ATNI to engage stakeholders to incorporate nutrition metrics into ESG reporting

The goal is to promote the adoption of nutrition metrics, such as providing nutritious food to the workforce in factories and offices at top-listed firms, and ensuring the quality of packaged food and beverages.

SEBI has already required top 1,000 listed companies to voluntarily disclose Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) from FY2022 and mandatorily from FY2023. ATNI plans to engage with various stakeholders to incorporate workforce nutrition metrics as part of SEBI’s new ESG requirements.

ATNI will engage with various stakeholders to enhance workforce nutrition metrics as part of the new SEBI ESG requirements.

ATNI Executive Director Greg S. Garrett said in an interview with Mint, “One way to accelerate action in India towards healthier packaged foods is to provide shareholders and investors with better nutrition as part of their ESG investment strategies.” to demand.”

The initiative is part of ATNI’s wider efforts to work with major food companies to ensure that by 2030 all food sold is sustainable, affordable and healthy. Netherlands-based ATNI works as a non-profit organization to improve nutrition around the world by assessing the private sector and motivating companies to improve access to nutritious foods; Every year it also releases an ATNI Index that charts the progress made by food companies in making their portfolios more “healthy”; It also holds food and beverage companies accountable to better reporting and disclosure standards. ATNI is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. as well as WHO among other stakeholders.

ATNI sees 2023 as an opportunity to participate in an open consultation led by SEBI to include essential indicators such as workforce nutrition metrics. In India, the time is right to incorporate nutrition into ESG investment strategies as SEBI has introduced a new regulatory framework for ESG disclosure by listed entities.

Garrett said new approaches are needed to improve the consumption of healthy food by a large segment of India’s population. “70% of the world’s and India’s packaged foods are known to be unhealthy, and their consumption is on the rise globally and in India. Due to this, the problem of NCDs and micronutrient deficiencies is increasing in India. One way to accelerate action towards healthier packaged foods in India is for shareholders and investors seeking better nutrition as part of their ESG investment strategies, Garrett said.

He said it may take at least six months for these metrics to be added and then another six months for top listed companies to start reporting.

The consultation will begin with suggestions for incorporating metrics that can be universally implemented by all sectors, for example, workforce nutrition metrics; ATNI will work with others such as Invest India and Tata Trusts to introduce these metrics. “In the first set of metrics we will focus on workforce nutrition as it is a material component of human capital across all sectors, and is already an issue in the Sustainable Development Goals as well as investor expectations on nutrition, diet and health . ,” They said.

The move comes after consumers, shareholders and large companies acknowledged the economic and financial impact of climate change and environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks.

ATNI will also expand its engagement to engage directly with investors who are shareholders in India or who wish to buy shares in food companies in India. “We will work to sensitize them on nutrition to also encourage voluntary nutrition disclosures by companies,” Garrett said.

To ensure that globally ATNI has worked on ESG investing and nurturing for a decade with success in many countries and globally. For example, Unilever has been associated with Plc for a decade globally; Unilever has been included in every iteration of ATNI’s global index. ATNI is already working with 80 institutional investors to make nutrition a physical issue. Each of these investors has signed the Investor Expectations on Nutrition, Diet and Health.