RESPONSIBLE SOURCING

It’s about civic duty, but it’s also about ensuring the sustainability of Group operations: Carrefour strives to minimize the impact of its operations on natural environments by opting for sustainable resources and helping suppliers to control their sourcing.

A voluntarist straegy on GMOs

For the past ten years, Carrefour has been offering GMO-free own brand and "first price" products, giving its customers the opportunity to make purchases that correspond with their convictions. Without customers necessarily being aware, animal feed for Carrefour meat-based products has also excluded GMOs for the past decade (e.g. CQL pork and salmon). Measures are currently being taken in Europe on labelling products made from animals fed with GMO free animal feed, enabling consumers to make better informed choices.

A responsible fishing policy

Carrefour offers a wide range of fresh and frozen seafood products (between 70 and 80 different species). The extent and diversity of the range makes this an important product for the Group whose role it is to provide customers with affordable products far into the future, while preventing the environmental, economic and social risks related to the depletion of fish stocks. The Group is thus working in collaboration with the WWF to draft and implement a policy for sustainable supply.
In 2008, Carrefour carried out a study with the WWF on the status of the stocks of fish offered in its frozen merchandise mix, the aim being to have a sustainable selection. In order to achieve this, the Group is currently working on its requirements for traceability, the selection of fishing zones, the development of a MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) offer and the follow-up of specifications with the minimum fish sizes to be respected. In 2008 these efforts lead Carrefour to improve on its MSC range offering 18 products and making it the French leader in MSC own brand products and the use of the Seafood Choices Alliance guide by our buyers (a list of the main species of fish sold in France and Belgium presented in terms of sustainability). Furthermore, after several years of progressive reduction, Carrefour has decided to stop selling Mediterranean bluefin tuna. The Group also endeavours to promote local fishing. The "Fishermen of our Coast" range sold in supermarkets in France offers products fished locally in season and dispatched rapidly to our stores.

With its Quality Lines, for several years the Group has been developing an offer based on fish farmed according to environmentally-friendly practices. A new step accompanied with the WWF has been passed in 2008 with the launch of Carrefour AGIR Eco Planète Madagascar shrimps, farmed according to even more stringent requirements: no removal of brood stock fish from natural environments, a strict policy of biosecurity to prevent the use of medecines, the monitoring of fish, water and surrounding fauna and flora. This initiative also includes a social agenda which entails the construction of a school and a clinic.

Contributing to forest protection

Since 1997 Carrefour has been involved in initiatives to control the sourcing of wood supplies. Carrefour has also been working with the WWF since 1998 to promote FSC-certified wood (Forest Stewardship Council), ensuring that forests are sustainably managed. In 2008, the Group’s International Purchasing Office confirmed its commitment to forest protection. Its assortment of outdoor furniture consists exclusively of FSC-certified products (FSC Amburana and FSC Eucalyptus) and Acacia, a species of tree not on the IUC N list of endangered species and currently being in a process of certification with the VFTN (Vietnam Forest and Trade Network). For its commercial publications, the Group also promotes the use of paper made from recycled wood fibres and/or forests under certified management, with a policy to use paper with reduced grammage (see pp. 54-55). Efforts are also being made to combat the illegal wood trade and the Group is working with the European Commission to implement the FLEG T regulation (Forest Law Enforcement on Governance and Trade).

• Over 80 FSC own brand products sold in Europe

Sustainable networks for palm oil and soy

The extension of palm oil and soy crops is often done to the detriment of primary forests, climate change, certain species such as the orang-utan, and under unfavourable circumstances for the local populations. This is why Carrefour has chosen to participate in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS). The goal is to support the creation of sustainable production standards to help suppliers handle their sourcing more effectively.

Since the first volumes of certified sustainable palm oil through the RSPO system are now available on the market, Carrefour is committed to requiring its suppliers to use certified sustainable palm oil in its private label own-brand products. The Group’s objective is to reach 100% certified sustainable palm oil in its private label own-brand products by 2015.

In 2008, following the results of a survey on palm oil use in the production of own brand products, Carrefour France replaced the use of palm oil in its own brand crisps. Dia Spain also replaced palm oil by sunflower oil in its pan bread.

Regarding soy, Carrefour has carried out an inventory on the ingredients used in own brand products and supports the drafting of a sustainable soy certification standard within the framework of the RTRS.