Suntory

Lobbying
Suntory discloses some industry associations it is a member of. It has however an opportunity to show further leadership by providing a full list of all geographies where it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses the channels it uses to engage with each stakeholder group including channels such as employee awareness surveys, supply chain CSR initiatives questionnaires, receiving inquiries, opinions and comments through customer centers, participation in community activities, information dissemination through websites and other media.

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 is dedicated to the restoration of ecosystems and has set a specific time-bound target for carrying out these activities.

GHG emissions
The company has targets to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions, i.e. reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions from its direct operations by 50% and by 30% across its entire value chain by 2030. Additionally, it targets to reduce its emissions by 30% across its wider supply chain (scope 3) by 2050. Furthermore, all scope 1, 2 and 3 emission reduction targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Solid and air pollution
The company reports regularly on emissions of harmful air pollutants. Regarding plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, the company discloses relevant policies, activities, and quantitative data. Moreover, the company has also set targets for virgin plastic and overall plastic use reduction, and reports progress against them.

Water
The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company demonstrates that it reduces water withdrawal in its own operations. The company has a commitment to respect the right to water. The company 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 discloses a global tax strategy and indicates an executive-level individual tasked with its compliance. Additionally, it has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a public policy statement committing it to respecting its operations and supply chain workers’ health and safety. It provides evidence of monitoring suppliers’ compliance. Furthermore, it reports the share of its employees that are covered by collective bargaining agreements and the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. It has a time-bound target to increase the female representation by 30% in its managerial positions by 2030.

Respect human rights
The company has a policy statement committing it to respect fundamental human rights, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) fundamental rights at work, in its operations and supply chain.

Additionally, the company describes various methods for identifying human rights risks and impacts and its salient human right issues, across all its operations and suppliers. It discloses what it considers to be its salient human right issues and categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities such as its employees, outsourced manufacturing workers, and the local community around its plants. Moreover, the company provides examples of its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

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. It also has an opportunity to report (potential) misalignments.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities. In addition, it could disclose the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement, beyond the materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, biodiversity, social inclusion and water. However, 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. Additionally, 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
The company does not disclose its efforts to minimize ecosystem conversion, or its activities towards achieving conversion-free supply chains. Furthermore, the company does not have any time-bound targets for achieving conversion-free supply chains. Additionally, the company does not disclose any commitment towards minimizing ecosystem conversion or ensuring zero conversion. Although it provides some information about its efforts to restore ecosystems, there is an opportunity for them to offer further details regarding the specific methodologies they follow, the targets they have set, and their year-on-year progress.

GHG emissions
The company should reduce its emissions across all scopes and report progress against its scope 1, 2 and 3 targets.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company engages in the PDCA cycle for its Natural Water Sanctuaries but has the opportunity to assess its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations. While it acknowledges its reliance on natural resources like water and agricultural products, it has not assessed or disclosed its nature dependencies within its own operations. The company also has the opportunity to assess its nature-related impacts and dependencies on 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 claims to collect taxonomic surveys and discloses priority species in specific farms, it could further improve transparency by releasing these lists and extending this practice to all species across its operations and suppliers. Additionally, there’s an opportunity to disclose locations of both its own operations and those of its suppliers that are in or adjacent to areas significant for biodiversity. The company’s reporting of Red List species trends is noteworthy, but full disclosure of the status of all species in and adjacent to its own locations would add depth to its commitment.

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 fails to disclose the quantity of plastic waste produced and the percentages allocated to disposal at the group level. Additionally, the company has not yet set any time-bound targets for decreasing air pollution throughout the most material parts of its value chain.

Water
The company does not provide information about its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. While the company discloses reduction targets related to water intensity, it has an opportunity to disclose a target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and report progress against it. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. Furthermore, it does not report a decrease in water pollution nor regularly report on water pollution. Moreover, it 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 has an opportunity to translate its statement prohibiting bribery and corruption into a policy document and to include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses that requires mandatory compliance in its business relationships’ contracts. Furthermore, it can establish a process to identify risks and impacts related to bribery and corruption.

In addition, the company can demonstrate ethical conduct by publishing a policy statement that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement and emphasizes its non-participation in political contributions, or alternatively, states the criteria of exceptions. It could also transparently disclose all lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company states that it pays fair and reasonable wage to its employees. However, it could set a time-bound target for ensuring all workers receive a living wage and describes the living wage determination methodology in the regions where it operates. Moreover, 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 strategies to support the payment.

The company has statements and targets on gender equality and women’s empowerment; however, it has an opportunity to translate these into a public policy document. It could also disclose the representation of women on the Board of Directors and the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to establish a global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issue in its supply chain, which goes beyond an audit and corrective action.