Sodexo Broiler Chicken Welfare Aspirational Roadmap

Sodexo remains vigilant in working with our supplier partners along with seeking information from multistakeholder working groups and allied industry partners to further review and support the welfare of broiler chickens. We continue to evaluate new developments and research being conducted by members of our supplier community, industry support groups, as well as that being published in peer-reviewed research publications to identify opportunities to enhance our understanding of broiler production methodologies and management practices, broiler behavior, avian physiology, and the interaction of these areas with environmental sustainability, production efficiencies, producer economic viability, and social impact within the surrounding community with the ultimate goal of continuing to champion advancements in broiler welfare without unintended consequences to other responsible sourcing initiatives. We will continue to work to achieve the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) and below is the roadmap to achieve the goals by 2028. We will share our progress and update this roadmap annually.

Our roadmap for enhancing the welfare of broiler chickens has the following components:

• Meet or exceed BCC recommendation of 3” of friable litter by the end of 2024.
• Providing chickens with environments that contain physical enrichments by the end of 2025.
• Provide chickens with environments that comply with BCC lighting guidelines by the end of 2025.
• Have 3rd party auditing in place by the end of 2028.

Other components such as stocking density, controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) and breed/genetics are complicated areas of change for the industry, and it is extremely important to work collaboratively as well as understand the impacts that recommended changes will have on other important sustainable sourcing initiatives such as continuously reducing carbon footprint with the aspirational goal of becoming a carbon net zero producer in our systems. The changes associated with these components have multiple factors at play, including availability of technology, additional climate impacts, capital investment, and research and innovation. Due to these complexities, these areas remain in focus, but require additional understanding of the aforementioned interactions and complexities to meet BCC’s aspirational goals by the end of 2028.

For each of the areas outlined above, we will continue to work with our suppliers to discuss and monitor interim goals. As part of our annual reporting cycle, we will track and report our progress according to this aspirational roadmap and update our roadmap as market factors and supply may alter our annual goals.

We will continue to collaborate with our industry partners, including our suppliers, multistakeholder working groups, and academic and research leaders, to explore opportunities to continuously enhance broiler chicken welfare in a manner that is in harmony with all our strategic sourcing initiatives.

Progress of our U.S. broiler chicken welfare as of May 2023.

Broiler Chicken Welfare Component	% of Spend
Litter	79%
Enrichments	5%
Lighting	22%
3rd Party Auditing	<1%
Stocking Density	20%
Controlled Atmosphere Stunning	<1%
Breed	0%

Below is a roadmap of our aspirational targets as they relate to BCC goals over the next 5 years.

BCC Component	May 2023	2024*	2025*	2026*	2027*	2028*
Litter	79%	100%
Enrichments	5%	15-50%	100%
Lighting	22%	50-70%	100%
Party Auditingrd3	<1%	10-30%	50-60%	60-70%	70-80%	100%
Stocking Density	20%	21%	22%-80% Continue to follow the evolution of information in this category and partner with suppliers to progress towards BCC’s goals**			100%
CAS	<1%	1%	2% -80% Continue to follow the evolution of information in this category and partner with suppliers to progress towards BCC’s goals**			100%
Breed	0%	1%	2%-80% Continue to follow the evolution of information in this category and partner with suppliers to progress towards BCC’s goals**			100%

 

*These annual goals to be achieved by December 31 of the given year.

** The changes associated with these components have multiple factors at play, including availability of technology, additional negative climate or CO2 production impacts, capital investment, and research and innovation. Due to these complexities, these areas remain in focus, but require additional understanding of the aforementioned interactions and complexities to meet BCC’s aspirational goals by the end of 2028. This could fluctuate depending on what is available from suppliers and our current demand.