Companies within the food sector face environmental challenges which, with the increasing scarcity of raw materials, may influence their business strategies and operational processes.
With our size comes the responsibility to effectively link supply and demand and create supply chains that promote more sustainable production and consumption practices.
That is why preserving biodiversity, fighting climate change and responsibly managing waste are our top environmental priorities.
We govern our activity based on 3 main pillars
We adopt a responsible and proactive stance, with the aim of minimising emissions from our activities.
We believe we have a role to play in protecting biological diversity.
We invest in preventing, minimising and recovering the waste generated.
These pillars are materialised in the following principles:
The Environmental Management Systems aim at ensuring compliance with the Group’s Environmental Policy, as well as with the legislation in force, namely through the certification of our Distribution Centres and audits to our stores and suppliers.
With regard to our Distribution Centres, the Environmental Management System implemented is based on international standard ISO 14001.
In Portugal, 4 Distribution Centres have this certification (Azambuja, Vila do Conde, Algoz and Alfena). In Poland, 15 out of 17 Distribution Centres have the same certification, ensuring that more than 65% of our Distribution Centres are certified under the same standard. Until 2020, our goal is to increase the number of establishments with this certification to 25.
We recognize the importance of individual and collective behaviour for better management of natural resources, emissions and waste. As such, we develop various awareness initiatives, aimed at different stakeholders, such as employees, customers and consumers.
The data referring to the number of locations with environmental certification was verified by an external and independent auditor within the scope of the Group’s 2018 Annual Report.