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The Mosaic Company
About the company
Grade Summary
The Mosaic Company produces 1 hazardous chemical. Despite this low number, the company is only awarded 5 points in the Product Portfolio category. This is because there is no available data for the 64 percent of the company’s production that takes place outside of the EU and US. This low transparency is a big issue for investors, as it makes it hard to do a proper evaluation of the risks connected to the product portfolio. Another poor area for The Mosaic Company is the Lack of Controversies category, where the American company scores 0 points due to several environmental violations and massive penalty fines. In the remaining categories, the company’s performance is weak across the board.
Opportunities for improvement
- The Mosaic Company’s statements about pre-job risk assessments (PJRAs) and “other hazard assessment techniques” don’t inform us if all products are systematically screened for intrinsic hazards, or only risk assessed to protect the health of workers. We would like to see a clearer approach to screening and assessment of hazardous properties.
- The company mentions phosphorus recycling as a contribution to circular economy. However, we lack an outspoken strategy with clear KPIs and SMART targets, as well as the development of own circular products and concepts.
- The Mosaic Company is linked to many environmental violations regarding water and soil pollution. The company should invest in stringent safety measures, including continuous employee training.
Category breakdown
The Mosaic Company produces/uses 1 highly hazardous substance – 1 SIN List chemical (no PICs and no HHPs ) – which is included on the EU’s REACH Candidate List. This chemical is neither banned nor restricted (no Authorisation List substances, and no POPs). The company produces no persistent chemicals.
Please note that there is no available data for the 64 percent of the company’s production that takes place outside of the EU and US. Lower EU/US production means higher uncertainty with regard to the total production of hazardous chemicals, which will have a negative impact on the company’s score in this category.
The Mosaic Company has a method in place to screen and assess the sustainability of its products, but does not include the intrinsic hazards of ingredients in the screening process. It does not exclude substances with toxic properties from its new products. The Mosaic Company actively market safer alternatives on its own website, but not on ChemSec Marketplace. The company has no true circular product, process or innovation. The Mosaic Company does not use bio-based resources. Nor does it source or treat recycled materials in a sustainable way, which is one of the key elements of a circular economy. The Mosaic Company is actively reducing the hazardous waste it generates.
The American company does not produce only sustainable products, and it does not have a timed phase-out strategy for hazardous substances that go beyond regulatory compliance. It shares chemical safety information on its website and is following a credible code of conduct standard. The Mosaic Company responded to ChemSec’s attempts to communicate around its ChemScore ranking. However, the company does not share any information about what kind of chemicals it produces in regions with low regulatory demands for transparency (e.g. Asia). The Mosaic Company does not have a circular economy program in place, and it is lacking objective and measurable circular economy targets.
Although the reported controversies connected to the Mosaic Company have not resulted in any direct injuries or casualties, the company has paid more than 800 million USD in fines for environmental violations. Seepage problems from massive phosphogypsum stacks, as well as radiation health risks from phosphate mining are some of the controversies from the last years. Reparations of a sinkhole that sent 215 million gallons of contaminated water into an aquifer, cost the company 84 million USD.
Download Controversies The Mosaic Company (PDF, 114 KB)How did we come to this score?
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