Food industry: three successful examples of CSR certification

We are all familiar with corporate social responsibility (CSR) applied at the level of a professional federation, such as winegrowers, communications agencies or quarrymen, who have designed their sector label with AFNOR Certification as part of the CSR Platform. Less well known, however, is CSR applied on an interprofessional scale. Interbev, the livestock and meat interprofession, has been doing this for several years. In 2017, the exercise led to a manifesto, the ” pact for a societal commitment “, and in 2018, to a “Engagé RSE” label in due form. The case of Interbev illustrates a strong trend: the entire agri-food sector has embraced the CSR theme and is questioning its practices, with a view to continuous improvement and inspiring confidence. This is what the Engagé RSE label is all about. Two flagships of the agri-food sector, Olga and Lactalis, have also adopted it. A label that is far from being reserved for the big players, like the Coopérative Océane and its 71 market gardeners south of Nantes, which received the label in 2016.

Committed to CSR: social responsibility from pasture to plate

Bruno Dufayet, a cattle breeder in the Cantal region of France and chairman of Interbev’s societal issues commission, had a clear objective when he embarked on a CSR initiative based on ISO 26000, the reference framework on which the Engagé RSE label is based: ” In the future, consumers will be able to choose our products with the assurance that CSR criteria are respected at every stage of the supply chain”, he sums up .
The advantage of the Engagé RSE label, as opposed to self-proclaimed signs of trust, is that ” it attests to a real commitment “, with supporting arguments verified by an external third party, which is very useful in the event of controversy.
And there’s no shortage of them!
Videos on animal mistreatment, the carbon footprint of livestock farming, the rise of vegan food… Interbev’s approach, deployed from pasture to plate, predates these media offensives, but de facto takes the wind out of their sails. ” Our commitment follows a constructive dialogue with our external stakeholders.
The labeling process is the antithesis of a marketing stunt. “Bruno Dufayet insists.
Olivier Graffin, the AFNOR Certification assessor assigned to Interbev, confirms: ” One of the virtues of certification is to reveal – in the photographic sense – an exhaustive picture of impacts, to identify the state of the art in terms of practices to be highlighted and shared.
It also lends credibility to a roadmap for the future. to meet the challenges.

” We are part of a supply chain approach for each of our terroirs, and CSR is a natural part of our values, given our long history and the quality requirements of our PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) specifications.
The challenge was to structure this policy in such a way as to ensure that it would be effective. e, continues Anne-Claire Pouzelet, CSR and Communications Manager for the Lactalis Group’s PDO & Terroirs division. The CSR approach was co-constructed with the support of an external consultancy, and in collaboration with our internal and external stakeholders.
Our policy is grounded in the field and is specific to us.
An initial assessment of our practices was carried out in 2020, followed by the definition and prioritization of our ambitions, in three pillars. ”

Interbev: 15% less greenhouse gas emissions in ten years

At Lactalis AOP & Terroirs, the first pillar revolves around quality of working life issues for employees and local communities; the second, around promoting traditional know-how, recipe quality, packaging recyclability, and raising consumer awareness of the place of dairy products in their diet.
And third, around environmental issues, biodiversity and the circular economy.
At Interbev, four categories of issues have emerged: environment (including greenhouse gas emissions from cattle farming, which the company wants to reduce by 15% in ten years), animal welfare (scientifically validated indicators, best practice guides at every stage), nutrition (reasonable portions, quality rather than quantity) and social (fair remuneration, quality of life at work).
At Olga, a company based in Ille-et-Vilaine which has also been awarded the Engagé RSE label (brands such as Sojasun, Vrai, Petit Billy, Terres et Céréales), Olivier Clanchin, the CEO, encompasses all his actions under the heading of “regenerative economy”.
” This means working in partnership with farmers, who may do the initial processing on their farms, accepting seasonal production, asking distribution channels to play along, and producing less if we want to make regenerative organic products,” he says. Quoting the forward-looking study AFTERRE 2050 : “If we enable consumers to reconnect with the logic of agriculture that is allowed to breathe, within their ecosystem, they will naturally plant their food. As a result, less land will be allocated to feeding livestock. We will then consume fewer hectares per capita than if we had remained on the model of intensive agriculture and predominantly meat-based diets. ”

Committed to CSR: the importance of being questioned from the outside

Naturally, Olga felt the need to have this approach certified by a third party and a label. “Others opt for self-declaration and get a snapshot at the moment, whereas we’re more into continuous evaluation and improvement.
We re-focus our corporate project with each new assessment, confronting it with the trusted third-party assessor, our employees, and our internal and external stakeholders.
In this way, we consolidate our CSR strategy and its cross-functional nature. “explains Héloïse Le Bars, Olga’s CSR manager.
For Bruno Dufayet, at Interbev, the exercise also has the merit of breaking a deadlock: ” the temptation to keep to ourselves”.
“Thinking in terms of stakeholders means no longer being afraid to listen, to dialogue with external interlocutors, as we began to do with environmental NGOs back in 2013. “he points out.
It also means drawing on scientific research, for example to combat antibiotic resistance.
All this is done in a spirit of continuous improvement.
Like Olga, Interbev has been awarded the “confirmed” level of the Engagé RSE ranking (i.e. 3 out of 4), and can therefore reasonably aspire to the “exemplary” level for its next assessment.
But let’s not be naïve: the CSR evaluation exercise is not without its difficulties.Human and financial difficulties, ” confirms Anne Claire Pouzelet, for Lactalis AOP & Terroirs. Some of our employees have been with us for thirty years, and changing their habits is no easy task.
It requires a great deal of awareness-raising.
In financial terms, environmental requirements often entail higher costs.
This is the case for ecological packaging and green energy.
The return on investment is hard to see, because we can’t pass on the cost to our consumers and as little as possible to our producers.
This calls for a great deal of inventiveness and assiduous monitoring, using indicators and dashboards. “Yes, there are bound to be points of effort alongside the strengths.
But that’s where the benefit of an assessment audit lies. ” On the one hand, the Engagé RSE assessment allows us to see what we no longer see, and on the other, to see things differently “, concludes Olivier Clanchin.