Sustainable Procurement

Sustainable procurement is an international trend and a concrete practice for companies to demonstrate positive external influence. PCSC has observed global resource depletion and forced labor issues in some developing countries. As a result, it has set sustainable procurement and improving resource sustainability as key projects for the Company’s ESG development. The Sustainable Procurement Task Force was set up in 2021 to formulate a sustainable procurement policy for its private-label products/raw materials, covering raw materials of the Company’s private-label products, coffee and store supplies. Elements such as human treatment, recycling and environmental protection are included in the supplier selection system, prioritizing procurement of raw materials and suppliers that have sustainable certification or meet the principles of sustainability and carbon reduction. Key issues include animal welfare, organic vegetables, traceable agricultural products and so on, providing consumers with the choice to support sustainability in their daily life.

Measures

1. Facilitating Ethical Corporate Management and Sustainable Supply Chain

PCSC includes environmental protection and sustainability-related provisions in supplier agreements, bringing suppliers’ attention to employees and the environment. New suppliers will be required to sign the agreement. In addition, PCSC also lists the sustainability provisions in the evaluation provisions, prioritizing procurement from qualified suppliers, and continuing to promote the importance of sustainable procurement to suppliers.

2. Building a Recycling Model and Continuing to Reward Suppliers with Good Recycling Practices

PCSC takes stock of the carbon reduction actions of existing bulk raw material suppliers, and encourages suppliers to continuously improve resource use efficiency or reduce carbon emissions through the priority procurement mechanism, including boiler improvement, waste recycling, etc. Moreover, demonstration farms will be set up with themes on waste, agriculture and food recycling in the supply chain, thereby building a sustainable agricultural model with customers, convenience stores, suppliers and OEMs. This will be used for further optimizing the sustainable procurement model in the future.

3. Procurement of Sustainably certified Raw Materials

PCSC improves resource sustainability by purchasing sustainably certified raw materials from suppliers. The Company focuses on important bulk raw materials, and gives priority to nine categories including rice, locally grown vegetables, pork, beef, chicken, eggs, aquatic products, coffee and packaging materials. Rainforest Alliance or fair trade certified raw materials are prioritized to increase the source of sustainable agricultural and livestock products through social and market forces. This ensures that the supply chain implements biodiversity conservation policies, protects nature and improve farmers’ lives, as well as reducing the environmental footprint of packaging materials.

4. Procurement of Sustainably certified Store Supplies

PCSC has set the procurement standards for certified store supplies, continued to increase the proportion of paper packaging materials used in the stores with the FSC seal, and will gradually swap packaging materials to FSC-certified products for buns, hot dogs and steamed sweet potatoes.

Future Plans

In 2021, the purchase amount of sustainably certified raw materials for PCSC private-label products account for about 8% of certified procurement. Building on this, PCSC has set a short-term target of more than 9% of sustainable procurement in 2022 and a long-term target of more than 14% by 2030, continuing to increase the proportion of sustainably certified raw materials procurement, as well as replacing regular paper with FSC materials. Looking forward to the future, PCSC will continue to explore more demonstration models of circularity and sustainability as a leader in Taiwan’s retail industry, encouraging the suppliers to raise the level of sustainability through supplier commitment documents and incentive systems. PCSC will exert its influence on sustainability as a retailer to drive the overall supply chain to work together, as well as providing consumers with better choices that are friendly to the environment and society.