Below you can find a set of sustainability-related policies. Detailed information can be found here.
Code of Conduct
Description of key contents
Outlines the purpose, ethical principles, and values that govern the Group’s operations and relationships with stakeholders. It is directed towards all employees, clients, suppliers, business partners and investors. The Code of Conduct encompasses four fundamental principles: Respect for the Law and Human Rights, Honesty and Integrity, Diversity and Inclusion, and Corporate Social Responsibility.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Consumers
- Suppliers
- Business partners
- Investors
- Local communities
- Non-governmental organisations and associations
- Journalists
Environmental Policy
Description of key contents
Prioritizes respect for the environment in the Group’s business growth and development, including the commitment to promoting sustainable production, distribution, and consumption practices by continuously improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain. The policy integrates environmental performance criteria into operations and management decisions, encourages eco-efficiency and eco-innovation, and actively promotes the participation in multistakeholder initiatives. Key priorities include tackling climate change, protecting water resources, preserving biodiversity, and accelerating the transition to a circular economy. The Group aims to reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste, while enhancing water quality and availability. The policy states that all initiatives must be regularly monitored, evaluated, and reported to ensure compliance with applicable legislation and continuous improvement .
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Suppliers
- Business partners
- Local communities
Anti-Corruption Policy
Description of key contents
Sets forth the principles and obligations outlined in the Code of Conduct, which must be adhered to in the workplace and in interactions with suppliers, customers, and other external entities to prevent corruption and avoid potential conflicts of interest. This policy is applicable to all Jerónimo Martins Group’s companies and their associates, regardless of contractual relationship, job position, or country of operation. In line with the Group’s Code of Conduct, the policy details the communication channels available and establishes that reports of potential breaches made in good faith will not lead to retaliation, reprimand, or any other adverse or discriminatory actions.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Suppliers
- Business partners
- Governments
- Local communities
- Non-governmental organisations and associations
- Journalists
Sustainable Sourcing Policy
Description of key contents
Aims to establish a sustainable approach by incorporating social and environmental concerns into the supply chain, with the goal of gradually and sustainably contributing to positive impacts, and mitigating actual or potential negative impacts of the Group’s activities. This policy focuses on ensuring food quality and safety, offering fair prices, promoting responsible consumption, supporting social wellbeing, and contributing to the sustainability of ecosystems and communities. The Group emphasizes rigorous supplier selection, fostering long-term ethical relationships, and encouraging good environmental practices. Committed to complying with legislation and protecting biodiversity, the policy aligns with the UN’s priority areas to ensure ecosystem services and population well-being.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Suppliers
- Business partners
- Local communities
- Consumers
Suppliers Code of Conduct
Description of key contents
Sets forth the ethical standards and principles that suppliers must follow in their business dealings with the Group. It emphasizes the importance of promoting efficiency, customer satisfaction, shareholders’ interests, and sustainable development. Suppliers are expected to uphold high standards in labour practices, environmental protection, and product quality and safety. The Code mandates compliance with laws and international treaties, environmentally conscious business practices, and adherence to the highest standards of product quality and safety. It also requires suppliers to comply with Labor laws, ensuring the principles of non-discrimination, no forced or child labour, safe and healthy work environment, fair remuneration and compliance with legal working hours, along with respect for workers’ freedom of association. Additionally, suppliers must not offer personal gifts or benefits to Jerónimo Martins’ employees, except for symbolic gifts up to a pre-defined value. This comprehensive Code ensures that suppliers align with the Group’s commitment to ethical and sustainable business practices.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Suppliers
- Business partners
- Local communities
- Consumers
Policy of Support for Surrounding Communities
Description of key contents
Emphasizes the importance of extended responsibility and active contribution to the well-being of the communities where the Group operates. This policy focuses on promoting Humanity, Merit, Enterprise, and Citizenship. It supports projects aimed at fighting malnutrition, hunger, poverty, and social exclusion, particularly among the elderly and deprived children and young people. Support is provided through donations of shopping vouchers for food and hygiene products, as well as initiatives to reduce early school leaving and encourage entrepreneurship. The policy also considers supporting scientific research related to health through food and preserving cultural and environmental heritage. It outlines that all support measures are monitored and assessed to ensure resources are effectively allocated to make the greatest impact.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Non-governmental organisations and associations
Nutritional Policy
Description of key contents
Promotes healthy lifestyles through safe, nutritious, and accessible food offerings, focusing on preventing food-related diseases like obesity and diabetes. This includes ensuring product safety, compliance with legislation, offering a variety of healthy products, and providing clear, reliable information to consumers. The policy is based on six pillars: nutritional profile, ingredients, labelling, portion sizes, continuous improvement, and communication. The document also promotes the engagement in responsible marketing, especially towards children, and the continuous improvement of products’ nutritional profiles. The policy emphasizes that actions must be monitored to assess their impact and accuracy.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Suppliers
- Consumers
Product Quality and Safety Policy
Description of key contents
Commits to ensuring the highest standards of product quality and safety for Private Brand and Perishables products. The policy focuses on maintaining competitive prices while establishing long-term partnerships with suppliers, ensuring relevant quality management and safety certifications schemes. Key goals include understanding and meeting client demands, monitoring and optimizing internal processes, fostering innovation, maintaining the reputational capital of the brands, controlling product quality, training human resources, strengthening partnerships with suppliers, cooperating with authorities and the scientific community, developing information mechanisms for customers, fulfilling legal and regulatory requirements, continuously improving the Quality Management System, ensuring product safety for human and animal health, and minimizing environmental impacts. The policy also includes specific principles such as legal compliance, engaging with stakeholders, applying rigorous quality and safety standards based on scientific evidence, and ensuring product safety through legal and scientific support. The Group commits to practices like prohibiting animal testing except in specific cases, such as sensorial tests for animal feed, adopting a conservative approach to GMOs and ensuring transparency in labelling, avoiding the use of nanotechnology in food products and packaging, reformulating products to eliminate microplastics, complying with safety standards for substances of concern and packaging materials, implementing procedures and traceability to ensure product safety, and clearly communicating product information to consumers.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Suppliers
- Consumers
Personal Data Protection Policy
Description of key contents
Ensures the privacy of personal data for all individuals interacting with Jerónimo Martins’ Companies, including customers, employees, suppliers, and partners. Sets the necessary measures to protect personal data and complies with data protection legislation across all its operations through a dedicated Privacy Team and Data Protection Officers that are in place to develop, implement, and verify data protection procedures. The statement makes sure that personal data is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently, only for legitimate purposes that are clearly communicated to data subjects. Therefore, it guarantees that data is processed for specific, legitimate purposes and retained only as long as necessary. The policy also ensures data minimization, accuracy, integrity, and confidentiality through robust security measures and careful partner selection. In addition, it states that data protection principles are integrated into new projects from the start, involving the Data Privacy Team to mitigate risks. It also contemplates the right that subjects have over the control about their personal data, namely rights to access, rectify, oppose, port, limit, and erase data, facilitated through our dedicated channels.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Shareholders and investors
- Analysts
- Official bodies, supervising entities and local authorities,
- Suppliers and business partners
- Employees
- Consumers
- Local Communities
- Journalists
- Non-governmental organisations and associations
Whistleblowing Policy
Description of key contents
Outlines rules for receiving, recording, and handling reports of irregularities within the Company. It ensures effective mechanisms for detecting and preventing irregularities, promotes a culture of transparency, integrity, and responsibility, and encourages ethical, honest, and professional behaviour among employees and leaders. It also ensures compliance with EU law, national law, and the Company’s Code of Conduct, and supports effective risk management. The policy defines who is considered a whistleblower, what themes are considered irregularities, and what can constitute a motive for reporting. It establishes principles of complete privacy, confidentiality throughout the entire process, and the principle of non-retaliation. From a procedural point of view, it outlines the steps of the entire reporting process – from the complaint to the communication of the result through internal and external whistleblowing mechanisms – and explains how data is recorded and managed.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Shareholders and investors
- Analysts
- Official bodies, supervising entities and local authorities
- Suppliers and business partners
- Employees
- Consumers
- Local Communities
- Journalists
- Non-governmental organisations and associations
Labour Fundamentals Guidelines
Description of key contents
Aims to promote employees’ labour and human rights, inspiring the Group, Corporate Areas and Companies, to build a healthier, safer and balanced working environment. These Guidelines have the following objectives: i) Clarify the global international fundamental principles that directly apply to Jerónimo Martins’ Companies in terms of Human Resources Management; ii) Set the standard behaviour and main guidelines of conduct for all Jerónimo Martins’ Companies; iii) Act in compliance with the international legislation and principles in the areas of human rights, labour and human resources management, when adopting internal policies, procedures, practices, initiatives or other equivalent actions; iv) Guarantee and promote that all Companies adopt a mechanism (e.g.: specific communication channels) that allow employees to share and/or report any request or complaint.
With these guidelines, we reinforce the following principles and rights:
- principle of equality and non-discrimination;
- right to work;
- right to rest;
- right to equal pay and fair remuneration;
- right of association and collective bargaining;
- right to a safe workplace;
- right to parenthood;
- right to privacy and private life;
- right to remedy.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Official bodies, supervising entities and local authorities
- Shareholders and investors
- Analysts
Prevention and Combat to Harassment and Discrimination Guidelines
Description of key contents
Aims to formalize the principles of equality and non-discrimination defined in the Group’s Code of Conduct and the principle of prevention of harassment in the workplace, which are intolerable behaviours that are important to prevent, combat and, if necessary, sanction appropriately, namely by: i) establishing rules aimed at preventing and responding to behaviours that constitute discrimination and/or harassment, in any form, in the workplace and/or for work-related reasons; ii) establishing contact channels between employees and their Companies in this context; iii) establishing the main guidelines for the analysis and investigation process of complaints received.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Official bodies, supervising entities and local authorities
- Shareholders and investors
- Analysts
Recruitment and Selection Policy
Description of key contents
Defines recruitment rules and guidelines to attract and select the right candidates, both internally and externally, according to the Group’s recruitment needs, and to provide an exceptional candidate and employee experience, reinforcing Jerónimo Martins’ brand value as a Benchmark Employer, in all countries we are and want to be present.
The recruitment and selection processes established in this policy are therefore based on promoting and complying with criteria of ethics, fairness, non-discrimination and equal opportunities at all levels of our organisation. The recruitment and selection teams ensure that profiles are analysed impartially and must apply preestablished criteria relating to experience and qualifications, among others, at every stage of the process. They also ensure compliance with the law, regulations, and risk and privacy management rules, observing the requirements of each country, in particular with regard to the minimum working age.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Candidates and potential candidates
- Suppliers and business partners
Global Training Policy
Description of key contents
Defines rules and guidelines for the identification and implementation of the appropriate training solutions in the different locations where Jerónimo Martins, and different Companies that belong to the Group, are present. It establishes the following objectives, among others: i) ensure a strong alignment between training plans, Companies´ goals and JM Group’s strategy; ii) align training concepts and define the training macro-process that should be complied by all Companies and by the Corporate structure in regard to training activities management; iii) establish high-quality standards of training solutions.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Suppliers and business partners
Performance Management Policy
Description of key contents
Defines the process, main rules and guidelines regarding managers’ performance management and alignment with business goals, and aims to promote a meritocratic and results-driven culture, based on regular feedback and people development. Aims to ensure that performance and each manager’s individual contribution are aligned with business goals and the Group’s Values and expected behaviours.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
Occupational Health and Safety Policy
Description of key contents
Defines the guiding principles for the development and implementation of processes and best practices, guaranteeing compliance with the legislation, and contributing to maintain a safe and healthy work environment for employees, customers, service providers, suppliers and communities.
More information about our Occupational Health and Safety policies can be found in “Health and safety at work”, from this chapter.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
- Customers
- Suppliers and business partners
- Local communities
- Official bodies, supervising entities and local authorities
Engagement Policy
Description of key contents
Aims to promote an organisational culture that fosters high levels of engagement and performance in the Group. Under a knowledge-based engagement methodology, Jerónimo Martins measures and monitors employees’ engagement. The Engagement Policy has the following objectives: i) Build a culture of engagement and commitment to the Group’s Vision, Mission and Values, Strategy and Goals; ii) Deliver a channel, available to all employees, that can assess organisational engagement; iii) Act as a Corporate and Companies advisor by delivering key insights that derive from the engagement results; iv) Support the identification and implementation of strategic initiatives that leverage the culture of engagement and high performance; v) Reinforce Jerónimo Martins’ brand value as an employer of reference.
Most Affected Stakeholders
- Employees
For all policies and codes, the most senior level in the organization accountable for their implementation is the Group’s Chief Executive Officer. Most of the documents stated above are publicly disclosed in our website and here. However, some policies and guidelines are internal and fall under the Group’s claim of omission of information due to “intellectual property, know-how, or the results of innovation”, as described in the ESRS.