Zespri

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy area.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company’s disclosure includes efforts to enhance soil health or agrobiodiversity in both its production and sourcing practices. Moreover, the company has set a specific target to improve soil health and consistently reports on its progress towards achieving it.

Solid and air pollution
The company demonstrates commitment to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. It also reports on the proportion of recycled content in plastic packaging, has set targets regarding the reduction of virgin polymer production, and reports progress against them.

Water
The company discloses that it is working with primary sector partners and suppliers to support the Wai Kōkopu catchment project and its goal of improving the water quality for their people, environment and communities.

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

Act ethically
Zespri emphasizes its commitment to safeguarding personal data and holds a strong policy against bribery and corruption. This stance is further reinforced through anti-bribery clauses in contracts with direct business relationships. By conducting due diligence and compliance audits, the company identifies potential bribery and corruption risks in specific areas.
To encourage transparency, the company provides a confidential, anonymous channel for reporting grievances accessible to all stakeholders. This mechanism, available on its website, ensures that concerns related to bribery and corruption can be raised without apprehension of reprisals.

Provide and promote decent work
The company expresses its dedication to worker well-being through a public policy statement that emphasizes its commitment to upholding health and safety standards. Additionally, the company extends this responsibility by outlining its expectation for business relationships to share the same dedication in their own policies.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement expecting suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights.

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 has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process, including frequency and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company states that it has a materiality assessment. However, there is an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. This should include how regularly the assessment is undertaken. Also, while the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, it could establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and report consistently against all its targets. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to 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 lacks commitment to restoring ecosystems. Furthermore, it fails to disclose details and outcomes of restoration projects in areas impacted by its operations or those of its suppliers.

GHG emissions
Besides carbon neutrality target, the company should set a 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
The company does not disclose its inputs or its material footprint. Additionally, the company does not report quantitatively on its overall circularity performance as a group.

Solid and air pollution
The company does not disclose relevant information related to pollution in its operations or supply chains.

Water
The company has an opportunity to further improve water withdrawal by setting a time-bound target, disclosing water withdrawals in water-stressed areas, and engaging with suppliers. The company does not disclose relevant information on water pollution. It also has the opportunity to make a public commitment to the right to water.

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 can enhance its transparency by establishing a policy outlining its lobbying and political engagement strategy. Moreover, it could make a public statement clarifying its non-participation in political contributions. Additionally, the company has the potential to provide insights into its lobbying efforts by disclosing expenditures related to such activities. To reinforce ethical conduct, the company might consider revealing its requirement for third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
The company could disclose data on worker health and safety, including fatalities due to work-related injuries and total work hours. Additionally, it could provide insights into its suppliers’ health and safety performance monitoring processes. While the company affirms fair wages, it could set a time-bound target for achieving a living wage. Transparently detailing the methodology for determining a living wage in various regions would further demonstrate the company’s responsible practices. Additionally, it could require suppliers to pay a living wage and explain its supportive measures.
Furthermore, the company could disclose specific targets and timelines for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. It could consider increasing its female board representation beyond the current 12.5% to better reflect gender diversity. Furthermore, disclosing the gender-based salary and remuneration ratio would provide a comprehensive overview of gender equity in the workforce.

Respect human rights
The company holds potential to bolster its commitment to human rights by revealing policy statements aligned with both general human rights principles and ILO’s fundamental rights at work. It also possesses the opportunity to offer insight into its method of identifying human rights risks across its operations and supply chain, potentially showcasing results from its risk assessment. Furthermore, the company could elaborate on its process for identifying salient human rights issues and explore the creation of a global system to address these concerns proactively.