Food and beverages

Declining land-based eco-systems and fisheries, as well as increasing water scarcity, will have an impact on the long-term operations and success of food and beverage companies. Obesity, the use of genetically modified organisms and food safety will affect the manner in which the industry conducts its business.

Issues

• Brand/reputation management
• Obesity and other nutritional conditions (alcohol consumption, poverty and lifestyle-related issues)
• Genetically modified organisms
• Environmentally sustainable production methods (such as organic production)
• Social conditions of production (working conditions, fair trade, occupational health and safety, for example)
• Eco-system degradation and resource depletion (such as over-fishing)
• Water scarcity
• Food/beverage safety and product recall
• Product labeling and packaging

Client examples

South African chicken producer

We helped a South African integrated chicken producer to develop a non-financial management and reporting framework. This involved defining the company’s business principles, identifying its key material issues, and making recommendations for the management of these issues by defining key performance indicators, targets and benchmarks. We also supported the company in delivering its first sustainability report for the 2005 financial year.

Tea sourcing partnership

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is the appointed monitor of the Tea sourcing partnership, which is responsible for monitoring the compliance of 1,200 tea producers in Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, Malawi and Zimbabwe, with local labour laws over a four-year period. We have also facilitated stakeholder-engagement processes in each country, with stakeholders including major NGOs, trade unions, government and international agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme.

Global food and beverage manufacturer

A shareholder resolution required the company to report on its sustainability performance using the GRI guidelines. We worked with management to benchmark the company’s existing practices against the GRI guidelines. We also provided recommendations for improving its internal and external sustainability-management systems and reporting. The company is now in a position to respond to shareholder concerns by including sustainability information in its annual report.

Russian beer manufacturer

We completed the registration of a brewery in the Russian Federation to ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environmental) standards. The registrations were completed in September 2004, and we will continue to provide annual surveillance audits. We have also provided training on several related issues, such as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), health and safety.