Marubeni Corporation

Sustainability strategy
Marubeni Corporation 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.

Stakeholder engagement
Marubeni Corporation discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups.

Ecosystem impacts of aquaculture
Danish Salmon, a subsidiary of Marubeni, is involved in land-based aquaculture. Due to the inherent features of their operations, there is an absence of escape-related risks. Furthermore, the potential for disease transmission to wild populations is deemed to be minimal, and the company explicitly reports zero instances of antibiotic usage or medical treatments throughout the entirety of its 2022 production cycle.

No leading practices were identified in the traceability area.

No leading practices were identified in the social responsibility area.

Respect human rights
Marubeni Corporation has a publicly available policy statement that commits it to respecting human rights, as well as the ILO core labour rights. This policy also extends to suppliers, expecting them to respect the same rights. To ensure adherence to these commitments, the company outlines its process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its own operations. This process includes sustainability surveys conducted with the assistance of external experts, as well as the adoption of best practices. Additionally, the company engages with external stakeholders to assess the risk of potential human rights violations. Furthermore, the company also describes its process for identifying human rights risks and impacts within its supply chain.

Provide and promote decent work
Marubeni Corporation has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to prioritizing the health and safety of its workers. Additionally, the company expects its business relationships to also prioritize the health and safety of their workers, as stated in their publicly available policy statement. The company provides transparency by disclosing the methods it uses to monitor the health and safety performance of its business relationships. Furthermore, the company discloses the percentage of women in each employee category within its direct operations workforce. The company publicly demonstrates its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It has set four specific targets to achieve, including increasing the proportion of women in all career-track positions to at least 15% and the proportion of women in all management positions to at least 10% by the end of March 2026.

Act ethically
The company has a publicly available policy statement that explicitly prohibits bribery and corruption. Additionally, it carries out due diligence on business partners engaged in government-related global transactions to identify any potential risks of bribery and corruption. This includes conducting risk analyses to thoroughly assess the situation. As part of its anti-corruption due diligence, various departments within the company conduct both preliminary reviews and audits. Moreover, the company clearly outlines its systematic process for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption risks in specific locations and activities.

Sustainability strategy
Marubeni Corporation discloses some sustainability objectives/targets but could further establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. While the company reports against some targets, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Accountability for sustainability strategy
Marubeni Corporation has an opportunity to link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover traceability, environmental and social issues. Furthermore, it could disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Lobbying and advocacy
Marubeni Corporation has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, it can report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
While Marubeni Corporation has a commitment to sustainable fishing and aquaculture, there is an opportunity to demonstrate it is increasing the share of its seafood portfolio that is certified. The company should consider disclosing sustainable seafood targets for its entire portfolio, and report on the progress made towards achieving these targets.

Ecosystem impacts of fisheries
Marubeni Corporation sources from certified fisheries. Eastern Fish Company, one of Marubeni Corporation’s subsidiaries source some of their shrimp products from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries. However, the company has an opportunity to demonstrate how it address the ecosystem impacts of the fisheries it sources from that are not certified, for example through Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs).

Ecosystem impacts of aquaculture
Marubeni Corporation does not disclose information in reference to how it promotes sustainable aquaculture practices in its operations and supply chains. For example, the company can improve its performance by disclosing how it is working to improve the fish forage fish dependency Ratio (FFDR) in its aquaculture operations or it deals with issues such as animal welfare and antibiotics in its aquaculture supply chain.

Traceability systems and commitments for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
Marubeni Corporation does not disclose a commitment to traceable seafood not information about how it traces and verifies the origins of seafood products. The company could strengthen its commitment by have a time-bound target to implement the Global Dialogue for Seafood Traceability (GDST) standards. The company could also provide more information about the traceability system(s) currently in place in its operations and supply chain, including the key data elements (KDEs) that are collected and the mechanisms used to verify information along the supply chain.

Risk-based approach to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
By sourcing some of its products from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) fisheries, Marubeni Corporation mitigates risks for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) in those fisheries. However, the company could improve its performance by demonstrating it has an IUU risk assessment tool in place and how it mitigates identified IUU risks.

Disclosure of the source of seafood products and marine feed ingredients
Marubeni Corporation does not publicly disclose any information about its seafood sourcing. Marubeni Corporation can improve its performance by disclosing an overview of the seafood products it sources, including information about species, geographic location, and management status.

Forced Labour
Marubeni Corporation has an opportunity to disclose forced labour requirements for its operations and supply chain such as a prohibition to pay recruitment fees, to retain workers’ personal documents or to restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
Marubeni Corporation has set up initiatives to improve the sustainability of farms it sources from but it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it improves fishers and farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it could demonstrate how it identifies living income benchmarks and assesses living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
While Marubeni Corporation does not own fishing vessels, no evidence was found of a group level approach to verify decent working and living conditions on fishing vessels in its supply chain. Marubeni Corporation can improve its performance by ensuring that working and living conditions on vessels in its supply chain are monitored, disclosing monitoring results and demonstrating how risks are mitigated and improvements are implemented, where needed.

Respect human rights
Marubeni Corporation outlines its procedure for evaluating human rights risks, but it could further enhance transparency by identifying its significant human rights concerns. While the company provides insights into its human rights risk assessments and certain outcomes, there is room for improvement in terms of clarity in sharing the results. To strengthen its efforts, the company could also consider disclosing a comprehensive global framework for addressing, preventing, or mitigating its significant human rights concerns.

Provide and promote decent work
Marubeni Corporation has opportunities to strengthen its commitment to ethical labor practices. It can set a clear time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage and disclose its achievement in this regard. Additionally, the company can provide transparency by explaining how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. While the company expects its suppliers to pay a living wage, it can also elaborate on how it actively supports suppliers in meeting this goal. In terms of gender diversity, the company’s board currently consists of 6.67% women. To align with diversity standards, the company can publicly commit to reaching a minimum of 30% women on the board. Furthermore, to address gender pay equity, the company can disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration between women and men across various employee categories, categorized by significant locations of operation. These steps will reinforce the company’s commitment to gender equality, fair wages, and transparency in its operations.

Act ethically
Marubeni Corporation has an opportunity to enhance its contracts with business relationships by including anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses. Additionally, it could establish a confidential and anonymous mechanism accessible to all stakeholders, enabling them to raise concerns and complaints related to bribery and corruption without fear of reprisals. Furthermore, the company can develop a policy that outlines its approach towards lobbying and political engagement. It also has the option to make a public statement affirming that it does not make any political contributions. To increase transparency, the company could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities. Additionally, it may choose to require third-party lobbyists to adhere to its lobbying and political engagement policy.