Strengthened by shared values in favour of health and naturality, nearly 300 food supplement companies have joined forces to form France’s first mission-driven sector (‘filière à mission’).

A commitment to health and the environment

Gathered within Synadiet, the food supplements industry has become France’s first mission-driven sector by adopting a common purpose and common objectives shared by its members.

Its purpose (‘raison d’être’) is to contribute to preserving and improving people’s health while reducing its impact on nature. To achieve this, these companies are committed to offering quality products and services that help to protect and improve people’s health, while also working to reduce the industry’s impact on nature through concrete actions.

Amplify the movement initiated by mission-driven companies (‘sociétés à mission’)

Created in 2019 in France, the ‘société à mission’ status represented a turning point towards a more sustainable economy by going beyond the single profit-making definition of a company. About ten companies in the food supplements industry have already adopted this status. The creation of the mission-driven sector amplifies this positive dynamic by initiating a positive knock-on effect for the various players in the entire sector, based on a shared vision that complements companies’ individual strategies.

A structured, targeted and controlled commitment

As for ‘Sociétés à mission’, a project coordinator has been appointed and an annual mission report will be published and assessed by an independent third-party organisation to guarantee the impact of this approach. In a spirit of continuous improvement, monitoring the progress of mission objectives and indicators will provide evidence of the progress made by operators in their commitment to health and the environment.

For Bénédicte Duchamp, Strategy and CSR Manager at Utopies, which helped the industry to draw up its mission objectives, ‘this mission-driven sectorial approach is truly new. It demonstrates the industry’s ambition to make progress on these issues and to monitor that progress. It’s a concrete way of monitoring what the industry has already started to do and how it can continue to improve the impact of its activities on human health and the health of ecosystems’.

An inspiring model for other industries

While the number of mission-driven companies in France has just exceeded 2,000, the creation of the first mission-driven value chain opens the way to a complementary commitment at sector level. By structuring a collective ambition around health and the environment, the food supplements industry hopes to inspire other sectors to follow this responsible and committed dynamic.

According to Nicolas Cappelaere, President of Synadiet, ‘by becoming France’s first mission-driven sector, we hope to help spread a sustainable economic model in which health and the environment become shared priorities’.