Olam International

Lobbying
Olam International discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses the channels it uses to engage with each stakeholder group. Furthermore, its stakeholder engagement covers nature, nutrition, and social issues.

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.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company has a commitment to ensure zero conversion, and discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Furthermore, the company is committed to restoring ecosystems.

Key areas and species
The company discloses the locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations.

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

Water
The company reports a decrease in water pollution. Furthermore, the company has a commitment to respect the right to water, and discloses 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 is committed to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, 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 policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Moreover, it has an established grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers. The company extends the same expectation to its business relationships. Furthermore, as a corporate sponsor of the Anker Research Institute’s Living Wage and Income Initiative, the company employs this methodology to determine a living wage for its operational regions. Additionally, the company discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Moreover, The company is a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles and publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It discloses the proportion of women in its workforce for each employee category, and sets a target to raise women manager representation to 20% and 30%, and senior women leader representation to 15% and 25% by 2025 and 2030, respectively.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the ILO core labour rights. It also reveals the categories of stakeholders— namely employees, suppliers, customers, civil society, governments and communities—whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. The company actively engages with these stakeholders to address potential human rights impacts. Moreover, the company indicates the existence of a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

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.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including social inclusion. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and report consistently against all its targets. Additionally, it could link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Furthermore, 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 time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Additionally, 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 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 assessed biodiversity risks at some of its subsidiary operations using IBAT Alliance tools, it still has the opportunity to extend this assessment to all operations and make a time-bound commitment. The company also has the opportunity to assess and disclose its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its supply chain. Although it uses Natural Capital Valuation techniques in select cocoa operations, the company can further evaluate and disclose its dependencies on nature within its own operations, including methodology and results. It also has the opportunity to assess dependencies on nature within 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 has highlighted the presence of notable species like gorillas, chimpanzees, and elephants near its locations, there remains an opportunity to provide a comprehensive list of all species in its vicinity. Furthermore, to enhance transparency, it can disclose information about its suppliers’ proximity to biodiversity hotspots. It is also pivotal to provide the conservation status of species within their areas as per national and global conservation benchmarks.

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 its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and reports progress against the target. The company has an opportunity to report how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company has an opportunity to engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence of reductions in water withdrawal across its own operations. The company does not regularly report on water pollution. The company does not disclose targets to reduce water pollution.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose its processes to identify and recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights or 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 monitors compliance with anti-bribery and corruption policy and describes how it mitigates related risks. However, it could fully detail its process of identifying bribery and corruption risks and impacts.

Moreover, the company has an opportunity to establish a policy delineating its approach to lobbying and political engagement. While it mentions political contributions being subject to approval from the Group CEO and external legal counsel, there is an opportunity to clarify whether such contributions are exceptional and to specify the criteria for exceptions. Additionally, the company could disclose its lobbying-related expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company mentions that it has authority to inspect and verify supplier compliance. However, there is potential to divulge the process for monitoring the health and safety performance of its suppliers.

Additionally, while the company adheres to minimum wage laws, it has an opportunity to commit to paying a living wage by setting a time-bound target. Relatedly, Despite estimating living income gaps for farmers within its supply chains, there is an opportunity to clarify the approach to support suppliers in implementing living wage payments.

Moreover, there is a potential to enhance transparency by disclosing information such as the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company acknowledges its responsibility for ensuring the respect for human rights throughout its operations and value chain. However it has an opportunity to enhance the commitment by utilising a stronger language and incorporating it into a formal policy document. Relatedly, the company expects suppliers to respect specific workers’ rights but could reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work.

Furthermore, while the company reviews sustainability risks and conducts risk assessments, it has an opportunity to comprehensively detail how it identifies human rights risks and impacts within its operations and supply chain. Moreover, although the company mentions having a model to assess human rights risks, it could elaborate on the process and disclose what it considers to be its salient human rights issues.