Vion

Lobbying
Vion discloses a list of its trade organisations of which it is a member.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its regular and ongoing stakeholder engagement activities as well as engagement channels and frequency, for each stakeholder group.

GHG emissions
The company has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

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

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

Act ethically
The company discloses a public commitment to protect personal data. Additionally, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and discloses that it has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. Moreover, the company specifies that it does not make political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing to respecting the health and safety of workers. Furthermore, it discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. It also reports the representation of women in each employee category, and reveals a 33.33% female representation on the supervisory board.

Respect human rights
The company indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company’s activities.

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.

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, including how external stakeholders are involved in the process.While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and water, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. While the company reports consistently against some targets, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets. While the company states that the board is responsible for overall management including CSR topics, it has an opportunity to disclose having persons, teams or committees within the company who are responsible for the implementation of its sustainability strategy.The company has an opportunity to assign decision-making and oversight responsibility for its sustainability strategy to the highest governance body. While the company discloses a remuneration policy related to non-financial objectives, it has an opportunity to link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. The company has an opportunity to disclose 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 report progress against its scope 1, 2 and 3 targets. 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 engaged dairy cattle farmers in using a biodiversity monitor to gauge both positive and negative impacts on biodiversity and has implemented location-specific biodiversity plans on farms based on these assessments, it still has an opportunity to assess and disclose its own impacts on nature, including biodiversity, along with the methodology and results of these assessments. Additionally, the company has the opportunity to assess its dependencies on nature both within its operations and in 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 highlights cattle grazing in harmony with native flora and wildlife in UNESCO World Heritage Sites, it has yet to name its own locations adjacent to biodiversity hotspots and disclose the species present around it own operations. It still has an opportunity to disclose supplier locations adjacent to biodiversity-sensitive areas, identify species populations around these supplier locations, and classify species in its own locations according to national and international conservation lists.

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 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
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 show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

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 could describe the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships.

Furthermore, while the company states that it does not support political candidates or parties, it has an opportunity to outline its lobbying approach in a policy statement and divulge its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement expecting its suppliers to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers, and reveal how it monitors supplier health and safety performance. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or mention that it has achieved this goal. The company could also elaborate on the methods used to determine a living wage for its operational regions, and reveal how it supports the payment of a living wage by its suppliers.

Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to publicly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment. While the company sets a target to achieve a reasonable gender balance in the Supervisory Board, it has an opportunity to make this target time-bound. Moreover, there is an opportunity for the company to report information, including the ratio of women’s basic salary and remuneration to men’s.

Respect human rights
The company states that it complies with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as well as all internal standards, legislation, and regulations in the countries where it operates. However, it has an opportunity to include these statements in a formal policy document. Additionally, while the company has a publicly available policy statement committing to respect specific workers’ rights, it could reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work in its operations and supply chain.

Furthermore, while the company conducts a materiality assessment to identify the main risks to the business, it has an opportunity to elaborate on how it identifies human rights risks and impacts within its operations and supply chain. The company could also provide more detail on its process for assessing and identifying its salient human rights issues. Moreover, the company could disclose a global system to address, prevent, or mitigate its salient human rights issues.