Research project
36 | monthsSUSCOM

How to assess the sustainability of food companies

Related toSpoke 07

Principal investigators
Luigi Corvo
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Task involved

Task 7.1.1.

Unveils the economic determinants of food choice and management focusing both on consumers’ behaviour - also considering the perceived value of food - and on companies’ practices and decision processes.

Task 7.4.1.

The last decades have seen a surge in policies promoting healthy and sustainable diets. T74.1 will: (1) review existing ex-post evaluations of public policies at the international level; (2) generate new evidence, using robust methods, evaluating international, European, and Italian national, regional policies.

Project deliverables

D7.1.1.2.

Report on retailers’ and alternative food networks potential interventions to promote sustainable and healthy food products (M32)

D7.4.1.1.

Report on evidence-based policies (M34)

Interaction with other spokes

State of the art

The agrifood sector is being asked to respond to the new European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which changes how European companies report on their sustainability performance. This Directive also states that, beginning in 2024, an increasing number of companies will be evaluated based on actual ESG Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosures. This will change companies’ practices and decision processes and their relationship with the consumer.

Operation plan

The research focuses on analysing the European CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) implications from a managerial perspective  for the food companies:  
1) documental analysis (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and benchmark with other disclosure framework);
2) literature review on sustainability assessment models for the food industry;
3) development of a sustainability framework model toolkit for the food companies that includes the regulatory requirements and that its integrated into business processes. 
The expected outcome areas of assessment are: economic, social, environmental, governance, cross-sectoral influence. Test of the assessment model on food companies that engage in alternative food networks.

Expected results

This action aims to provide a model to perform a systemic and longitudinal analysis of agricultural enterprises' sustainability performance. This analysis will produce a sustainability rating index model that will be tested on a sample of companies.