The Waitrose way

In 2010/11, Waitrose felt it was time to consolidate its CSR thinking and refine its CSR strategy. We call this the Waitrose way. It covers the four key areas that really resonate with our customers: championing British, living well, treading lightly and treating people fairly.

As a business, we need to ensure that everything we buy and sell not only looks and tastes delicious but is also sourced responsibly, with care for the environment and the suppliers with whom we trade. It is what our customers expect from us and what we expect of ourselves. We want to reassure our customers that just by shopping with us they are doing the right thing. The Waitrose way provides a clear and simple mechanism to communicate this message.

Championing British

The Waitrose way

We believe in always bringing people British food and produce at its best and in celebrating British seasonal food at its very best.

Our seasonal food policy commits us to stocking and clearly promoting British products in season both in-store and through wider communications. Championing British starts at home: the Partnership has its own working farm on the Leckford Estate in Hampshire.

We have a part to play in finding long-term solutions to food security, climate change and other issues affecting future agricultural production. We are sponsoring the Chair of Sustainable Agriculture at Aberystwyth University, and the establishment of a Centre of Excellence for UK Farming (CEUKF), helping the UK food sector to meet the increasing challenges of production and sustainability.

The CEUKF was formed in 2010 and coordinates a growing network of expertise and partners. It has begun practical work to benchmark Sustainable Efficient Production at farm level, to enable the development of practical tools to promote best practice.

Living well

The Waitrose way

Waitrose believes that eating well should be enjoyable. We provide a wide range of imaginative and nutritious choices to inspire people to eat more healthily.

In line with our three-year nutrition strategy, refreshed in 2009, we have extended our reach by introducing our cookery school and improving the nutritional profile of our own-brand products. For example:

• we have made it easier for customers and Partners to eat more healthily through the introduction of LOVE life – a range of nutritionally balanced foods

• our nutrition team continues to provide practical help and advice consistent with adopting a healthier lifestyle, through our publications and online

• we actively consider the nutritional profile of products during development and throughout the product lifecycle.

We are also actively engaged with the Public Health Responsibility Deal – an agreement between the Government, industry and health organisations, containing a set of goals to improve public health.

(Photo of Quentin Clark)

“ Whatever we touch, we aim to make better. For us, this is just the way we do business. While other businesses struggle to reconcile ethical values with commercial realities, we find them inseparable from our definition of a good, healthy business.”

Quentin Clark, Head of Sustainability

and Ethical Sourcing, Waitrose

Waitrose is supporting The Prince’s Countryside Fund, set up to secure a sustainable future for British agriculture and the wider rural economy. The Fund’s logo appears on all our own-brand milk and Duchy Originals from Waitrose products to communicate this commitment to our customers.