“Start with i” label – CSR Director Marilyn Su took a group photo with the participants, and supported the campaign for green consumption and animal-friendly food.

As an island nation with high dependence on food imports, Taiwan’s food self-sufficiency rate is only about 30%, making it highly vulnerable when extreme climate events impact food systems globally. The Food Systems Summits held in the past, proposed five major action pathways to address the threats brought by climate change: ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all; shifting toward sustainable consumption patterns; enhancing food production practices that affect the nature positively; advancing fair livelihoods; and building resilience against vulnerabilities, impacts, and stresses. In this regard, Carrefour, as a highly influential retailer in Taiwan, has supported local agriculture and livestock industries, leveraging its business strengths to transform food production processes at the source and shift toward more environmentally friendly practices. The Center for Carbon Research and Solution (CCRS) at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) invited Marilyn Su, CSR Director of Carrefour and CEO of Carrefour Foundation, to share how retailers can promote food production that improves animal welfare, land sustainability, and community beneficiary, starting with an “egg”, and lead fellow enterprises onto a path of green transition and shared prosperity.

At the opening of the event, Hung-Jeng Tsai, Director of the CCRS emphasized that sustainable development is not only the responsibility of enterprises but also requires the participation of society as a whole. He stated, "In the process of sustainable transformation, what we are facing is a social transformation that requires collective wisdom. The quality of a society does not lie in its GDP, but in its attitude toward the vulnerables. Doing this transformation alone may be lonely, but when we act together, goodwill inspires kindness. As a group of people do this together, we can then go further and longer, ultimately shaping the spirit of the times.”

Marilyn Su, CSR Director of Carrefour started her sharing with "eggs", explaining the green transformation actions Carrefour did in response to food and environmental challenges.

CSR Director Marilyn Su provided an in-depth analysis of the sustainability challenges Taiwan is facing as an island nation. She pointed out that Taiwan is not only affected by extreme weather, but also with increasingly severe issues of unstable power supply and water shortage, leading to more social risks such as the widening wealth gap, urban-rural disparities, and mental health concerns. All these challenges are interconnected with environmental risks.

CSR Director Marilyn Su expressed her hope for Carrefour to become a “leader in food transformation”. She pointed out that Taiwan’s food self-sufficiency rate is only about 30%, with most food consumption relying on imports, which threatens local farmers’ livelihoods and increases vulnerability during international crises. To overcome the contradictions of food waste and unequal distribution, Carrefour actively collaborates with food banks, donating unsold products from its stores to vulnerable families. She emphasized that supporting local production and consumption, as well as valuing traditional food systems, are crucial strategies for safeguarding food security.

CRS Director Marilyn Su further shared how Carrefour has joined the animal welfare movement. Since 2018, Carrefour has been promoting “cage-free eggs”, advocating for more humane animal farming practices. Traditional caged-egg farmings are unfriendly to animals, hens are confined long-term in cages no larger than an A4 sheet of paper, leading to the routine use of preventive antibiotics. In addition, environmental chemicals are often used for cleaning, increasing the risk of antibiotic residues in eggs. Eggs are also frequently mixed with chicken droppings, and the pre-sale washing process would remove the natural protective membrane on the eggshell, making eggs more perishable. Without a complete refrigeration chain during regular distribution, eggs rot easily and may cause food safety concerns especially in the summer. In contrast, cage-free farming provides welfare-friendly environments where hens can move freely, peck, and rest. Healthy hens produce safer and tastier eggs. Marilyn Su emphasized, “What we put into our bodies must be valued at the source. That’s why sustainability begins with food, starting with a single egg.”
 

Participants actively engaged in discussions, and showed their concern about how enterprises practice food sustainability and animal welfare.

To gain sustainable support from customers, Carrefour launched the “Start with i” label, helping consumers easily identify products that meet sustainability standards, covering ten major categories including organic products, ecological farming, sustainable fisheries, and local production. Marilyn Su stated, “Consumers can choose the brands they like among these products. Once you make that choice, it pushes those manufacturers without the ‘i’ label to begin changing. Currently, out of the tens of thousands of products in Carrefour, only a little over two thousand carry the ‘Start with i’ label. We hope the market will become the most powerful force for change.”
 

The session concluded by emphasizing that sustainable transformation is a key opportunity for service and traditional industries to enhance their value. With the perspective of “our home”, everyone can become a CSR Director, working together to safeguard Taiwan’s future.

This outreach program was organized by the CCRS of National Sun Yat-sen University, aiming to strengthen corporate awareness of sustainable transformation, helping enterprises adopt circular economy and green transition strategies, and establishing concrete and feasible models for sustainable development.

For more information, please visit the "News" page on the CCRS official website.