research in Kumamoto Sunlight Forest, discovering preserved Satoyama-like environments and identifying endangered flora and fauna.

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

Solid and air pollution
The company demonstrates commitment and partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. It has a target to reduce plastic usage by 25% by 2030 through design changes and the use of alternative materials and reports a 16% progress against it. It also reduces the production of hazardous waste and reports regularly on the emissions of harmful air pollutants.

Water
The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas and demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations. Furthermore, the company reports a decrease in water pollution and regularly reports on water pollution.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company demonstrates that its human rights risks and impacts identification process includes a focus on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company discloses a global tax strategy and income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions. Also, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work.
The company discloses a policy commitment to respecting the health and safety of workers for its operations and supply chain. It provides evidence of how it monitors its suppliers’ performance on health and safety standards. Also, it discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. Additionally, it discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category and a target to increase the ratio of female managers to over 10% and Increase the number of female managers to at least 420 by the financial year 2026.

Respect human rights
The company discloses a policy statement committing to respecting human rights and the fundamental rights at work declared by the ILO in its operations and supply chain.

Additionally, the company describes a comprehensive process for assessing and identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities and supply chain and its salient human rights issues. It also specifies salient human rights issues and how relevant factors are considered, such as geographical, economic and social factors. Furthermore, the company provides a case study describing how it has acted on a salient human rights risk issue. It indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers.

Lastly, it discloses categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities, such as employees, suppliers, customers, consumers, community residents, donors of human-derived raw materials and clinical trial subjects.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets and to report (potential) misalignments.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses the issues raised by its customers. However, it could disclose the topics raised by its other stakeholders during its engagement activities.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company states that it has a materiality assessment, it has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. This should include how external stakeholders are involved in the process. Also, the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets, including climate and social inclusion. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, although the company discloses a remuneration policy related to ESG initiatives, it could link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Lastly, the company states that the board of directors has expertise in sustainability. However, it could improve its transparency by disclosing whether its highest governance body has expertise concerning 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 needs to reduce its scope 3 emissions and report against its scope 3 targets.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company assesses the effect of biodiversity in its supply chain, it has an opportunity to disclose the results and methodology of these assessments within its own operations and upstream business relationships. The company acknowledges its dependence on natural resources like raw milk and cacao. Still, it has the opportunity to assess and disclose 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 has made strides by disclosing that 64 of its sites are close to areas of significant biodiversity and actively pursuing biodiversity conservation at 47 domestic sites, including Group company plants, a comprehensive list of all sites adjacent to critical biodiversity zones remains undisclosed. Transparency regarding supplier locations near key biodiversity areas can enhance their accountability. The company has shown commitment by researching Kumamoto Sunlight Forest and identifying endangered species per the Japanese government and Kumamoto Prefecture’s Red Lists. Leveraging the IBAT tool for 61 production sites to determine proximity to IUCN Red List species is commendable. Yet, there’s an opportunity for the company to disclose all species’ full names and statuses across their locations in line with national and international conservation lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. The company can 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 and work on reducing the production of hazardous substances. It has an opportunity to 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 the proportions directed from or to disposal.

Water
The company has an opportunity to set time-bound targets and engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company has an opportunity to set targets to reduce water pollution. The company does not disclose a commitment to respect the right to water. 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 the 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
While the company states that bribery and corruption are prohibited in the supplier code of conduct, it has an opportunity to include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contractual agreements with business relationships. Furthermore, it could disclose its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption beyond audits for fraud and a grievance mechanism allowing stakeholders to raise related concerns. Additionally, although the company prohibits illegal political contributions, it has an opportunity to disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document and state that it does not make political contributions and divulge its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work.
While the company states that it pays a legal wage and expects the same in its supply chain, it could 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, although the company commits to gender equality, it has an opportunity to commit to women’s empowerment. It could disclose that it has at least 30% women on the board, along with the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.