Sanderson Farms

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company reports consistently against all its targets.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the ecosystems and biodiversity area.

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

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses the proportion of its workforce for each employee category by gender and by race or ethnicity. The company also reports a 46% female representation on the board.

Respect human rights
The company discloses categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities, which include workers, farmers and communities. Furthermore, the company indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Additionally, 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.

Stakeholder engagement
The company does not disclose how it engages with stakeholders, nor the issues it raises during such activities.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts and group wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, it could improve its performance by reporting on sustainability accountability within its governance structure.

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 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
The company has an opportunity to disclose assessments of its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations and in its supply chain. It also has the opportunity to disclose its dependencies on nature within 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
The company 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
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 relevant information related to water, in its operations or supply chains.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose a commitment to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, 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.

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 disclose a policy on bribery and corruption and include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. It could also disclose its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption as well as a grievance mechanism which allows stakeholders to raise related complaints.  Furthermore, the company could disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document and specify that it does not make political contributions and to divulge its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
Although the company claims to respect worker health and safety, a public policy document could formalise this commitment. It could also provide evidence of how it monitors its suppliers’ performance on health and safety standards. Moreover, the company could disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved it and explain how it determines a living wage in the regions it operates in. It could also disclose how it supports suppliers who pay a living wage.
While the company discloses the proportion of women in its workforce and management team, no evidence was found that the company has a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and relevant targets. It could also disclose the ratio of women’s basic salary and remuneration to men.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect specific workers’ rights but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work. Additionally, the company could describe a comprehensive process for identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, including its suppliers.
The company discloses the key risk it monitors in its operations as part of its ongoing human rights assessment process. It could also give a description of a process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues, how relevant factors are considered, such as geographical, economic and social factors.  The company could also disclose a global system to act on its salient human rights issues by preventing, mitigating or remediating the latter.