Thai Union Group

Lobbying
Thai Union Group discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member. The company also discloses an annual review of the advocacy activities it has undertaken.

Stakeholder engagement
Thai Union Group discloses how it engages with stakeholders, the issues raised during such activities, and the specific outcomes of its stakeholder engagement. Moreover, its stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, nutrition, and social areas.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Thai Union Group 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. Also, it has group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Thai Union Group has a commitment to minimise ecosystem conversion and to restore ecosystems. Additionally, the company has a time-bound target for its ecosystem restoration activities.

GHG emissions
Thai Union Group has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions as well as report progress against them. Additionally, the company reduces its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and its targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Solid and air pollution
Thai Union Group is reducing the production of hazardous waste and discloses its waste to landfill intensity and total waste to landfill at group level. Further, it discloses hazardous and nonhazardous waste for some of its operations. The company demonstrates commitment related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, discloses quantitative data, and reports on the percentage of recycled content within plastic packaging.

Water
Thai Union Group describes how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas, and reports a decrease in water pollution.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Thai Union Group is committed to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

Act ethically
Thai Union Group has made a public commitment to protect personal data, and it also discloses its global tax strategy. Additionally, the company has implemented a policy that strictly prohibits bribery and corruption. To further enforce this policy, the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships.

In order to encourage reporting of grievances, the company provides a website, telephone number, and email address where individuals can confidently make reports without fear of reprisal. Upon visiting the website, it is evident that the company has an open channel for anyone to submit reports, with the option for the complainant to remain anonymous or identify themselves.

Furthermore, the company explicitly states that it does not make any political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
Thai Union Group places a strong emphasis on the well-being of its workers. It has publicly available policies that commit both the company and its business relationships to uphold the health and safety of their employees. Moreover, the company actively monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships.

In line with its commitment to employee well-being, the company has undertaken an assessment to ensure that its employees receive living wages. It aims to complete this assessment for 100% of its employees by the end of 2022, building upon its goal to achieve this for at least 75% by the end of 2021. To further underscore its dedication, the company has compared the actual wages earned by its employees in 2020 with third-party-calculated living wage benchmarks.

In addition to this, the company provides transparency regarding the composition of its workforce. It discloses the proportion of employees in various age groups and maintains a detailed breakdown of the proportion of women across different employee categories. The company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion extends to various dimensions beyond gender, ensuring a comprehensive approach to workforce diversity.

Respect human rights
Thai Union Group firmly upholds human rights and labour standards. It conducts ongoing assessments for risks and impacts, specifically examining high-risk operational sites across 12 countries in 2023. These assessments employ a variety of audit methods, including third-party and internal audits. This rigorous monitoring ensures compliance with ethical standards.

In its supply chain, the company identifies human rights risks and salient issues such as forced labour, excessive recruitment fees leading to bonded labour, and unsafe working conditions. Notably, the company actively engages stakeholders affected by its operations and maintains accessible grievance mechanisms for both workers and external stakeholders.

Lobbying
While the company discloses how it engages with some trade associations, it 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.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets. 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
The company does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion, and does not disclose activities to minimise ecosystem conversion or ensure conversion-free supply chains. While the company has a target to achieve conversion-free supply chains, certification models are not specified so there is no guarantee that it is DCF-aligned. Furthermore, it 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 emissions as well as report progress against them. Crucially, it 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 uses the IBAT database and WWF-Biodiversity Risk Filter for biodiversity exposure assessment in its operations and has generated a Biodiversity Exposure Report, it has an opportunity to disclose detailed results of these assessments. Furthermore, there is room to comprehensively assess impacts on biodiversity in all upstream activities of its value chain, disclosing both methodology and full results. The company has also taken initial steps to understand dependency-related and impact-related biodiversity risks but could further assess and disclose its dependencies on nature in both 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 collaborates with SFP to mitigate bycatch risks to endangered species and maintains a distance from protected forest areas, it has an opportunity to be more transparent about the species existing near its own and its suppliers’ operations. Additionally, it could disclose the specific locations adjacent to areas of biodiversity importance and provide information on the conservation statuses of identified species, in line with national and international conservation lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company has an opportunity to disclose all its inputs according to an international standard, and to report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance.

Solid and air pollution
The company has an opportunity to start reducing the production of hazardous substances and commit to the avoidance of developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties. It could also report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. Additionally, the company could start reporting on the emissions of harmful air pollutants and outline specific, time-bound targets for reducing air pollutants throughout its value chain.

Water
The company discloses an increase in water withdrawal. It also has an opportunity to set a time-bound target and engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. Additionally, it could disclose on water pollution metrics and set targets to reduce them. Moreover, the company does not disclose a commitment to respect the right to water. It could further describe 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 has an opportunity to disclose its processes to identify and recognise the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights. Also, it could describe 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. It could further commit to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Lastly, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company can enhance its transparency by describing its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks in specific areas of its operations. Additionally, adopting a policy for lobbying and political engagement and disclosing related expenditures, along with the requirement for third-party lobbyists to adhere to company policies, would further demonstrate its commitment to ethical practices.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to fair wages by setting time-bound targets for a living wage, both for its employees and suppliers. Additionally, it can enhance its dedication to gender equality and women’s empowerment with clear, time-bound objectives. Promoting board diversity with at least 30% women and disclosing salary and remuneration ratios between genders would further demonstrate its commitment to equity.

Respect human rights
The company expects its suppliers to respect specific workers’ rights. However, it also has an opportunity to reference all the International Labour Organization (ILO) fundamental rights at work. Additionally, to address its salient human rights issues, the company could disclose a global system that acts on, prevents, or mitigates these issues.