Materiality Assessment

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Identify

Material issues are identified by taking into consideration a wide range of inputs collated through internal and external stakeholder consultations and peer benchmarking by an independent third party.

Prioritise

Material issues are prioritised based on their impact on our business and the relevant stakeholders

Validate

The material issues identified in the process are then validated by the top management

Disclose

After validation, the issues identified as material to our business and stakeholders are disclosed and monitored.

Approach to Materiality

The concept of sustainability is incorporated into the core of our business and has been expanded to encompass our aspirations and responsibilities to the society and to the environment. We recognise the importance of evaluating our value chain’s use of ecosystem elements as well as our emissions to the environment. We believe that sustainability is the birthplace of organisational and technological innovations that yield both bottom line and topline returns.

To remain successful in the long term, we need to better understand and account for:

  • the impacts we have on society and the environment
  • the risks and opportunities that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues may have on our business
  • the views of our stakeholders around those ESG matters and where they expect our company to focus

With this in mind, Dabur conducted a materiality assessment in 2021-22, a process of engagement and analysis that helped us identify and prioritise the ESG issues that pose the most significant risks and opportunities to our business. A systematic process was followed and relevant insights were collected through primary and secondary research. Primary inputs were obtained through direct stakeholder engagement, that is, through discussions on material issues with various stakeholder groups. The outcomes of this assessment helped us formulate our short-term, mid-term and long-term ESG strategy.

Our assessment helped us identify 19 material issues, which were further clubbed into 15 thematic material areas. We shall also move ahead with developing ambitious goals with the vision of improving the Health & Well-Being of every Household, which is what we have strived for throughout our 139 years of existence.

After consolidating the results from the survey, the following matrix was obtained:

Our 19 thematic issues are:
  • 1 Employee health and safety
  • 2 Code of conduct
  • 3 Product lifecycle management
  • 4 GHG Emissions
  • 5 Waste management
  • 6 Consumer Welfare
  • 7 Board structure and management
  • 8 Risk Management
  • 9 Corporate Social Responsibility
  • 10 Water Management
  • 11 Energy Management
  • 12 Human Rights
  • 13 Labour Practices
  • 14 Raw Material Sourcing
  • 15 Supply Chain Management
  • 16 Climate Change Strategy
  • 17 Biodiversity
  • 18 IT Security and Privacy
  • 19 Policy Influence

These 19 material issues are bucketed as 15 thematic key areas and further clubbed as E, S and G.
The 15 thematic areas basis these material issues are represented below:

Environment

  • GHG Emissions
  • Product Life Cycle Management
  • Waste Management
  • Water Management
  • Energy Management
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Climate Change Management
  • Biodiversity

Social

  • Employee Health & Safety
  • Human Rights
  • Labour Practices
  • Consumer Welfare
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Raw Material Sourcing

Governance

  • Code of Conduct
  • Board Structure & Management
  • Risk Management
  • Policy Influence
  • IT Security & Privacy

While the Materiality Assessment encompasses these 19 material issues and 15 thematic key areas,
we have outlined an extensive 9-point commitment to effect change around the following key focus areas:

Net Zero Emissions in Operations: Dabur has set itself the target of achieving Net Zero by 2045 (in alignment with SBTi commitment). We are progressively embracing renewables, besides investing in low-carbon technology and adopting Electric Vehicles for transporting our goods to emerge as truly Green Enterprise. We have already shifted our boilers from fossil fuel to biofuel and have targeted to eliminate coal from of our operations by 2025. We have also targeted to source/generate >60% energy from renewable and cleaner sources by FY 2025-26.
Recycling & Circular Economy Initiatives: Dabur has today emerged as the first Indian Plastic Waste Positive FMCG Company by collecting, processing and recycling more plastic waste than we put in the market through our product packaging. We are committed to promote circularity in the value chain to reduce its carbon footprint and achieve a positive balance by 2030. We are also working towards using 80% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2028.
Responsible Sourcing: Our responsible sourcing approach focuses on sustainability aspects along our supply chains for the benefit of people and our planet. In selecting and working with our business partners, we consider their performance with regard to safety, health, environment, social standards and fair business practices. We are working towards capacity building of our supply chain to help our critical suppliers voluntarily declare their ESG commitments. We would also encourage and ensure that our key suppliers get independent audits to validate their performance. We have also targeted to ensure ZERO Deforestation due to high-risk material by FY 2025-26 through 100% sustainable sourcing.
Water Conservation & Stewardship: We strive to continuously improve water withdrawal efficiency for our production facilities. We have already initiated a water reduction program covering all our manufacturing sites. We have targeted Water Positivity in own operations and community by 2030, through a series of programs aimed at creating a positive water balance within our operations and in the communities where we operate. We are committed to increasing water use efficiency, achieving higher cleanliness of discharged water and increasing circularity in our operations and beyond. We have also targeted to reduce the Water Intensity in our operations by 30% by FY 2025-26.
No Net Loss to Biodiversity: To preserve biodiversity, we aim to achieve no net loss of biodiversity by 2050 through a series of programs within our operations and in communities. We are also rapidly increasing sustainable cultivation of key herbs and medicinal plants, besides educating tribals and villages to ensure our societies do not extract more from nature than they give back.
Boosting Farmer Income: Dabur is committed to empowering and improving the lives of farmers across the country by engaging them in cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs. We target to enhance the livelihood of more than 13,500 farmers’ families by FY 2029-30, which is a 100% increase over 2020, besides engaging them in afforestation and biodiversity enhancement programmes, preserving the ecosystem through various programmes. We have targeted to sustainably cultivate medicinal and aromatic plants in 15,000 acres by FY 2029-30, a 200% increase over 2020.
Human Rights & Ethics: Dabur is focused on ensuring that all people who are touched by our company are treated with dignity and respect. Respect for people is an essential part of how we do business at Dabur India Ltd. Our commitment to respect human rights applies to all our activities, relationships, and throughout the value chain, touching all individuals that are impacted by our business. We invest time, energy and resources in making sure that fundamental human rights are upheld for the workers across the value chain.
Diversity & Inclusion: Dabur is an equal opportunity employer. We base our employment relationship on the principle of equal opportunity and fair treatment and strive to create an environment that fosters the same. We target to enhance our managerial gender diversity ratio to 18% by 2028. We are equally committed to recruiting, retaining, advancing talent from diverse ethnic, cultural racial backgrounds and people with special ability and helping them thrive within Dabur.
Product Responsibility: Our responsibility for our products covers their entire life cycle – from the raw materials used, product development, production, to their distribution, use and subsequent recycling. We develop and manufacture our products with the highest possible standards in order to always give our consumers quality, efficacious, nature-based solutions for their health care and personal care needs, while ensuring that we minimise the impact on the environment. We also continue to make our products healthier, and have taken the pledge to progressively reduce the added sugar in our product portfolio. As on 31st March 2023, we have voluntarily achieved 20.95% added sugar reduction from the 2018 baseline in our beverages portfolio. We are also committed to conduct a complete Life Cycle Assessment of our Top 3 products/brands by revenue in 2023-24 and will quantify the disclose the sustainability impact created by these products/brands.
download-pdfAnnual Report 2022-23