Sourcing sustainable products is an important part of our plan to create better products for families today and in the future. We strive to ensure the long-term viability of our natural resources and the fair treatment of people and animals through our sustainable seafood, animal welfare and ethical sourcing practices. We are developing ethically and environmentally conscious purchasing guidelines to articulate our purchasing commitments and guide our sourcing teams.
We are proud to have been recognized by Fairtrade Canada as the 2020 Business Innovator of the Year for offering a variety of ethically sourced, certified Fairtrade products such as bananas and flower bouquets in our stores. We are committed to delivering products that our customers can feel good about.
As a company with Atlantic roots, seafood is a treasured component of our heritage and product offering. We want to ensure that enough seafood is available to meet Canadian families’ needs today and in the future.
When harvesting seafood is not managed properly, it can lead to overfishing, unintended catching and habitat damage. That’s why our Sobeys and Safeway stores in Western Canada became partners of Ocean Wise in 2017, followed by IGA, Les Marchés Tradition and Marché Bonichoix stores in Quebec, and Sobeys stores in Ontario and Atlantic Canada in 2019.
Ocean Wise is a global ocean conservation organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that helps us select sustainable products and highlight them amongst the fish and seafood offerings in our stores. When you see the Ocean Wise symbol next to fish and seafood items or on packaging, it is an assurance of sustainable sources and an ocean-friendly product.
Since 2007, we have championed ethical sourcing in the grocery retail industry through our partnership with Fairtrade Canada, an organization that works to improve working and living conditions for families in the Global South and supports more sustainable farming practices globally. In March 2020, we received Fairtrade Canada’s Business Innovator Award for demonstrating visionary and creative ways to promote Fairtrade products in our stores... Read More
Our private label brand, Compliments, as well as our produce and floral departments, offer customers 18 different Fairtrade-certified products in stores across the country. Our certified Fairtrade products are sourced from various countries, including Ecuador, Kenya and Peru. We are proud to spotlight a variety of other Fairtrade-certified suppliers at our stores, including Kicking Horse, Nature’s Path, Ben and Jerry’s and many more, as well as Fairtrade-certified Flower Bouquets. In addition, our IGA stores in Quebec have offered Equifruit’s certified Fairtrade bananas since 2007. Read Less
Our Sustainable Fish and Seafood Sourcing Guidelines outline our commitment to sourcing sustainable fresh, frozen and canned fish and seafood to ensure there is enough supply available to meet the needs of families today and in the future.
Click here to view the Guidelines.
Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the world, representing roughly 35% of total production. Increased demand for agriculture space for palm plantations has led to significant tropical deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia. The impacts include the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere due to clear-cutting and slash-burning of tropical forests and a loss of valuable biodiversity... Read More
In 2016, we released our corporate Palm Oil Sourcing Policy to vendors that manufacture products containing palm oil for our private label brands. We use palm oil in a small number of our private label products. We continue to engage our suppliers to ensure that all our private label products use only Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) as defined by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Our suppliers source CSPO in regions such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Brazil. As of December 2019, 94% of the palm oil used for our Compliments and Sensations products was fully physically traceable CSPO. Read Less
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