Norgesgruppen

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

GHG emissions
The company reduces its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions.

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, including the amount of plastic waste generated and proportion recycled, the proportion of recycled plastic in packaging and products made of plastic. It has also set a target to reduce the proportion of virgin fossil plastic in packaging and products made from plastic, and reports progress against it. Additionally, the company is reducing the production of hazardous waste.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company discloses 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.

Act ethically
The company has a strict policy against bribery and corruption. Additionally, it incorporates clauses specifically addressing anti-bribery and anti-corruption measures into all its contracts with business partners.

Provide and promote decent work
The company’s commitment to health and safety is evident in its publicly available policy statement that extends to its business relationships, expecting them to prioritize workers’ well-being. Moreover, it sets clear expectations that workers should not exceed 48 hours in a standard work week or 60 hours including overtime.

In pursuit of gender diversity, the company transparently discloses the proportion of women in various employee categories within its direct operations workforce. It also has a specific target to increase women’s representation to 40% in management positions and store managers by 2025.

Furthermore, the company demonstrates its commitment to gender equality at the board level, disclosing that out of 13 board members, 6 are female, resulting in a board composition of 46.15% women. This reflects the company’s dedication to fostering gender diversity and representation across its organizational hierarchy.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement, committing itself to respecting the ILO core labour rights. It also has a publicly available policy statement, expecting its suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. Additionally, the company indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers. They provide a website dedicated to reporting grievances. Upon visiting the website, it is evident that the channel is open for anyone to make a report, and complainants have the option to either remain anonymous or identify themselves.

Lobbying
The company does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

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 materiality assessment.

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, Also, it discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including nutrition. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, although the company states it has a sustainability director and departments responsible for climate and sustainability, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its sustainability strategy covers both environmental and social strategy. 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 3 emissions and all its scope 1, 2 and 3 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. The company also has an opportunity to disclose activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, 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. 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.

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 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 has the opportunity to enhance its transparency regarding bribery and corruption risks and impacts within specific locations or activities, particularly within its own operations. While it maintains a mechanism for stakeholders to report concerns related to bribery and corruption, there is ambiguity regarding the accessibility of this mechanism to all stakeholders and whether complainants have the option to identify themselves or remain anonymous.

Furthermore, the company could take the initiative to develop a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement, providing a clear framework for its activities in this area. As part of its commitment to transparency, it also has an opportunity to disclose a publicly available policy statement explicitly stating that it does not make political contributions.

The company could go a step further by disclosing its expenditures related to lobbying activities, offering greater insight into its engagement with political processes. To reinforce its commitment to ethical lobbying practices, the company could also disclose that it mandates third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy, ensuring alignment with its values and standards.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to enhance transparency by disclosing its monitoring mechanisms for assessing the health and safety performance of its suppliers. Additionally, while the company currently pays its employees minimum wage, it could take a more proactive stance by committing to pay a living wage and establishing a clear time-bound target to achieve this goal.

Furthermore, the company has the chance to elaborate on how it determines the living wage for the specific regions where it operates, providing insight into its methodology. To strengthen its commitment to fair labor practices, the company could consider requiring its suppliers to pay a living wage and share the measures it takes to support them in meeting this requirement.

In alignment with global goals for gender equality, the company has an opportunity to make a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Additionally, it could disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration between women and men across various employee categories within its total direct operations workforce.

Respect human rights
The company can enhance its commitment to human rights by disclosing a policy statement explicitly committing to respect human rights. It should also provide insight into its process for identifying human rights risks and impacts, especially within specific locations or activities that encompass its own operations.

While the company mentions conducting due diligence, it’s an opportunity to clarify that this process includes human rights due diligence for identifying risks and impacts within its supply chain. Additionally, the company could explain how it assesses and identifies its significant human rights issues and share the results of its human rights risk assessment. To demonstrate a comprehensive approach, the company can disclose a global system aimed at addressing, preventing, or mitigating its significant human rights issues.