As the purpose of our engagement is to express limited assurance, the nature (choice of techniques of control), extent (scope) and timing of the procedures are less than those required to obtain reasonable assurance.
Furthermore, this engagement does not provide guarantee regarding the viability or the quality of the management of Sodexo. In particular it does not provide an assessment of the relevance of the choices made by Sodexo in terms of action plans, targets, policies, scenario analysis and transition plans, which would go beyond compliance with the ESRS reporting requirements.
It does, however, allow us to express conclusions regarding the entity’s process for determining the sustainability information to be reported, the sustainability information itself, and the information reported pursuant to Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852, as to the absence of identification or, on the contrary, the identification of errors, omissions or inconsistencies of such importance that they would be likely to influence the decisions that readers of the information subject to this engagement might make.
Any comparative information that would be included in the group management report are not covered by our engagement.
Compliance with the ESRS of the process implemented by Sodexo to determine the information reported, and compliance with the requirement to consult the social and economic committee provided for in the sixth paragraph of Article L. 2312-17 of the French Labour Code.
Our procedures consisted in verifying that:
On the basis of the procedures we have carried out, we have not identified any material errors, omissions or inconsistencies regarding the compliance of the process implemented by Sodexo with the ESRS.
We set out below the elements that have been the subject of particular attention in relation to our assessment of compliance with the ESRS of the process implemented by Sodexo to determine the information reported.
Information relating to the identification of stakeholders and impacts, risks and opportunities, as well as the assessment of the impact materiality and financial materiality, is set out in section 2.2.1 General disclosure – ESRS 2 of the Sustainability statement.
Information on the identification of stakeholders is set out in Interests and views of stakeholders [SBM-2] of the 2.2.1.3 Strategy of the Sustainability statement.
We obtained an understanding of the analysis conducted by Sodexo to identify:
In this context, we held discussions with the Sustainability Department and reviewed the available documentation related to the stakeholder identification process.
Information on the identification of impacts, risks and opportunities is provided in section 2.2.1.4 Impact, risk and opportunity management of the Sustainability statement.
We reviewed the process implemented by Sodexo for identifying actual or potential impacts (positive or negative), risks and opportunities (« IROs »), in connection with the sustainability matters referred to in paragraph AR 16 of the « Application Requirements » of ESRS 1 and, where applicable, those specific to the group as presented in the aforementioned section of the Sustainability Statement.
We also appreciated the scope selected for the identification of IROs, particularly in relation to the scope of the consolidated financial statements.
We reviewed the mapping prepared by the group of the identified IROs, including in particular the description of their distribution across its own operations and its value chain, as well as their time horizon (short, medium or long term), and we assessed the consistency of this mapping with our knowledge of the group. We appreciated the consistency of this mapping with the elements presented to and approved by the governance bodies.
