Wm Morrison Supermarkets

Stakeholder engagement
Wm Morrison Supermarkets discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, it discloses specific outcomes from these engagement activities.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Wm Morrison Supermarkets has a commitment to minimise ecosystem conversion.

GHG emissions
Wm Morrison Supermarkets has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. It reports progress against its scope 1 and 2 target which is aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

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

Solid and air pollution
Wm Morrison Supermarkets demonstrates commitment, partakes in activities and discloses quantitative data 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
Wm Morrison Supermarkets discloses its global tax strategy and specifies that an executive-level individual responsible for its implementation. Additionally, the company provides details about its income tax payments across all its tax jurisdictions.

Furthermore, the company enforces a policy that prohibits bribery and corruption. This stance is solidified through the inclusion of anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses within contracts with direct business relationships. Moreover, it has established a 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, and extends the same expectations to its business relationships.

Furthermore, the company outlines its efforts in supporting the payment of a living wage by its business relationships. It also publicly expresses an expectation that its business relationships adheres to limits on work hours of 48 hours in a regular work week or 60 hours including overtime.

Moreover, the company publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It reveals details, such as the proportion of women in its workforce for each employee category and the representation of women on the highest governance body, at 30%. A target has been set to achieve and sustain a 33% increase in women’s representation on the board by 2022.

Respect human rights
Wm Morrison Supermarkets fully supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, underscoring its commitment to respecting human rights. It also publicly commits to respecting the ILO core labour rights, and extends this expectation to its business relationships.

Furthermore, the company elaborates on its procedure for identifying human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities that encompass its operations and its supply chain. It further delineates its approach for assessing its human rights risks and divulges what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Moreover, the company unveils a global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate salient human rights issues, and this includes a description of how its global system applies to its supply chain. Additionally, the company indicates the presence of a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
The company does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. Also, it discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, ecosystem conversion and nutrition. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, while the company reports consistently against some targets including climate, plastic and food waste, it 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 it does not have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Additionally, the company does not disclose activities to minimise ecosystem conversion, or to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

Furthermore, the company is not committed to restoring ecosystems, and 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 reduce its scope 3 emissions and report progress against its scope 3 target. Additionally, company’s scope 3 targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company has highlighted its Nature Positive Farming plan, aiming for Net Zero carbon British farm supplies by 2030, and acknowledges potential risks associated with the origin of its feed, it has an opportunity to assess and disclose its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations and upstream business relationships. Furthermore, understanding its dependencies on nature in its operations and its upstream value chain would enhance its sustainability initiatives.

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 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. The company could also report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal.

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 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 has the opportunity to outline its process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Furthermore, it can unveil a policy detailing its approach to lobbying and political engagement. Moreover, it could explicitly state its non-engagement in political contributions, and provide information about its expenditures related to lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
The company reveals that it monitors supplier compliance with the Ethical Trading Policy and Code. However, it has an opportunity to disclose how it oversees the health and safety performance of its business relationships.

Furthermore, while the company discloses its intention to collaborate with suppliers and external stakeholders to identify living wage benchmarks where they do not exist. Yet there is an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or mention the achievement of this goal. Additionally, it could also provide insight into its methodology for determining a living wage for the regions where it operates.

Moreover, the company could enhance transparency by report information such as the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.