Collaborations & Memberships

Environmental risks, social inequality and the need to provide healthy food in an increasingly complicated and unpredictable world will continue to be a challenge. The size and complexity of these issues mean they cannot be addressed by any one solution or any one organisation. We need concerted, collaborative effort involving scientists, businesses, investors, governments, NGOs and consumers to tackle the world’s most pressing issues. In comparison to many others in our industry, we are not a big buyer of many of the products we sell. And we don’t always have the buying power on our own to make the changes we’d like to see. For example, we use a fraction of the world’s cocoa that is produced each year (less than 0.01%).

Partnership has always been at the heart of how we do business. This is because we know we need and contribute to outside knowledge and expertise to help us achieve shared objectives and mutually beneficial economic, social and environmental outcomes.

Commitments and targets

Our ambition is to accelerate change by leading with others. We’re committed to working collaboratively with suppliers, civil society, the science community, governments, customers and other businesses.

Approach

The following summarises our key collaborations and memberships relevant to our Food Group. We outline the main reasons why we’re involved with each of these organisations.

Organisation	Type	Member Since	Status	Why we're involved
Consumer Goods Forum	Industry Association	2014	Participating company, member of the Board, Co-Chair of the Retailer College and the Sustainability Steering Committee	To help drive global efforts to tackle deforestation, low carbon refrigeration, food waste and forced labour
Product Sustainability Forum	Industry Association	2010	Founding member, participating company and member of the Steering Group	To improve the environmental performance of grocery products
Institute of Grocery Distribution	Non-Profit Organisation	1974	Participating company and member of a number of industry groups including: Feeding Britain’s Future, Working on Waste, Industry Nutrition Strategy Steering Group, Industry Sustainability Group, Policy Issues Council (PIC), and the Technical Leadership Forum	To help drive and shape the food and grocery industry whilst making sure our own business priorities are represented
British Retail Consortium	Industry Association	1992 (and prior to this the British Retailers Association)	Participating company, member of the Policy Board, member of the Food Strategy Member Group and represented on a number of Working Groups including Environment, Responsible Sourcing and Nutrition	To help drive and shape the retail agenda whilst making sure our own business priorities are represented
Wine and Spirit Trade Association	Industry Association	Prior to 1996	Participating company	To promote the responsible production, marketing and sale of alcohol and to share best practice
Ethical Trading Initiative	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	1999	Participating company and have been a member of the Board	To drive continuous improvement of working conditions in global supply chains
Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex)	Non-Profit Organisation	2004	Founding member, participating company and member of the Board	To drive continuous improvement of working and environmental conditions in global supply chains
Global Social Compliance Programme (GSCP)	Industry Association	2010	Participating company and have been a member of the Board	To drive continuous improvement of working and environmental conditions in global supply chains
Emerging Leaders	Non-Profit Organisation	2011	Member of the Board	To support programmes which encourage workers to take leadership of their own lives to benefit themselves, their families, workforce and communities
WWF Global Forest and Trade Network	Non-Profit Organisation	2004	Participating Company	To improve global standards for sustainable timber
Tropical Forest Alliance	Industry Association	2014	Founding partner and participating company	To support a move away from commodity-driven deforestation
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2006	Participating company and member of the Board	To improve global standards for sustainable palm oil
Round Table Responsible Soy (RTRS)	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2010	Participating company	To improve global standards for sustainable production of soy
World Cocoa Foundation	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2013	Participating company and first retail member	To promote sustainable cocoa economies
International Cocoa Initiative	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2014	Participating company and first retail member	To eradicate child labour in cocoa production
Sustainable Seafood Coalition	Industry Association	2011	Participating company	To promote sustainable sourcing of seafood
Seafish Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS)	Industry Association	2014	Member of Oversight Board	To facilitate continuous improvement in the catching sector and ensure fish landed by vessel have been responsibly caught
Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative	Industry Association	2013	Participating company	To ensure confidence in the supply and promotion of certified seafood
International Pool and Line Foundation (IPNLF)	Non-Profit Organisation	2013	Participating company and supporting the Indonesian Pole and Handline Tun Fisheries Improvement Project	To help develop socially and environmentally responsible one-by-one tuna fisheries
Orkney Crab Fishery Improvement Project	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2014	Project partner	To help improve the long term sustainability of Orkney Brown Crab
WWF Partnership Programme Towards Sustainable Tuna	Non-Profit Organisation	2015	Project partner	To help improve the long term sustainability of yellowfin tuna in the Philippines
Project UK	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2012 (Project Inshore) / 2015 (Project UK)	Participating company and member of the Advisory Group	To help improve the long term sustainability of UK fisheries
Fisheries Innovation Scotland (FIS)	Non-Profit Organisation	2018	Member of the Board of Trustees	To help improve the sustainability of Scottish fisheries
British Nutrition Foundation	Non-Profit Organisation	1967	Participating company and member of Industrial Scientists Committee	To challenge current practices and to provide evidence-based scientific insight and information on a broad range of nutrition and health matters
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)	Research Council	2012	Member of Bioscience for Industry Strategy Advisory Panel and Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC)	To provide strategic input into non-medical bioscience research needs
Fresh Produce Consortium	Industry Association	2000	Participating company	To help drive collective change across the produce sector
Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board	Industry Association	2000	Participating company	To collaborate on agricultural and horticultural research
Linking Environment & Farming (LEAF)	Industry Association	2000	Participating company and member of Technical Advisory Board	To support the development and rollout of the standard across the farming community. Major sponsor of Open Farm Sunday
Soil Association	Non-Profit Organisation	1998	Participating company	To support the development of organic standards
Organic Farmers & GrowersIndustry Association	Industry Association	1998	Participating company	To support the development of organic standards
Global GAP	Non-Profit Organisation	2003	Participating company	To support the development of Good Agriculture Practice standards globally
Assured Food Standards (Red Tractor)	Industry Association	2005	Member of Technical Advisory Board	To support the development of Good Agricultural Practice and Good Manufacturing Practice standards for growers and packers in the UK
Prince’s Countryside Fund	Non-Profit Organisation	2012	Trustee	To promote Farming for the Future programme and support projects which aim to secure a sustainable future for British agriculture and the wider rural economy
Ellen MacArthur Foundation	Non-Profit Organisation	2013	Participating company - Circular Economy 100 founding member and New Plastics Economy member	To promote the transition to a sustainable circular economy
On-Pack Recycling Label Ltd	Non-Profit Organisation	2009	Participating company and member of the Board	To promote the delivery of a simple, consistent and UK-wide recycling message on packaging

Collaborations & Memberships

Find out more about the organisations we've joined or collaborate with