Auchan

Stakeholder engagement
Auchan discloses its process for engaging with stakeholder groups, including frequency and channels, beyond its materiality assessment or an equivalent. Furthermore, its stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, nutrition, and social areas.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Auchan discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy and reports consistently against all its targets.

GHG emissions
Auchan discloses its target to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions of its stores by 46% by 2030, compared to the baseline year 2019 scope 3 emissions by 25% by 2030 compared to 2020. These targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Auchan discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

Solid and air pollution
Auchan demonstrates commitments and activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Water
Auchan discloses quantitative reductions in water withdrawal across its own operations in 2022 compared to the previous year.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Auchan requires its business relationships to identify and recognise affected Indigenous Peoples and to obtain their free, prior and informed consent regarding whether and how to carry out projects.

Act ethically
Auchan has a public commitment to protecting personal data and a publicly available policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption. Furthermore, the company identifies bribery and corruption risks by means of risk mapping, which was established on the basis of 600 interviews conducted with employee was, radically overhauled in 2020.
Also, it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships and has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. Additionally, the company specifies that it does not make political contributions.

Respect human rights
Auchan describes the process of identifying human rights related risks and impacts in its own operations which included reviewing the previous risk mapping and the company’s supplier base, a study of its products and services and in-house interviews. Furthermore, it describes the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its supply chain and discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Moreover, the company publicly discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments.
Additionally, it has a global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate salient human rights issues, and this includes a description of how its global system applies to its supply chain. Lastly, its human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
Auchan does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Stakeholder engagement
Auchan has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While Auchan discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, although the company discloses a remuneration policy related to climate, it could link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Lastly, the company could improve its transparency by disclosing whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promote restoration. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

GHG emissions
Auchan should report progress against these scope 1,2 and 3 targets and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions across all scopes.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While Auchan acknowledges its impact on marine ecosystems and utilizes a MOM system for monitoring environmental impact in fish farming, there’s no disclosed evidence that this involves a comprehensive assessment of its broader impacts on nature. It also does not disclose assessments regarding its dependencies on marine ecosystems or nature in general, both within its operations and upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
Auchan has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
While Auchan has committed to sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices and asks its suppliers to adhere to IUCN and CITES guidelines, it still has opportunities to enhance transparency. Specifically, the company could disclose all species existing in or adjacent to its own operational locations and suppliers’ locations, as well as their status according to national and international conservation lists. The company could also disclose locations in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity for both its own operations and its suppliers.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Auchan does not disclose its inputs according to an international standard. While the company discloses some circular activities, there was no evidence found that the company reports quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance (e.g. circular material productivity). The company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Solid and air pollution
Auchan does not disclose relevant information related to pollution in its operations or supply chains.

Water
Auchan has an opportunity to set time-bound targets to reduce water withdrawal, report its proportion of water withdrawals from water-stressed areas, and provide evidence of engaging with suppliers to reduce water withdrawals. The company also has an opportunity to disclose relevant information on water pollution.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Auchan does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Auchan has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
Auchan has a publicly available policy stating that it does not intervene in the political or religious sphere of the countries in which it operates, and maintains a stance of strict neutrality, however, it could disclose a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach. Also, it could that it requires third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy and disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
While Auchan has a health and safety policy for its own operations and supply chain, it has an opportunity to use stronger language to show a commitment to health and safety. Furthermore, while it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships, it has an opportunity to disclose the ways in which it does so. Moreover, Auchan could disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage and how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. Additionally, it could describe how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers.
The company states that it promotes equal opportunity for all and does not discriminate on the basis of gender and it also publishes its ‘Gender Equality Index’ every year. However, it could explicitly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Furthermore, it could disclose time-bound targets on the latter. Finally, Auchan has an opportunity to disclose that it has at least 30% women on the board and the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
Auchan has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO’s fundamental rights at work as well as expect its business relationships to do so. However, it has an opportunity to use stronger language to turn the statement into a formal commitment.