Barry Callebaut released a brief announcement showing their ranking position with a leading sustainability rating agency, Sustainalytics.
Sustainalytics is one of a few companies that crunches the numbers, often provided to it by the company themselves, and comes up with an ESG risk rating. Other companies in the space, include MSCI and Reprisk.
You’re about to hear a lot more about sustainability reporting. That’s because new regulations coming in will require publicly traded companies to provide statements about their actions.
Supply chains need to be flexible, resilient, and transparent in order to meet an increasing number of governmental, regulatory, and social standards.
Fund managers, who are responsible for investing money on behalf of their investors, are now required to check the companies they give money to are acting ethically.
The reporting requirements are complex, and it’s recognised that reporting positive ESG credentials is not the same as earning them.
As Reprisk put’s it “ It is now well-accepted that self-reported information is not reliable data – especially when it comes to risks.”
It is now well-accepted that self-reported information is not reliable data – especially when it comes to risks.
Reprisk website
Expect to see public sources of ESG risk, becoming more relevant and important for chocolate companies to manage. This could be a good thing for our industry in helping to keep the businesses honest and avoid greenwashing.
Interestingly Barry Callebaut has been providing information about their supply chain to Sustainalytics, a rating agency, for three years. This was before the regulation was announced!
In the latest sector analysis, which considered the wider food production sector, the company was rated among the top three companies for the strength of its policies.
I was unaware that the company had already hosted its first ESG Investor roadshow in June this year, with CFO Ben De Schryver, and a senior team. The presentation can be downloaded using the link below:
The presentation is targeted at a non-technical audience and contains some useful information, such as the number of instances of child labour identified, 22,965, and the number of cases being remediated, 4,971.
The investor roadshow functions as a public presentation and communication exercise, where key executives explain the company’s strategy and answer questions from investors. Having the company run these events, and fielding their top executives, is a sign of how important this topic has now become.
