Coles Group

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and states the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, the company’s stakeholder engagement covers nature, nutrition, and social issues.

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. Furthermore, it reports consistently against all its sustainability targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company discloses a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 75% by 2030, from a 2020 baseline year. Progress towards these targets is regularly reported. Additionally, the company aims to achieve net-zero by 2050, for its scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions. Further, the company is also making an effort to reduce its scope 3 GHG emissions by 30% by 2030.

Animal welfare
The company discloses a commitment to animal welfare and provides evidence of animal welfare third-party certifications and audits.

Food loss and waste (FLW)
The company has set FLW reduction targets that are in line with SDG 12.3, aiming for a 50% reduction by 2030. In order to prevent food waste, the company collaborates with its Australian suppliers. They achieve this by utilizing produce that would usually go unsold in stores. Instead, this produce is used in the production of other products such as Own Brand zucchini noodles, sweet potato noodles, sweet potato chips, broccoli and cauliflower rice, as well as a range of banana-based products under the Own Brand label.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates its commitment to reducing plastic use and transitioning towards sustainable packaging through various policies and activities. Additionally, they disclose quantitative data regarding their efforts in plastic use reduction and the use of sustainable packaging.

Accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods
The company discloses that in 2021, it provided 28 days of daily online discounts of up to 50%, along with bonus Flybuys, on fresh produce and health-related items, and has expanded its ‘Dropped and locked’ campaign to encompass selected discounted fruits and vegetables.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company discloses its participation in the Australian Government’s Healthy Food Partnership (HFP). In addition, it has stated its commitment to meet the HFP reformulation targets for reducing salt, sugar, and saturated fat in selected Coles Own Brand food and beverage products. Furthermore, the company has disclosed that 75% of eligible Coles Own Brand products have successfully met their respective HFP targets.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company discloses it has adopted the Health Star Rating front-of-pack labelling system.

Workforce nutrition
The company has implemented a nutrition education programme for its employees.

Child labour
The company discloses an age verification system for the workers recruited for its operation and supply chain. Furthermore, it requires suppliers to prohibit child labour. It also discloses how it works with its supply chain to eliminate child labour by showing the remediation steps that suppliers must implement if any instances of child labour are identified.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company demonstrates how it works to improve farmers’ income resilience through long-term contracts, direct supply from the farms and financial support to dairy farmers in its milk supply chain in Australia.

Forced labour
The company has policies against the payment of recruitment fees and it does not hold onto workers’ personal documents or impose restrictions on their freedom of movement within its supply chain. Moreover, it collaborates with its supply chain partners to eradicate forced labour. This includes transparently disclosing how the ethical sourcing team works together with them to provide training on these crucial issues.

Living wage
The company requires its suppliers to pay wages that are enough to meet basic needs and provide some discretionary income for workers and their families and/or dependents.

Act ethically
The company discloses a public commitment to protect personal data. Additionally, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and incorporates anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. Moreover, it has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company’s commitment to worker health and safety is outlined in a publicly available policy statement, and is extended to its business relationships. The company also discloses how it oversees supplier adherence to these standards. Furthermore, it details how it assists suppliers in achieving the payment of a living wage. Also, the company discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements, as well as the proportion for each employee category by age group and by gender. Moreover, its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment is reinforced by its endorsement of the Women’s Empowerment Principles. It discloses that it has 30% women on the board, and sets targets to achieve 40% representation of women in leadership roles, attain a balanced representation of males and females in each function at 30%, and achieve pay parity across genders by 2023.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement expressing its commitment to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights within its operations and supply chain. In addition, the company outlines its process to identify human rights risks and impacts across its operations and supply chain, and discloses the outcomes of its human rights risk assessments.  Furthermore, the company presents a case study that illustrates how it addressed a salient human rights issue, and affirms its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. Moreover, the company indicates it has established a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who could potentially be adversely impacted by the company’s activities.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to non-financial measures but can further link this policy to enhancements in nature-related objectives and social issues. While stating that the board of directors has the expertise in sustainability and climate, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose whether its highest governance body has specific expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics including nutrition, water, soil health, social inclusion, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Furthermore, it could provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets and report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainable development strategy
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and social inclusion, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company commits that 75% of its suppliers by spend, covering purchased goods and services and upstream transportation and distribution, will have science-based targets by FY2027. However, the target should cover all scope 3 emissions. Although the company’s scope 3 targets are aligned with well below 2-degree scenario, there is an opportunity for the company to align its scope 3 emissions targets with a more ambitious 1.5-degree trajectory.

Animal welfare
The company has an opportunity to set animal welfare targets applicable to all species, geographies and products.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose activities and time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

Food loss and waste
The company has an opportunity to report progress against its target to reduce FLW.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to enhance its disclosure relating to water use and withdrawal.

Accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to shift its focus from philanthropic to commercial activities to improve the accessibility of nutritious foods, especially for vulnerable groups. It can also set targets to improve the accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods, with a special emphasis on vulnerable groups.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company currently reports on the sales of Coles Own Brand products that have a Health Star Rating of 3.5 or higher. However, there is an opportunity for the company to set a target to increase the sales percentage from these healthier products.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to disclose the percentage of products for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been rolled out.

Food safety
While the company discloses that it is a member of the Global Food Safety Initiative Australasia Steering Committee, it has an opportunity to demonstrate that 100% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme/certification programme or other widely recognised (industry-specific) certification. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of its food suppliers that have obtained certification from a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Responsible marketing
The company has an opportunity to provide evidence of marketing activities to promote heathier and more nutritious food options (in accordance with a government-endorsed or externally validated nutritional guidelines). Furthermore, it can disclose a responsible marketing policy specifically tailored to children that is aligned with international codes and guidelines and applicable across all media channels.

Workforce nutrition
The company has an opportunity to disclose evidence of the implementation of other workforce nutrition programmes, such as workplace breastfeeding support and healthy food offerings. Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to implement workforce nutrition programmes for its supply chain workers.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations. Additionally, it could provide an analysis of trends demonstrating progress in relation to eliminating child labour from its supply chain.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Forced labour
While the company does not allow the use of recruitment fees for its operations, it could disclose a prohibition to retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Moreover, it has the chance to showcase its efforts in eliminating forced labour from its supply chain by providing an analysis of trends that indicate progress.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company has an opportunity to recognise and assess the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers. Furthermore, it could provide evidence of support activities that improve the health and safety of vulnerable groups.

Land rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights. Furthermore, it could describe a process at its operations and supply chain level to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders when acquiring, leasing or making other arrangements to use land and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Living wage
The company has an opportunity to describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it sources and disclose the percentage of workers across its own operations or direct suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
While the company affirms its zero-tolerance stance towards bribery and corruption and provides guidelines for defining such activities, there is an opportunity for the company to detail the process it uses to identify associated risks and impacts within its own operations.

Moreover, while the company has a policy outlining its political engagement approach, it could also incorporate its strategy on lobbying, and divulge the expenses related to these activities. In addition, although the company already prohibits donations to political parties, it could disclose a policy statement explicitly stating that it refrains from making political contributions other than political donations.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or declare the achievement of such goal. The company could also outline the methodology it uses in determining a living wage for its operational regions. Moreover, the company has an opportunity to disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.