Our Ethos
To support our sustainability efforts, it is vital that we have robust responsible sourcing policies in place to reduce our emissions we create as part of the food we serve throughout our business.
The global food industry significantly contributes to biodiversity loss and water scarcity as well as intensive animal production. Therefore, it is imperative that we focus on these areas within our responsible sourcing commitments.
Animal Welfare Standards
The welfare of all animals within our supply chain is an integral part of our responsible sourcing strategy. We strongly believe that all sentient beings share common rights. We have updated our policy to reflect the ‘Five Domains’ framework showing that good animal welfare can be achieved by:
- Nutrition: providing suitable food and water of sufficient quality and quantity.
- Environment: providing a comfortable environment including appropriate housing and shelter, sufficient space, appropriate lighting, and features to ensure physical, thermal, auditory, and respiratory comfort.
- Health: providing a good physical environment, prompt veterinary care, and choosing healthy robust breeds.
- Behavioural Interactions: providing a varied and stimulating environment which fulfils the animals’ needs and allows the performance of species- and situation appropriate behavioural responses. Providing a social environment which minimises negative interactions and promotes positive social interactions with specifics and humans.
- Mental State: The emotion or subjective experience of the animal in response to changes in Domains 1-4.
Our ethos
All suppliers currently abide by the Five Freedoms and we will be adopting the principles of the Five Domains in 2026.
We are taking a new approach to animal welfare and we are looking to go further by increasing animal welfare across all of the products we buy. Collaborating with Compassion in World Farming, an organisation aiming to create sustainable food systems that benefit animals, people, and the planet, allows us to bring very specific expertise to each species group and will form the basis of how we engage suppliers, existing and new, in expected practices. We are also using the Sourcing Better framework, to inform our Compass animal welfare policy framework.
Nature
The health of our natural environment underpins everything we do. Freshwater supplies are increasingly at risk due to unsustainable water use and growing pressures such as climate change and population growth. In England, the public water supply could face a shortfall of 5 billion litres a day by 2055 without urgent action to future-proof resources. Meanwhile, deforestation driven by agricultural commodities threatens vital.
We are committed to maintaining our commitment of no deforestation for directly sourced deforestation risk commodities.
Responsible Sourcing Policies
Compass Group UK&I is committed to sourcing more responsibly. Here are our policies that enable us to deliver against our promise and help us create a more sustainable future.
