Aeon

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the environment measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the nutrition measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
The company used materiality mapping to identify and prioritise sustainability topics and develop its overarching sustainability policy. Aeon’s material sustainability topics include decarbonisation, conservation of biodiversity, resource management, fair business practices and respect for human rights. The company has an opportunity to improve its performance by setting time-bound targets related to all three benchmark dimensions (environment, nutrition and social inclusion).

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has created a Corporate Citizenship department to promote sustainability within the organisation. However, ultimate responsibility and accountability for the sustainability policy lies with the board of directors. The company has an opportunity to improve its performance by linking board-level remuneration to the achievement of sustainability objectives.

Stakeholder engagement
The company does not disclose stakeholder engagement activities, including how it selects the stakeholders, nor an overview of the topics discussed or their outcomes.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
The company has a time-bound target to ‘reduce the total CO2 emissions from our stores to zero by 2050’. In addition, the company reports progress against this target, disclosing a 9% reduction in CO2 emissions in 2019 (compared to a 2010 baseline). The company has an opportunity to improve its performance by setting a time-bound target which also covers all of the company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions, including the emissions generated outside of stores.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
While the company commits to deforestation and conversion-free (DCF) palm oil supply chains through its sustainable procurement, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets for achieving DCF supply chains for all of its relevant high-risk commodities, not just palm oil.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
While the company has a commitment to sustainable sourcing of seafood and aquaculture feed ingredients, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets and reporting progress against them and by disclosing quantitative data that demonstrates progress in its sustainable fishing and aquaculture activities.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
The company has set sustainable procurement target to “have organic products account for 5% of agricultural products sales” in 2020, which is tantamount to setting a target to increase the percentage of food sourced from sustainable practices that optimise pesticides. In its 2020 Sustainability Data Book the company reports against this target. The company has an opportunity to improve its performance by setting targets to increase the percentage of food sourced from sustainable practices that optimise use of fertilisers.

Food loss and waste
Aeon is a champion of the 10x20x30 initiative, which asks food retailers and suppliers to halve food loss and waste by 2030. Indeed, the company has a time-bound target to halve food waste by 2025, but it could improve its performance by reporting progress against this target.

Plastic use and packaging waste
In September 2020, the company set a time-bound target to halve the amount of disposable plastic it uses (compared to a 2018 baseline). The company could improve its performance by reporting progress against this target in the next report and by engaging with value chain partners to reduce plastic and transition to sustainable forms of packaging.

Animal welfare
The company does not disclose that it is addressing key animal and aquatic welfare issues for its relevant key species in its supply chain. It has an opportunity to disclose a commitment that addresses key issues for animal and aquatic welfare across its relevant species, geographies and products.

Availability of healthy foods
The company does not provide evidence of improving the nutritional quality of its products and of proportionally increasing the sales of healthy and nutritious foods.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company does not disclose a commitment and activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods for vulnerable groups.

Clear and transparent labelling
While the company commits to making nutritional information available for all consumers, it has an opportunity to make nutritional information more visible to consumers through the adoption of front-of-pack labels or any other consumer-facing nutrition label.

Responsible marketing
The company does not disclose a responsible marketing policy, nor guidelines specific to marketing to children.

Workforce nutrition
The company does not disclose a workforce nutrition programme that prioritises making healthy foods the standard in the workplace.

Food safety
While the company discloses compliance with the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by disclosing the percentages of its own operations that are certified to a food safety scheme recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative.

Child and forced labour
While the company discloses a commitment to prohibit forced and child labour in its supply chain, it does not disclose a similar commitment for workers in its own operations. In its Sustainability Data Book, the company states that it ‘will comply’ with the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. However, this statement does not translate into a commitment by the company to prohibit the use of forced and child labour in its operations.

Living wage
The company does not disclose that it pays its workers a living wage or requires its suppliers to do the same. Neither has it set targets to do so in the future.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company does not disclose that it specifically recognises the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
The company does not disclose a commitment or examples of activities to support the resilience, productivity and access to markets for farmers, fishers or small-scale producers in its supply chain.

Aeon has a commitment to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It also has a publicly available statement outlining its requirement that supply chain partners commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. Aeon identifies and assesses salient human rights risks in its own operations and supply chain but does not disclose evidence of actions to prevent, mitigate or remediate the human rights issues identified. The company further lacks disclosure on whether concerns or complaints can be anonymously raised through its human rights grievance mechanism.

Aeon publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and ensures that suppliers regulate working hours. However, no information on the topics of collective bargaining or living wages was found in the public domain. In addition, while the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender, it does not do the same for other indicators around workforce diversity.

Aeon has a privacy statement on the use of personal data but does not publicly commit to protecting personal data. Moreover, while the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts with supply chain partners, no policy prohibiting bribery and corruption within the company was found in the public domain. Finally, no publicly available tax strategy was found, and the company does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement.