- Ezdehar Management commissioned Environics to perform an Environmental and Social Due Diligence (ESDD) assessment for a leading grocery retailer in Egypt with more than 70 branches in Cairo, Giza and Alexandria in addition to 2 wholesale outlets.
- The ESDD aimed at assessing the performance of the grocery retailer in relation to development and implementation of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Policies and Management Systems, and evaluate its compliance with the applicable regulatory framework including national laws, EBRD E&S performance requirements, IFC E&S performance standards, CDC’s Retail Sector Profile and FAO Hygiene and Safety in the Food Retail.
- Environics scope of work comprised the following activities:
- Document Review: including review of relevant national legal framework, ESG documents and information and guidelines of international organizations as well as stores’ documents and information provided during and after the site visits.
- Site Visits: a sample consisting of twelve stores in addition to the main warehouse were selected for visits. The visits’ activities included reviewing the documents related to the ESDD scope and conducting discussions with key personnel who are familiar with the current system as well as interviews with employees to investigate system communication and implementation.
- Assessment: assessing the capacity of the grocery retailer to comply with the aforementioned standards, identifying gaps to compliance and recommending actions as necessary with implementation; and
- Reporting: preparing the due diligence finding report including an Environmental and Social Action Plan (“ESAP”) describing the actions to be implemented to achieve compliance with the Reference Framework.
