We are committed to offering inspiring solutions that meet the evolving challenges faced by society. We operate ethically and work to improve the quality of life for those who are touched by our business, now and for future generations.

Our companies in the United States and Europe have a long heritage in the food retail business, and deep connections with the communities and societies in which we operate. We believe the key to being successful is to continuously track trends in society and translate them into relevant information and inspiring solutions for our customers. Our businesses have been doing this for more than a century and we apply that same capability to CSR. We see this as one of our major strengths, now and for the future.

As a large food retailer, our business impacts the lives of millions of customers every day who come to us to fulfill one of their most basic needs. We have a significant opportunity, and responsibility, to make our impact a positive one for our customers as well as our other key stakeholders - our employees, suppliers, the financial community, and the communities we serve.

As with every area of our business, our CSR approach is based on our insight into the needs and concerns of our stakeholders with whom we work to develop mutually beneficial, long-term relationships. We focus on initiatives that make a difference in their lives.

• On this page:
• Our approach to CSR
• Gaining insight by listening to others
• Sharing best practices
• Our objectives
• CSR Coordinating Committee
• Managing our activities
• Target setting

Our approach to corporate social responsibility

Ahold's mission as a company is to make it easy for customers to choose the best. We believe that we can make our offering relevant by giving people the opportunity to choose from inspiring solutions based on solid information. We are continually implementing solutions in CSR to meet the changing needs of consumers and society.

Our CSR objectives need to be relevant, achievable and fully integrated into the business in order to be successful. We work according to the "Triple P" concept, integrating the interests of people, planet and profit.

Gaining insight by listening to others

The challenges of CSR are highly complex, and we recognize that we have much to learn from others, both inside and outside of our business. Our CSR objectives grow from external research, studies on global trends, and dialogue with our key stakeholders. This dialogue takes the form of formal partnerships with organizations and governments as well as informal communications that happen at conferences or other events, or in the course of everyday business. > Read more

Sharing best practices

Our ability to tap and share expertise among our operating companies helps us to efficiently provide solutions that address trends in our markets. We apply this same model to our approach to CSR.

Our operating companies have varying levels of expertise in different areas related to CSR; as a result, companies with more experience can act as initiative leaders and develop solutions to our shared challenges. Initiatives that prove successful can then be applied to our other operating companies, with adjustments for the local market.

Our objectives

At the start of 2007, Ahold reorganized its CSR activities around four main themes we believe address the trends that are now, and will be for years to come, most relevant to our business, important to our key stakeholders and where we see the most opportunity to make a positive impact. > Read more

CSR Coordinating Committee

In 2007, we created the CSR Coordinating Committee to help guide our CSR strategy. Made up of specialists from each of our operating companies and the Corporate Center, its purpose is to aid Ahold's Corporate Executive Board in driving and prioritizing CSR activities across the group.

The CSR Coordinating Committee, which meets on a regular basis, also works to maximize the impact of our CSR efforts and make the most of Ahold's scope and scale by ensuring that expertise and information about our CSR activities are widely shared throughout the operating companies. > Read more

Managing our activities

Most of Ahold's CSR activities are managed locally, with operating companies responsible for developing their own programs and activities to address the specific needs of local stakeholders.

Our operating companies have also established, or are in the process of establishing, committees dedicated to making further progress on each of the main themes in Ahold's CSR strategy.

Target setting

Now that we have defined our focus areas for CSR, the CSR Coordinating Committee is putting processes in place to collect information that we can use to track and evaluate our performance.

The coordinating committee is also working with our operating companies and their senior management to help us establish CSR performance targets and indicators.

In line with our commitment to integrate CSR into our business, the targets will become part of our regular business reviews with operating company management teams.