We have expanded the list of climate policies we assess company engagement with to incorporate land-use related policy, referring to legislative or regulatory measures to enhance and protect ecosystems and land where carbon is being stored. Assessments under this category are currently underweighted in terms of their contribution to the overall company metrics. This weighting will be progressively increased over the next 6 months.
We adjusted the terminology used to describe the queries running down the left-hand side of our scoring matrix and added additional explanatory text to the info-boxes. This has no impact on the scores and methodology. It has been done following user feedback to improve clarity.
In this section, we depict graphically the relationships the corporation has with trade associations, federations, advocacy groups and other third parties who may be acting on their behalf to influence climate change policy. Each of the columns above represents one relationship the corporation appears to have with such a third party. In these columns, the top, dark section represents the strength of the relationship the corporation has with the influencer. For example if a corporation's senior executive also held a key role in the trade association, we would deem this to be a strong relationship and it would be on the far left of the chart above, with the weaker ones to the right. Click on these grey shaded upper sections for details of these relationships. The middle section contains a link to the organization score details of the influencer concerned, so you can see the details of its climate change policy influence. Click on the middle sections for for details of the trade associations. The lower section contains the organization score of that influencer, the lower the more negatively it is influencing climate policy.
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2020, the company and its brands the North Face and Timberland signed a joint letter with Ceres strongly supporting the introduction of ambitious federal fuel economy and GHG emissions standards for vehicles in the U.S. In an April 2021 Tweet, , VF applauded the Biden administration’s new GHG emissions reduction target of 50-52% from 2005 levels by 2030.
The company’s 2021 CDP disclosure notes that VF brands Timberland and the North Face advocated for clean energy and electric vehicle legislation at the state and national level in the U.S., though it is unclear which pieces of legislation specifically VF supported. In the EU, a joint letter from the EU Corporate Leaders Group signed by VF in December 2020 advocated for an EU GHG emissions reduction target of at least 55% by 2030.
Positioning on Energy Transition: VF Corp’s engagement on the energy transition has been limited. In August 2022, the company published a Tweet in which it advocated for the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and expressed support for the bill's climate provisions
Industry Association Governance: VF Corp discloses its membership in U.S. industry associations on its corporate website, but does not offer details of the groups’ policy positions or VF’s alignment with these positions. The company is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) and Clean Energy Buyers Alliance. While the latter engages positively on climate policy, with a focus on policies to facilitate the purchasing of renewable energy, the Chamber actively opposes ambitious climate policy in the U.S., including the Inflation Reduction Act. VF Corp did not disclose its membership to either group in its 2021 CDP response and has not yet published a formal review of its industry associations.