Salling Group

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
While the company has set targets for covering topics within the Food and Agriculture Benchmark’s three dimensions of environment, nutrition and social inclusion, it has an opportunity to disclose a sustainable development strategy and how it identifies and prioritises the topics where it has the most impact.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses that it has a steering group that is responsible for its sustainability strategy, which is composed of key leadership personnel including the President & CEO, Group Vice President, Public Affairs, CSR director and three other senior management representatives. The company confirms that overall responsibility and accountability for the sustainability lies with its highest governance body. However, no information regarding the company’s remuneration policy aligning with sustainability performance was found in the public domain.

Stakeholder engagement
Salling Group shares its categories of stakeholders and engagement activities and provides an overview of the issues raised via these activities. Its stakeholder engagement covers sustainability topics across all three benchmark dimensions (environment, nutrition, and social inclusion) and across its value chain. However, it does not clearly indicate how the outcome is integrated and it does not specify the identification process of global and local stakeholders, presenting an opportunity for the company for future reporting.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Salling Group does not have a time-bound target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, but it regularly discloses its emissions. The company reports its annual scope 1 and 2 emissions and discloses reductions in its emissions. However, the company could further improve by disclosing a target, and reporting the progress against the target, in future reporting.

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 (a) setting targets and reporting against them and (b) disclosing quantitative data that demonstrates progress in its sustainable fishing.

Plastic use and packaging waste
Salling Group provides a company policy committing it to reduce its plastic use. It also discloses a target to reduce the use of plastic in packaging in all Food & Nearfood private Labels by 30% by 2023 as well as other plastic targets across the business. However, the company only reports partial progress against this target. Moreover, the target does not apply to all of its products. The company could improve by widening the scope the target to the whole group and reporting the progress against it.

Availability of healthy foods
Salling Group shares its project in increasing sales of vegetables and fruits. The company reports a decline in sales of sweets and cakes. However, there is no mentioning of reformulation of products content, such as reducing sugar. There remains an opportunity for the company to improve by providing quantitative evidence on at least two of examples of (re)formulation or fortification.

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

Food safety
Salling Group discloses some initiatives in securing food safety, such as “Third-party and internal checks of food, hygiene, preparation and storage in our stores and distribution centres.” The company also states that it closely follow the applicable laws and regulations from the European Union and the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, which forms the basis for our work on food safety. However, no evidence was found that 100% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

Child labour
Salling Group shares its requirement for its suppliers to eliminate child labour. However, no commitment for its own operation was found. The company could further improve by requiring suppliers to verify the age of workers.

Forced labour
Salling Group does not disclose a commitment to prohibit forced labour in its operations or supply chain.

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

Salling Group provides grievance mechanisms for both workers and third parties and requires its suppliers to respect human rights of workers. However, the company can improve its performance by providing public commitment to respecting human rights of workers. Additionally, Salling Group discloses little information on respecting human rights, human rights due diligence process and does not disclose it engages with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

Salling Group discloses commitment on ensuring health and safety, and has publicly available data on respecting working hours and supporting gender equality and women’s empowerment. However, the company can strengthen its performance by increasing its disclosure key metrics relating to these topics. Moreover, little information on paying a living wage, supporting collective bargaining and workforce diversity were found in the public domain.

Salling Group commits to personal data protection, responsible tax and ant-bribery and anti-corruption, but there remains an opportunity to for Salling Group to increase its disclosure on taxes paid and anti-bribery and anti-corruption process. In addition, the company does not provide a publicly available policy statement setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach.