BE CERTIFIED AS A B CORP

Extra-financial Performance towards Danone's 2030 Goals

BE CERTIFIED AS A B CORP

Our ambition to become a Certified B CorpTM expresses our long-term commitment to create and share sustainable value for all, in line with our dual economic and social agenda. This commitment has historically been implemented at Danone through our Danone Way program, which is advancing Danone's multifaceted contribution to sustainable development, and on which we rely to support our ambition. In today’s world, big companies and their brands are fundamentally challenged as to whose interests they really serve. B CorpTM certification is a mark of trust for companies demonstrating high standards of social and environmental performance.

Our ambition to become a Certified B CorpTM expresses our long-term commitment to create and share sustainable value for all, in line with our dual economic and social agenda. This commitment has historically been implemented at Danone through our Danone Way program, which is advancing Danone's multifaceted contribution to sustainable development, and on which we rely to support our ambition. In today’s world, big companies and their brands are fundamentally challenged as to whose interests they really serve. B CorpTM certification is a mark of trust for companies demonstrating high standards of social and environmental performance.

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“A successful B Corp movement needs an inclusive community of companies of all sizes: from listed companies to small sole-proprietors. When we founded B Lab®, our vision was to empower the world’s entrepreneurial leaders to use business as a force for goodTM. For that vision to become a reality, we need multinational corporations to lead by example. Therefore, we could not be more excited that more Danone subsidiaries have undertaken the significant effort to become certified. We hope Danone’s ambition and progress will inspire others to follow suit.”


Bart Houlahan, co-founder of B Lab®

 

OUR 2018 PERFORMANCE

OUR AMBITION: TOWARD B CORP™ CERTIFICATION AS A MARK OF TRUST

At Danone, we are convinced that we need to address the issue of whose interests we serve by reinforcing trust with employees, consumers, partners, retailers, civil society, and governments. For these reasons we joined the B CorpTM movement.

 

B CorpTM is a movement for businesses seeking to combine financial success with social and environment goals. Our ambition to obtain this certification is more evidence of our long-term commitment to sustainable business and our dual project of economic success and social progress. While attaining B CorpTM status has so far been the domain of small and medium sized privately held companies, Danone has been partnering with B Lab®— the non-profit organization that gives out the B CorpTM certification—since 2015 to help define a meaningful and manageable path toward certification for multinationals and publicly traded companies.

What is B Corp™?

B CorpTM is a sustainable business certification that was launched in the U.S. in 2006. Since its founding, it has been gaining momentum around the world. The B CorpTM Movement is aligned with Danone’s overall vision to drive a cultural shift to redefine business success. Today, there are more than 2,600 B CorpsTM in 60 countries. B Lab®, a non-profit organization, gives out each B CorpTM certification to for-profit companies that demonstrate high standards of social and environmental performance and engagement. Danone’s ambition is to be among the first food multinational companies to obtain a global certification. Today, we are partnering with B Lab® to build a roadmap toward this ambitious goal.

 

To obtain B CorpTM certification, a company must complete a B Impact Assessment, and earn a minimum score of 80 out of 200 points during an audit. It must also recertify every three years and maintain the goal of continuous improvement.

11 ENTITIES CERTIFIED

~30%

of Danone’s global business is covered by the B Corp™ certification.

 

 

 

At the end of 2018, the following Danone entities were B Corp™ certified: Danone dairy entity in Spain (Danone S.A.), Happy Family in the U.S. (Nurture), Aguas Danone de Argentina, Les Prés Rient Bio in France, Danone Dairy entity in the U.K. (Danone Ltd), Danone North America in the U.S., Danone Canada (Danone Inc.), Alpro, AQUA in Indonesia (PT Tirta Investama), Grameen Danone Foods Ltd and Danone Manifesto Ventures.

 

The Danone Way program was first launched in 2001 with the goal of strengthening the culture of our dual project across the Company. It was also a way of advancing Danone’s multi-faceted contribution to sustainable development.
Today, Danone Way is used to advance and measure Danone’s sustainability performance at local, regional and global levels, and to support the 'One Planet. One Health' agenda.

An initiative promoting the deployment of best practices in sustainability

Through the Danone Way Guidelines, central teams implement sustainability recommendations for Danone entities. In 2018, these cover 4 topics (governance, health, social and environment) and 184 practices that pave the way towards achieving Danone’s 2030 Goals. All practices are organized based on their level of maturity (fundamentals, progression, maturity, and exemplarity).

 

The vast majority of our entities conduct a Danone Way annual self-assessment, which compares their practices to those defined as relevant to their business operations. For each practice, entities declare if they are compliant or not—or if they have an equivalent local practice. This, in turn, is a rich source of data for central teams, letting them monitor the level of best practices achieved by entity, geographical region, and division, and providing support as needed. After a review by central teams, entities receive a scorecard setting out their results—global maturity (rated by a number of stars from one to five), detailed performance by theme, and advice on practices needed to move ahead. Locally, these results are then used to guide sustainability roadmaps and define improvement plans.

 

Since 2015, and with its partnership with B Lab®, Danone has been working on increasing the synergies between the Danone Way program and the B CorpTM certification. For Danone entities that have not yet been certified as B CorpTM, Danone Way will support their advancement towards the certification. For entities already B CorpTM certified, a tailored Danone Way program, which focuses on health and nutrition practices, will allow them to keep tracking progress in themes not covered by the B CorpTM assessment, but that are important for our business.

Danone Way results

In 2018, entities representing approximately 96,7% of our consolidated net sales undertook a sustainability assessment; including 66.7% of our consolidated net sales covered by the Danone Way program (see our Methodology Note), and approximately 30% of our consolidated net sales covered by the B CorpTM certification.

 

Since 2002, the Danone Way guidelines and entities’ results have been subject to regular audits carried out by an independent third party. Between October and December 2018, a sample of entities representing 20.2% of the consolidated sales of Danone Way participants was audited. After having reviewed the audit results and the consolidation methodology, the independent third party certified Danone Way results with a limited level of assurance (see assurance report).

 

In the end of 2018, 84% of entities reached a Danone Way score of 3 stars or above out of 5 for their overall sustainability performance. This highlights the diffusion of a sustainability culture that has become standard in the Company. 

Assessing sustainability integration into the business within entities thanks to Danone Way

In 2018:

 

69%

of entities were capable of showing their prioritized sustainability issues, based on at least the importance for external and internal stakeholders as well as the business relevance (Danone Way scope, see our Methodology Note).

ADDITIONAL DANONE WAY RESULTS FOR 2018

A selection of Danone Way results is available in some sections of the 2030 Goals reporting in order to demonstrate how entities are progressing towards our commitments and ambitions.

 

For more information on the Danone Way scope and methodology, refer to our Methodology Note.