Groupe Casino

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 objectives covering topics within the benchmark’s three dimensions of environment, nutrition and social inclusion, and discloses that sustainability topics are identified and prioritised through a materiality assessment, it has an opportunity to disclose a sustainable development strategy that goes beyond a risks and opportunities model.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The board of directors has a Governance and Social Responsibility Committee that manages ethical and corporate social responsibility risks and compliance with regulation. This existence of this committee demonstrates that ultimate responsibility and accountability for sustainability lies with the company’s highest governance body. The company has an opportunity to improve its performance by linking board-level remuneration to the achievement of sustainability objectives.

Stakeholder engagement
While the company has conducted stakeholder engagement activities and discloses an overview of the issues raised via these activities, it has an opportunity to disclose how it identifies its most relevant stakeholders, along with information on how the outcomes of the engagement process are integrated into the company’s sustainable development strategy.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
In its 2020 Universal Registration Document, the company states that in line with the Science Based Targets scenario, it has pledged to reduce its scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 18% from 2015 to 2025 and its scope 3 emissions by 10% from 2018 to 2025. The company discloses that it has reduced scope 1 and 2 emissions by 5% between 2019 and 2020. It has an opportunity to improve its score by reporting progress against its scope 3 emissions reduction target and by setting a science-based target aligned with a 1.5-degree, rather than a 2-degree, scenario.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
While the company has time-bound targets aimed at achieving deforestation and conversion-free (DCF) supply chains for some of its high-risk commodities (soya, cocoa and palm oil), the targets are only applicable to certain products in certain geographies, rather than the company’s whole supply chain. For example, the company has a target that 20% of the cocoa used by suppliers of its private-label products in France must be fair trade-certified by 2022. The company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets for achieving DCF supply chains for all its relevant high-risk commodities.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
While the company has a commitment to sustainable fishing and aquaculture operations, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets and reporting progress against them. It can also disclose quantitative data that demonstrates progress in its sustainable fishing and aquaculture activities.

Food loss and waste
While the company is selling short-dated products at a discount and partnering with Too Good to Go and Phénix, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to reduce food loss and waste across its own operations and supply chain and reporting against these targets. It can also disclose quantitative data to demonstrate that it is reducing food loss and waste in its own operations and supply chain.

Plastic use and packaging waste
Groupe Casino has time-bound targets related to reducing plastic use and packaging waste. The company is aiming to ensure that all of its own-brand packaging contains on average 30% recycled plastic and that 100% of packaging is recyclable or reusable by 2025. The company has an opportunity to improve its performance by reporting progress against these targets and by setting targets that apply to all plastic and packaging in the company’s own operations.

Antibiotics use and growth-promoting substances
While the company discloses that it has developed a range of antibiotic-free products, it does not commit to reducing or prohibiting the prophylactic use of antibiotics and growth-promoting substances for aquatic and farm animals relevant to the company. It has an opportunity to disclose a commitment on antibiotics that addresses the topic across its relevant species, geographies and products.

Availability of healthy foods
While the company discloses that it has reduced the salt, sugar and fat content of more than 2,000 products, it has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence of these reformulation activities or, alternatively, to provide evidence of increasing the level of fruit and vegetables, nuts and wholegrains in its products.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
While the company’s subsidiary Éxito takes philanthropic action to address malnutrition in Colombia, Groupe Casino does not disclose a commitment or activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods for vulnerable groups.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has a commitment to make nutritional information available to consumers through front-of-pack (FOP) labelling systems such as Nutri-Score and guideline daily amounts. However, it does not disclose the proportion of products that are currently covered by these labelling systems.

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

Workforce nutrition
The company discloses a France-specific programme to improve workforce nutrition by providing workers with healthy foods as well as nutrition education. The company has an opportunity to develop this programme further by making it company-wide and including nutrition-focused health checks and breastfeeding support.

Food safety
While the company discloses that its quality management system is based on the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), 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 GFSI.

Child labour
While the company commits to prohibiting child labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard, it has an opportunity to disclose a policy requiring its suppliers to have an age-verification system in place. Currently the company states that issues of child labour are raised by auditors.

Forced labour
While the company commits to prohibiting forced labour in its own operations and supply chain, it has an opportunity to disclose a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from restricting workers’ freedom of movement.

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 discloses a support programme called Tous Cutiv’acteurs, which helps fruit and vegetable farmers to address issues such as the elimination of neonicotinoid pesticides to save pollinators. The company can improve its performance by reporting the quantitative impact of this support activity.

Land rights
The company does not commit to recognising and respecting the legitimate tenure rights related to the ownership and use of land of local communities.

Groupe Casino commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights, and it has a publicly available statement expecting its supply chain partners to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. The company identifies, assesses and takes action on salient human rights risks in its own operations and supply chain. However, it does not disclose whether it provides a grievance mechanism for internal and external stakeholders to raise human rights complaints anonymously.

Groupe Casino publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and describes how it monitors the health and safety performance of its supply chain partners. The company discloses information on diversity and gender equality, but no relevant information was found in the public domain on living wages or collective bargaining. Furthermore, while the company requires its supply chain partners to ensure workers do not work more than regular and overtime hours, it does not have a similar policy for its own workers.

Groupe Casino publicly commits to protecting personal data but does not have a privacy statement on the use of personal data available in the English language. The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, takes steps to identify and address the issues, has a grievance mechanism and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts with supply chain partners. Furthermore, the company publicly discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement and specifies that it does not make political contributions. Finally, while the company has published its tax strategy, it lacks information on corporate income tax payments on a country-by-country basis.