The charity’s Behind the Brands campaign has taken 10 companies to account on their CSR strategies and drawn up a scoreboard rating them against each other on key policies from water and land use to social justice.

The data is based on publicly available information on the policies and commitments of the ‘big 10’ towards the sourcing of agricultural commodities from developing countries.

The scoreboard, in which Nestle comes out top and Associated British Foods bottom, is meant to provide consumers with a simple benchmark to compare and contrast how big corporations are tackling critical issues within their supply chains.

According to Oxfam, it will enable the public to effectively hold these companies to account and effectively ‘vote’ with future purchasing decisions.

The scorecard looks at seven themes, each weighted equally. These include: transparency at a corporate level; workers on farms in the supply chain; sustainable use of land and water; climate in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping farmers adapt.

Overall Nestle came out top with a rating of 54% followed by Unilever (49%), Coca-Cola (41%), PepsiCo (31%), Mars (30%), Danone (29%), Mondelez (29%), General Mills (23%), Kellogg’s (23%) and Associated British Foods (19%).

Going forward Oxfam intends to build on the campaign by working with various stakeholders to improve its assessment process.

“This is not a short term challenge, and we’re committed to sticking with it. We will update the scorecard regularly and will continue to improve and strengthen it over time,” a company statement read.

The charity has pledged to annually review the rating and improve the scorecard indicators. It will be updating the data as it arises.

Maxine Perella

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