Nutreco

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

Stakeholder engagement
The company’s stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, nutrition, and social areas.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Nutreco 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 and reports consistently against all its targets.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Nutreco has time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains, and discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Furthermore, the company discloses the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free.

GHG emissions
Nutreco has time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. However, the company reports progress only against its scope 1 and 2 targets.

Solid and air pollution
Nutreco partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Water
Nutreco demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations.

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

Act ethically
Nutreco discloses a public commitment to protect personal data and discloses a privacy statement on the use of personal data. Furthermore, the company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Additionally, it also has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
Nutreco has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and it also expects its business relationships to do so. Furthermore, the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Additionally, the company publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment and targets to achieve 30% women in senior leadership by 2025. Also, it discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

Respect human rights
Nutreco provides two examples of its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities in the last two years. Furthermore, the company indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
Nutreco 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
While Nutreco discloses the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities in its Sustainability Report 2021, it could disclose the topics raised by its stakeholders and the engagement channels in its latest Sustainability Report 2022.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Nutreco discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, ecosystem conversion and social inclusion. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, the company could link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Lastly, while the company states that the board of directors has expertise in climate and nutrition, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics including water, soil health, social inclusion, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Nutreco does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion. Furthermore, the company is not committed to restoring ecosystems and it does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
Nutreco should report progress against its scope 3 targets and all of its targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While Nutreco reveals plans to utilize LCA tools and analysis across its divisions, there’s an opportunity for the company to assess its impacts on nature, particularly biodiversity, in its own operations and supply chain, along with the methodology and results fully disclosed. Additionally, the company could benefit from identifying and disclosing its dependencies on nature, both within its own operations and in its upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
Nutreco has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
Nutreco 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
Nutreco 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
Nutreco 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. While the company describes its activities to reduce plastic use and transition towards sustainable packaging, it has an opportunity to disclose the associated quantitative data, including the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal.

Water
Nutreco has an opportunity to further improve water withdrawal by setting a time-bound target, disclosing water withdrawals in water-stressed areas, and engaging with suppliers. The company does not disclose relevant information on water pollution or rights to water in its operations or supply chains.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Nutreco lacks disclosure at the parent level. 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. Furthermore, the company does not disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights as set out in the relevant part(s) of the VGGT’s or the IFC Performance Standards. The company does not require its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rights holders paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rights holders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Nutreco 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
Nutreco could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, while the company has policy statement setting out its political engagement approach, it could also set out its lobbying approach in a policy statement.
Furthermore, Nutreco has a publicly available policy stating that it does not make contributions to local, regional or national political fundraising events, however, the fundraising events are one of the aspects of political contributions and it could disclose a publicly available policy statement that specifies that it does not make political contributions. Additionally, it could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities and could require third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
While Nutreco states that it pays minimum wage to its employees, it has an opportunity to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to disclose how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. Furthermore, while the company 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, it could also disclose 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
Nutreco has a publicly available statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO’s fundamental rights at work. However, it has an opportunity to place it in a formal policy document and use stronger language to turn the statement into a formal commitment. Similarly while the company sets its expectation from its business relationships to commit to the latter, it has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work.
Moreover, Nutreco has identified one or some human rights risks and impacts in its own operations. It thus has an opportunity to describe the risk identification process for its own operations and also for its supply chain. Additionally, the company could describe its process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues and could also disclose the results of its human rights risk assessment. Lastly, it could disclose a global system to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.