[20/09/2022]

To our stakeholders:

I am pleased to confirm that CIRFOOD Nederland B.V. reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

In this annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture, and daily operations. We also commit to sharing this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

Sincerely yours,

Nanni Manconi
International Executive Director
CIRFOOD Group

Human Rights actions concerning our Customers and Employees
• We include a labour and human rights policy in our Policy Handbook, to determine CIRFOOD Nederland B.V.’s targets in the field of social sustainability and to provide guidance on the measures that need to be taken to move towards these. Topics covered are Employee Health and Safety, Working Conditions, Labour Relations, Career Management and Training, Child and Forced Labour and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
• To educate and raise awareness among our employees, we conduct annual discrimination and harassment trainings in order prevent potential events and ensure a safe and respectful environment for all employees.
• Within our organisation, we have appointed specific confidants in which employees can consult, seek assistance, and report potential misconducts. This acts as our whistleblowing procedure that handles harassment, bullying, aggression, violence and any cases of discrimination or abuse.
• We embody a strict no-tolerance approach. We demonstrate this through the corporate guidelines for social security communicated in our employee handbook that outlines undesirable behaviours to all of our employees.
• In order to give our customers and stakeholders a voice to express their feedback, we have a formalized complaints procedure in which any cases of discrimination, harassment or harm that our services and food may have caused. We handle and address all of these complaints and ensure that we integrate the feedback received.
• As part of Dutch legislation and our CAO industry collective agreement, we conduct age-checks as part of our hiring and recruitment process and as such we do not employ underaged or child workers. As part of our whistleblowing system, suspected child and forced labour is an issue that can be reported on with processes in place to address and investigate these claims.
• We make sure to have company-wide communication to all relevant employees of our Health and Safety Office Guidelines and Health and Safety Kitchen Guidelines detailing proper health and safety practices and best working conditions that we require our employees to follow in their roles at CIRFOOD. This includes topics such as creating awareness of health and safety risks and educating employees on ergonomic sitting positions for example. We also advise employees on proper exercise and mental health habits to help promote a stress-free work environment.
• Working with food requires the adherence to rigorous health and safety standards, meaning that we conduct regular site and equipment hygiene, and health and safety audits and inspection of our equipment in the kitchen. This includes also the quality and functionality of equipment such as fryers, ovens and other appliances as examples.

Human Rights actions concerning our Suppliers
• In order to ensure that our values and approach to safeguarding human rights of all of our stakeholders in our sphere of influence is preserved, we have integrated social and human rights criteria within our procurement processes and measures.
• We have a supplier code of conduct that requires suppliers’ signature to confirm compliance. This code of conduct includes points on prevention of child and forced labour, equality, working condition standards and health and safety standard expectations.
• In addition, we also assess our suppliers’ CSR performance through a questionnaire self-assessment to ensure compliance on a wide array of both human rights related and labour related criteria.

As part of our first annual Communication on Progress presented below, we demonstrate the CIRFOOD Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that correspond to the actions described in Section 2 above. While many of the listed indicators are integrated into our reporting already, we plan to provide the full and most up-to-date data in our subsequent CoP reporting that will be reflective of the reporting cycle in line with our CoP reporting period.

Human Rights:
• Number of employees hired with distance to the labour market (via Pantar) (in #)
• Number of reported incidents involving discrimination or harassment (in #)
• Total number of injury events (in #)
• Total number of days lost due to injury (in #)
• Accident frequency rate (%)
• Accident severity rate (%)
• Absentee rate (in %)
• Total number of employees with burnouts or stress related leave (in #)
• Employees represented in collective agreements (in %)
• Employees who are part of a union (in %)
• Suppliers who have signed the supplier code of conduct including provisions on the environment, human rights and child and forced labour (in %)
• Suppliers who have been assessed through an on-site audit including environmental, labour, and human rights issues (in %)
• Key suppliers who have self-assessed on CSR issues including environmental, child and forced labour and human rights topics (in %)

Labour actions concerning our Customers and Employees
• We include a labour and human rights policy in our Policy Handbook, to determine CIRFOOD Nederland B.V.’s targets in the field of social sustainability and to provide guidance on the measures that need to be taken to move towards these. Topics covered are Employee Health and Safety, Working Conditions, Labour Relations, Career Management and Training, Child and Forced Labour and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
• To ensure the safety of our employees, we regularly conduct a Risico-Inventarisatie & Evaluatie or Health and Safety Risk Assessment that categorises employee risks based on their role, job related tasks and other economic and ecological risks that may occur during our operations.
• In order to organise and ensure adequate preparedness for accidents and risk events, we have a specific accident guidance and registration form in place that complies with the necessary ARBO legislation in place in the Netherlands. We also have specific instructions and guidance provided to our employees in terms of the safe usage of personal protective equipment such as safety shoes and gloves and when they are required to be used.
• To maintain the protection and safety of both our customers and our employees, we have a food safety handbook that outlines specific instructions on how to safely handle and store chemicals.
• Our consideration of our employees’ health and safety goes beyond the workplace. We provide our employees with health insurance benefits as part of our remuneration package.
• We have multiple mandatory and skill-development related trainings in place that aim to improve our employee’s awareness and knowledge and topics that we deem as vital to promote their development and safety. Some courses include for example HACCP refresh course, first aid training, social hygiene, social responsibility, and sustainability trainings. We also provide health and safety trainings to our sub-contractors.
• In line with industry guidelines and requirements, we make sure to have the fair working hours, compensation and granting of leave and vacation time of our employees. This also includes the provision of bonuses and overtime pay for hours worked overtime in case employees need to work longer hours. We go beyond legal minimum leave and grant our employees additional types of leave and holidays such as marriage anniversary leave, religious events, moving accommodation leave and more.
• We have a CAO collective agreement in place that guides, structures, and sets industry standards that protect our employees ensuring the upholding of labour and human rights standards. Our employees have freedom of association and benefit from the CAO.
• We value the growth, development, and continued progress of our employees, in line with this belief, we have multiple actions in place to promote the career development and training of our employees. We conduct annual performance reviews of our employees to provide feedback, give guidance and help the setting of goals to work towards. Our managers also get specific trainings to learn how to properly give feedback and be a better manager. For our employees, we have an online tool from OCC-B for contract catering related trainings.
• We deem transparency and conducting honest business as essential principles to follow, for this reason we have a Code of Ethics in place that outlines to our employees and relevant stakeholders the core values, beliefs, and expectations that we require our employees to follow and respect. Included in this code of ethics is information related to avoiding corrupt practices, fraudulent behaviour, anti-competitive practices and general labour and human rights standards.
• As part of our approach to freedom of association, expression, and information, we value the protection of the data and information of our stakeholders and take this very seriously. We have in place a specific data breach and response procedure that outlines what to be done in case of breach of our information security systems. In addition, we also exercise strict compliance with GDPR in terms of the storage, handling and usage of data and have a GDPR compliant records retention procedure in place.

Labour actions concerning our Suppliers
• We have a supplier code of conduct that requires suppliers’ signature to confirm compliance. This code of conduct includes points on prevention of child and forced labour, equality, working condition standards and health and safety standard expectations.
• We have formalised a Sustainable Procurement Strategy which includes our five pillars to Corporate Social Responsibility (organic – sustainability - trade label - regional, local, craft - vegetarian & vegan).

Labour:
• Employees receiving an annual performance review (in %)
• Number of female employees (in #) and percentage of employees that are female (in %)
• Number of male employees (in #)
• Number of women in executive positions (in #)
• Total hours worked (in hours)
• Employees receiving social benefits (in %)
• Employees represented in collective agreements (in %)
• Employees who are part of a union (in %)
• Employees participating in bonus scheme (in #)
• Employees with flexible working arrangement (in %)
• Average number of hours of training per employee (in h)
• Employees trained on discrimination and harassment (in %)
• Number of confirmed information security incidents (in #)

Environmental actions concerning our Customers & Employees
• CIRFOOD Nederland B.V. is ISO14001:2015 certified (valid until 2 July 2024). We have also obtained the MVO Matrix Niveau 2 certification for our CSR management system in accordance with NEN-ISO 26000:2010. The certificate is valid until July 2024.
• We include an environmental policy in our Policy Handbook, to determine CIRFOOD Nederland B.V.’s targets in the field of environmental sustainability and to provide guidance on the measures that need to be taken to move towards these. Topics covered are customer health & safety, materials, chemicals & waste, energy consumption & GHGs, water, and sustainable consumption.
• We find it important to raise our employees’ awareness and knowledge on environmental topics as well as measures they can take. For this, we have an environmental tips and tricks documents in place with guidelines on energy saving, water saving, food waste, and we provide all our employees with a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) training which also covered sustainable behaviour guidelines.
• To guarantee our employees’ safety, we have formalised procedures and guiding principles on how to safely handle and store chemicals.
• To guarantee our customer’s safety, we have formalised a product re-call procedure, which is in consultation with our food and beverage supplier Sligro. Further, we follow industry-wide HACCP standards, based on which we perform health and safety audits and product samples. We also want to make sure that our product offering is as healthy and safe for our customers as possible. To reach this, we aim that at least 80% of our products fall within our five-pillar program, which constitutes being vegan or vegetarian, organic, fairtrade, local or craft, and other sustainable labels.
• In terms of further promoting sustainable consumption to our customers, we focus mostly on the topics of food waste and (plastic) packaging. Some actions undertaken on these topics are that we use fully FSC certified packaging (based on advice from an external consulting firm) and reusable Kambukka mugs and we provide paper doggy bags to our customers to take any leftovers with them.
• To establish a two-way communication flow between ourselves and our customers, which enhances customer health, safety, and satisfaction, we have formalised a complete complaint handling procedure as well as a detailed complaint tracking system to monitor the complaints received and our responses towards handling those.
• We are actively trying to monitor and reduce our GHG emissions, among others by buying electrical vehicles for our logistics transport, monitoring CO2 emissions per driver, as well as by researching the possibility of implementing a one-stop-shop logistics program. Further, we have the goal of having only hybrid or electric company vehicles by 2025.
• We use 100% sustainable and eco-friendly cleaning materials (chemical-free, plant-based), which prevent hard chemical waste from entering water streams. We also have hygiene cards available that detail precisely the chemicals and materials used for reference
• Several external partnerships are in place to reduce our negative impact on the environment (including customers) and, where possible, create a positive impact. For example, we work together with Rotie, which recycles our used oils and fats (which is the only hazardous waste produced by CIRFOOD). We also work together with Richtlijnen Gezonde Kantines, whom we consult to provide for a healthier assortment of products. Lastly, we also worked together with Coca Cola on the Recycle for Discount and WhyNot campaigns, to stimulate recycling of plastic bottles within our locations.

Environmental actions concerning our Suppliers
• Part of the environmental policy is also directed at our suppliers. More specifically, we have set specific targets for our suppliers to comply with (e.g., 95% of suppliers need to comply with our Code of Conduct).
• We have formalised a Sustainable Procurement Strategy which includes our five pillars to Corporate Social Responsibility (organic – sustainability - trade label - regional, local, craft - vegetarian & vegan).
• We have a supplier Code of Conduct in place, in which CIRFOOD expresses its expectations towards our suppliers. This document includes, among others, standards on protecting the broader environment of business and on reducing the ecological footprint.
• Part of our supplier assessment includes whether suppliers are compliant with our Code of Conduct. Another way in which we assess our suppliers is by checking whether their products are in accordance with our five pillars and whether our suppliers report on CSR initiatives.

Environment:
• Vehicles with an ‘A’ energy label rating (in %)
• Fuel consumption of our facility department (in L)
• CO2 emission per driver (tCO2eq)
• Total amount of waste not recycled (in kg)
• Locations maintaining the same process on reporting waste (in %)
• Total number of products recalled (in #)
• Total number of Food Safety Audits (in #)
• Average rating from Food Safety Audit (in %)
• Product samples given ‘poor’ rating (in %)
• Number of recall incidents (in #)
• Customer health and safety incidents (in #)
• Customer complaints received (in #)
• Customer feedback received (in #)
• Employees receiving training on HACCP standards (in 100%)
• Internal audits on HACCP standards (in %)

Anti-Corruption actions concerning our Customers & Employees
• We include an ethics policy in our Policy Handbook, to determine CIRFOOD Nederland B.V.’s targets in the field of business ethics and to provide guidance on the measures that need to be taken to move towards these. Topics covered are, among others, anti-corruption practices. This handbook also includes a section on disciplinary actions and sanctions that can be undertaken in case of violation of our business ethics principles.
• Besides the business ethics policy, we also have an Anti-Corruption Code in place. This code is in accordance with the requirements mentioned in Legislative Decree no. 231/01 and aims to pursue three main objectives: Reduce the opportunities for corruption, increase the ability to uncover corruption cases, and create an unfavourable environment for corruption. This code applies to anyone associated with CIRFOOD.
• Besides our anti-corruption policy and code, we have installed several initiatives that help fight against the possibility of corruption, bribery, and fraud on a day-to-day basis. Examples are offering our stakeholders the possibility to report on potential corruption and/or bribery issues through a confidant, performing yearly financial audits, and providing guidelines for sensitive transactions such as receiving gifts.

Anti-Corruption actions concerning our Suppliers
• The Anti-Corruption Code also applies to our suppliers.
• We have a supplier Code of Conduct in place, in which CIRFOOD expresses its expectations towards our suppliers. This document includes, among others, standards aimed to prevent unethical business practices such as corruption and bribery. Part of our supplier assessment includes whether suppliers are compliant with our Code of Conduct.

Anti-Corruption:
• Number of reporting incidents due to corruption (fraud) (in #)
• Fines paid due to compliance issues (in €)
• Number of audits conducted (concerning ethics issues) (in #)
• Employees trained on fair business practices (in %)
• Number of incidents identified through the Whistle-blowing procedure (in #)