Stakeholder engagement
Stakeholder engagement
Sobeys engages with many stakeholders to determine our sustainability priorities and solutions. They include customers, employees, suppliers, industry and government organizations, academics and environmental groups, and the communities in which we operate. The environmental initiatives outlined in this review are shaped by a broad variety of factors including our corporate strategy and influenced by those key stakeholders who we impact most.
Engagement with our customers takes place on many levels - from the informal day-to-day chats that our store managers and staff have with customers; to customer satisfaction surveys; tasting panels in our private label product development process and surveys on consumer attitudes designed to inform our sustainability policies and programs. We know from this formal and informal contact that our customers want us to:
- Take action on sustainability, and
- Enable them to take action in their own lives through both the products and guidance that we offer in our stores and on our consumer websites.
At the same time, we are developing programs to engage, educate and enable our employees to more fully integrate sustainability into all areas of our business.
Engagement with our suppliers and their organizations in fair and respectful ways creates a forum to identify opportunities to build each other’s businesses. Increasingly our discussions emphasize consumer health and wellness and sustainability.
We work closely with municipal, provincial and federal government on a range of activities and issues including: zoning and environmental assessments for specific sites; waste management issues; occupational health and safety and issues related to food safety and seafood sustainability.
Participation in various Canadian, U.S. and international retail industry organizations including the Retail Council of Canada - Food Caucus, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the global Consumer Goods Forum provide opportunities for us to discuss, develop and launch initiatives of common interest.
We are also responsive to the communities in which we operate and environmental organizations to seek their perspectives when we are investigating and developing our action plans to address various sustainability issues.
