Responsibility of the independent third party
Based on our work, our responsibility is to provide a report expressing a limited assurance conclusion on:
- the compliance of the Statement with the requirements of article R. 225-105 of the French Commercial Code;
- the fairness of the information provided pursuant to part 3 of sections I and II of Article R. 225-105 of the French Commercial Code, i.e. the outcomes of policies, including key performance indicators, and measures relating to the main risks.
It is also our responsibility to express, at the request of the Entity and outside the scope of accreditation, a reasonable assurance opinion on whether the Indicators have been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Guidelines and a limited assurance conclusion that we have not identified any material misstatements that call into question whether the Other Indicators have been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Guidelines.
As we are engaged to form an independent conclusion on the Information as prepared by management, we are not permitted to be involved in the preparation of the Information as doing so may compromise our independence.
It is not our responsibility to report on:
- the Entity’s compliance with other applicable legal and regulatory requirements, in particular the information set-out in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (green taxonomy), the French duty of care law and anti-corruption and tax avoidance legislation;
- the fairness of the information set-out in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (green taxonomy);
- the compliance of products and services with the applicable regulations.
Applicable regulatory provisions and professional guidance
We performed the work described below in accordance with Articles A. 225-1 et seq. of the French Commercial Code, the professional guidance issued by the French Institute of Statutory Auditors (Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes) applicable to such engagement, in particular the professional guidance issued by the Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes, Intervention du commissaire aux comptes – Intervention de l’OTI – Déclaration de performance extra-financière, our own procedures (Programme de verification de la déclaration de performance extra-financière, July 7th 2023) acting as the verification program and with the international standard ISAE 3000 (revised).
Independence and quality control
Our independence is defined by the provisions of Article L. 823-10 of the French Commercial Code and French Code of Ethics for Statutory Auditors (Code de déontologie) of our profession. In addition, we have implemented a system of quality control including documented policies and procedures aimed at ensuring compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, ethical requirements and the professional guidance issued by the French Institute of Statutory Auditors (Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes) relating to this engagement.
Means and resources
Our verification work mobilized the skills of ten people and took place between April and October 2024 on a total duration of intervention of twenty-six weeks.
We were assisted in our work by our specialists in sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. We conducted fifteen interviews with people responsible for preparing the Statement representing in particular the divisions HSE, Energy & Climate, Responsible Sourcing, Stop Hunger, Food Waste, Ethics & Internal control, Human Resources, Food Safety.
Nature and scope of procedures
We are required to plan and perform our work to address the areas where we have identified that a material misstatement of the Information is likely to arise.
The procedures we performed were based on our professional judgment. In carrying out our limited assurance engagement on the Information:
- we obtained an understanding of all the consolidated entities’ activities and the description of the main risks associated;
- we assessed the suitability of the criteria of the Guidelines with respect to their relevance, completeness, reliability, neutrality and understandability, with due consideration of industry best practices, where appropriate;
- we verified that the Statement includes each category of social and environmental information set out in Article L. 225 102 1 III of the French Commercial Code as well as information regarding compliance with human rights and anti-corruption and tax avoidance legislation and includes, where applicable, an explanation of the reasons for the absence of the information required under Article L. 225-102-1 III, paragraph 2 of the French Commercial Code;
- we verified that the Statement provides the information required under Article R.225-105 II of the French Commercial Code where relevant with respect to the main risks;
- we verified that the Statement presents the business model and a description of the main risks associated with all the consolidated entities’ activities, including where relevant and proportionate, the risks associated with their business relationships, their products or services, as well as their policies, measures and the outcomes thereof, including key performance indicators associated to the main risks;
- we referred to documentary sources and conducted interviews to
- assess the process used to identify and confirm the main risks as well as the consistency of the outcomes, including the key performance indicators used, with respect to the main risks and the policies presented, and
- corroborate the qualitative information (measures and outcomes) that we considered to be the most important presented in Appendix 1; concerning certain risks (anti-corruption, tax avoidance), our work was carried out on the consolidating entity, for the others risks, our work was carried out on the consolidating entity and on a selection of entities : OSS USA; OSS UK; OSS Chile; OSS Italy; OSS Belgium.
- we verified that the Statement covers the scope of consolidation, i.e. all the consolidated entities in accordance with article L. 233-16 of the French Commercial Code;
- we obtained an understanding of internal control and risk management procedures the Entity has implemented and assessed the data collection process aimed at ensuring the completeness and fairness of the Information;
- for the key performance indicators and other quantitative outcomes that we considered to be the most important presented in Appendix 1, we implemented:
- analytical procedures to verify the proper consolidation of the data collected and the consistency of any changes in those data;
- tests of details, using sampling techniques, in order to verify the proper application of the definitions and procedures and reconcile the data with the supporting documents. This work was carried out on a selection of contributing entities and covers between 27% and 51% of the consolidated data relating to the key performance indicators and outcomes selected for these tests (44% of total workforce, 51% % of greenhouse gas emissions - Scope 3 category 1 Purchases of goods and services, 34% of greenhouse gas emissions - Scope 1 and 2 - market-based, 27% of organic food waste);
- we assessed the overall consistency of the Statement in relation to our knowledge of all the consolidated entities.
