behind the brands

Today, European justice ministers agreed on a proposal for a law to make companies accountable for the damage they cause to people and the planet.

Major European supermarkets have upped their dividend payouts to shareholders by an average of 123 percent during the first eight months of the pandemic. Shockingly, hardly any of these supermarkets paid any substantial COVID-19-related support to the workers and farmers who throughout the crisis kept supply chains going.

Oxfam assessed seven global agribusinesses against foundational indicators of its original Behind the Brands campaign scorecard to measure the strength of companies’ sustainability policies. This report introduces the “agribusiness scorecard” and presents the results.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have taken an important step by assessing the risks and impacts of their cane sugar sourcing on land rights in Brazil. Oxfam has been monitoring their progress, and providing advice on how they can improve.

In February 2013, Oxfam launched the Behind the Brands campaign to challenge the ‘Big 10’ food and beverage companies. The companies have made significant new commitments, but they must now ensure that their suppliers actually change their practices in line with the commitments made.

Food and beverage industry giants improve policy commitments but they must turn them into action.

This report provides examples of good practice to increase gender equality in the cocoa sector in West Africa, and shows where there is potential to make even greater change.

The biggest French food company fails to provide a strong commitment to fight climate change and support small-scale farmer resilience.

Eight of the “Big 10” international food and beverage companies have improved their overall scores in our in "Behind the Brands" scorecard since February 2014 but French dairy producer Danone and the US based Coca-Cola Company have failed to improve.

Leading chocolate companies Mars, Mondelez International and Nestle have made some progress on their 2013 promises to improve gender equality in their cocoa supply chains but significant gaps still remain, according to an independent evaluation published today.