In November 2020, Ethical Consumer viewed the Hain Celestial Sustainability Report 2018, and its CLIMATE CHANGE STATEMENT March, 2016 - the latest relevant documents on its website at the time.
Ethical Consumer was looking for the following:
1. a) For the company to discuss its areas of climate impact, and to discuss plausible ways it has cut them in the past, and ways that it will cut them in the future:
The Sustainability report discussed climate change and greenhouse gas emissions (including a breakdown of where emissions came from covering ingredients; processing; packaging; distribution; use and end of life. This was described as a baseline for its impact).
It stated:
"Hain Celestial is committed to minimizing our contribution to climate change by developing sustainable products, reducing our absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from business operations and our supply chain, and by engaging in conversations to accelerate the efforts and policy needed to reduce the
risk of climate change.
Many of our company’s goods directly enable GHG emissions to be avoided or reduced due to how they are sourced, manufactured, and packaged.
Our portfolio of products includes plant-based beverages and desserts and meat-free alternative products, which offer important alternatives to livestock products and reduce the carbon footprint of our consumers.
We also continue to explore ways to reduce packaging materials, use recyclable materials for our packaging, and increase the recycled content in our packaging to reduce landfill waste and associated GHG emissions.
And we market many of our food and beverage products in ambient form to reduce GHG emissions associated due to refrigeration. Shelf-stable packaging has one of the lowest environmental impacts of any food and beverage container, as products can be safely stored without refrigeration before opening."
Its climate change statment said:
"Hain Celestial is setting a science-based goal to reduce the absolute GHG emissions from our operations and increase our use of renewable energy.
Hain Celestial will seek to increase our investments in climate solutions and strategies—at the farm level, at our factories, with our suppliers, and within our management.
Hain Celestial will integrate climate change into short- and long-term supply chain risks.
Hain Celestial will measure, manage, and report on our GHG emissions regularly and be transparent about our efforts to encourage more companies and other industries to take action.
Hain Celestial will be part of the wider community working to advance transformative solutions that mitigate climate change and help communities adapt to its impacts."
There was no more detail about any of these bullet points.
1 b) For the company to not be involved in any particularly damaging projects like tar sands, oil or aviation, to not be subject to damning secondary criticism regarding it’s climate actions.
It was not invloved in any of these things.
2. For the company to report annually on its scope 1&2 greenhouse gas emissions (direct emissions by the company):
It did not report its CO2e scope 1 and 2 emissions.
3. and to go some way towards reporting on its scope 3 emissions (emissions from the supply chain, investments and sold products).
There was no mention of scope 3.
4. For the company to have a target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in line with international agreements (counted as the equivalent of at least 2.5% cut per year in scope 1&2 emissions), and to not count offsetting towards this target.
There were no climate targets.
If a company met all of these criteria it would receive a best rating. If it met parts 1&2 (impacts and annual reporting CO2e) it would receive a middle rating. Otherwise it would receive a worst rating.
Overall, Hain Celestial received Ethical Consumer’s worst rating for carbon management and reporting and lost a full mark under Climate Change because it did not report any scope emissions.
