Improving food safety and enhancing industry reputation
Food safety certification has emerged as a requirement to be considered for supply contracts. ESG is now forming a central part of the decision making process. Rather than seeing ESG as separate to compliance, significant evidence is building that sites who follow a defined ESG improvement plan have a reduced risk profile and become more attractive to customers, both existing and new.
The truth is that what brands think is the problem can often be very different to what suppliers know is the problem! Consequently, low quality data often gets reported which means both greenwashing accusations and litigation risks are rising rapidly.
ESG issues are everywhere, placing increasing pressures on brands in terms of regulatory compliance and reputational protection. While there is a growing number of regulation covering E,S and G, frameworks remain immature and can vary significantly between economies.
The ESG market, whether consultancies, ratings agencies, data providers or solutions providers, is crowded with new entrants emerging all the time. The majority of food business operators do not have the expertise or dedicated ESG personnel to meet these demands.
Importantly, the crux of the problem lies in the inability of current systems to accurately verify the steps that suppliers are going to take to improve their ESG performance. With supply chains accounting for very large proportions of a brand’s sustainability footprint, responsible sourcing is a major source of cost-saving, ESG improvement and reputational enhancement.
Our whitepaper sets out the factors that are driving the food industry to manage their ESG impact.
Download the whitepaper
