Responsible advocacy
Working with our partners
For over 50 years, Danone has been committed to creating a positive impact through its Dual Project, which is about creating both shareholder and societal value. By collaborating with a diverse ecosystem of partners, Danone aims to build a more sustainable and resilient future. Collaboration not only strengthens relationships but also ensures that we create value for all our stakeholders, both in terms of economic and social value.
Key principles
We are committed to responsible lobbying and advocacy practices that recognize the role of governments in policymaking, and support inclusive and democratic decision-making, in compliance of regulations and laws. We advocate for evidence-based policies in line with our commitments captured in our sustainability roadmap, the Danone Impact Journey. Our goal is to ensure balanced decision-making that considers stakeholder interests and maintains regular dialogue.
We believe that corporate advocacy, when done with integrity and accountability, can support good policymaking, create partnerships for greater impact, and lead to better outcomes for all stakeholders. This is why, beyond respecting lobbying legal frameworks and codes of conducts in the countries we operate in, we advocate and strive for higher transparency and accountability standards. Our engagement of stakeholders is governed by a number of internal policies including Danone’s Code of Business Conduct, Danone’s Code of Conduct for Business Partners, Danone’s Integrity Policy, and Danone’s Advocacy Policy.
Danone interacts with a wide range of stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, healthcare professionals, public officials, and NGOs. As a global company, we engage stakeholders at global, regional, and local levels to understand their views.
Stakeholder engagement
Our employees
Danone’s success in bringing health through food relies on the passion and commitment of our nearly 90,000 employees. We build strong relationships with employees through continuous engagement and dialogue. We provide many opportunities for employees to share their views with us, including listening to union representatives and maintaining an open dialogue about their expectations.
Danone’s strategy is notably shaped by the Danone People Survey, which allows employees to express their beliefs and ideas. This survey measures engagement, well-being, and inclusion, driving the Danone of tomorrow.
Our suppliers
We work with a diverse supplier base that includes smallholder farmers, startups, and multinational enterprises. We strive to build trust-based, win-win relationships with all these partners. This is fundamental to our ability to source the right products and services for our value chain, and deliver millions of products to over 1.5 billion consumers worldwide every year.
Healthcare professionals
As we continue to learn and discover more about the critical role of nutrition in health, disease, and recovery, our interactions with the healthcare community are essential to ensure that the products and services we develop are based on medical needs anchored in the latest scientific research. Danone maintains an ongoing relationship with healthcare professionals through its medical representatives, who meet with general practitioners and specialists (nutritionists, dieticians, pharmacists, pediatricians, allergists, oncologists, geriatricians, etc.).
When engaging with healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions, we do so in line with our Danone values of being a socially responsible business, guided by the highest ethical standards. We believe by doing so we will continue to earn and strengthen the trust of our external stakeholders and employees while protecting our long-term business performance.
We believe that engaging with the healthcare community on factual and scientific grounds in an open and transparent manner is essential to impacting health for the better. As we learn from one another, our collective contribution to health will be greater.
HCS Compliance Policy
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- hcs-compliance-policy-2022.pdf
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- application/pdf
Public officials
Danone interacts with public officials including policymakers and regulators to help inform laws and regulations that are relevant to our business, consumers, and patients.
By providing expertise and collaborating with public officials in a transparent, legitimate, and ethical manner, Danone can help support improved outcomes for all stakeholders.
In their relationships with government officials and policymakers, Danone employees must act in an honest, fair, and transparent way at all times using good judgement and common sense.
Danone employees in contact with public officials are regularly trained on the rules and principles they must follow.
Danone does not engage in political contributions in any form including in-kind contributions, nor does it support political parties, candidates, or any groups that promote a political party’s interests.
- External reporting of our lobbying:
- European Union Transparency Register
- French Haute Autorité pour la Transparence de la Vie Publique
- US Lobbying Disclosure Act – search for Danone North America
Non-Governmental Organisations
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and civil society actors are crucial in policy and public debates, in both sustainability and business advocacy. Danone has a shared interest – and responsibility – in finding solutions to public health, social, and environmental challenges the world is currently facing. We regularly consider the perspectives of NGOs and collaborate with them to share best practices and insights, maximizing positive impact on the environment and communities. This collaboration is essential for tackling systemic issues like reducing carbon emissions and transitioning to regenerative agriculture.
Some of Danone’s key impact partners include B Lab , Ellen MacArthur Foundation , Environmental Defense Fund , the Global Methane Hub , World Business Council on Sustainable Development and RAMSAR.
Danone Code of Conduct for Business Partners 2022 - EN
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- code-of-conduct-for-business-partners-2022.pdf
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Collective action
Trade associations
Danone is a member of numerous trade associations, which can be industry sector-based or topic-based, at local, national, regional, or international levels. We publish a list of Danone’s memberships in trade associations, organizations, multi-stakeholder coalitions, and business platforms in our Danone Advocacy Policy (Appendix 1). This list is updated annually and is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of update.
Danone will not tolerate any governance conflict of interest within its different trade associations’ activities and is fully compliant with the competition law rules that apply to trade associations’ activities.
We are conscious of the importance of alignment between our own public positions on societal and sustainability priorities like climate action, and those of the trade associations we are a member of. As outlined in our Danone Advocacy Policy, we have developed internal guidance and training for our teams to detect and address any occasions of misalignment.
Coalitions
Danone also works actively with coalitions such as the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform, OP2B (One Planet Business for Biodiversity), the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, and the Dairy Methane Action Alliance. In addition, we collaborate with peers to accelerate and scale the transition to regenerative practices in the food and beverage sector.
Innovation
As part of our Renew Danone strategy, Danone aims to enhance its innovation model for greater scale and impact, with partnerships playing a crucial role. In 2024, Danone plans to double its global partnerships through the Partner for Growth program, driving co-innovation across the value chain. By collaborating to meet consumer needs, Danone is focused on developing superior, healthy products while integrating sustainability by design. This progress is fueled by innovation, improved competitiveness, and efficiencies throughout the value chain.
Partner for growth
Partner for Growth is a key enabler of Renew Danone’s strategy. It’s Danone’s new approach to identify and develop strategic partnerships to drive greater innovation and efficiency, and scale-up new solutions on sustainability challenges.
We live in an increasingly connected world so by building an ecosystem of partners we can leverage our respective strengths – and through this collaborative network, we can create shared value. What’s more, it’s how we’ll stay ahead of emerging trends, serve our customers and consumers better, and unlock sustainable growth.**