Woolworths Group

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Woolworths Group discloses its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reports against a target to reduce absolute emissions by 63% by 2030 compared to 2015. The targets covering GHG emissions from company operations (scopes 1 and 2) are consistent with reductions required to keep warming to 1.5 degrees and have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Animal welfare
Woolworths Group discloses an animal welfare policy that addresses key animal welfare issues, including within its supply chain, that apply to its relevant key species. Moreover, the company provides sufficient evidence of processes regarding third-party certifications and third-party audits of the key animal welfare issues it has outlined in its policy. To improve its performance, the company can extend this policy to cover its entire value chain and products (beyond its own-label products).

Clear and transparent labelling
Woolworths Group disclose a clear commitment to comply with national regulations regarding labelling. Beyond this, the company discloses that it follows the Health Star Rating front-of-pack labelling system for 100% of its eligible products for its own brands. Moreover, the company has set a target that, by 2025, characters, graphics and activities that could be perceived as primarily appealing to children will only be used on healthier product packaging.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Woolworths Group discloses objectives covering relevant sustainability topics in line with the measurement areas of the benchmark. This includes disclosing its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics through a materiality matrix, which identified 11 material issues to the company. The company has set five goals under people, four under planet and five under product. However, the company does not disclose time-bound targets under the people dimension, presenting an opportunity in future reporting.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has a Sustainability Committee within its board which is responsible for the implementation of the company’s sustainable development strategy. Woolworths Group confirms that accountability for and oversight of its sustainability strategy lies with the highest governance body, which meets quarterly and reviews performance on issues of safety and health, sustainability and community investment. However, no information on remuneration and how it links to the company’s sustainability strategy was found in the public domain.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has disclosed information regarding how it interacts with some of its most relevant stakeholders, specifically in relation to its process for determining its most relevant sustainability issues. However, the company could improve its disclosure by providing an overview of the topics raised by stakeholder groups across environmental, nutrition and social inclusion topics as well as details on how its stakeholder engagement is conducted and how its most relevant stakeholder groups have been identified.’

Food loss and waste
Woolworths Group discloses a target to have zero food waste going to landfill from the company’s operations by 2025 and provides evidence of initiatives already addressing the issue. Moreover, the company reports on its food waste tonnage annually in the sustainability appendix of its sustainability report. However, no evidence of activities to collaborate with value chain partners to prevent food waste was found in the public domain.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
Woolworths Group discloses that, by 2025, it will achieve net-zero supply chain deforestation for its relevant high-impact commodities in its own-brand products. While the company discloses the proportions of some of its high-risk commodities that are currently deforestation-free, namely palm oil, cocoa and coffee, the company does not do this for its current sourcing of soya. Moreover, the company can improve its reporting by disclosing the sourcing regions of every high-risk commodity.

Protein diversification
Woolworths Group provides evidence of efforts to provide plant-based and meat alternatives in its portfolio of products for its customers. The company discloses that it will report on key metrics under this indicator by 2022.

Availability of healthy foods
Woolworths Group demonstrates that it is improving the nutritional quality of products by providing qualitative and quantitative evidence. This includes efforts to make its own-brand products healthier by reducing nutrients of concern, including salt, sugar and saturated fat, and adding more vegetables and wholegrain options to its product portfolio. However, no time-bound targets are disclosed against which progress can be measured for increasing the percentage of these options.

Responsible marketing
Woolworths Group commits to promoting responsible marketing in its activities. This includes adhering to national laws when advertising to children and teens across all media channels, which is aligned with the Children’s Advertising Code. Woolworths Group also provides examples of activities supporting this commitment, such as the fact that 269 stores have been reformatted to highlight healthier options for customers. However, there is an opportunity for the company to provide additional information on how much of its marketing budget is spent on promoting healthy foods.

Food safety
While Woolworths Group confirms its compliance with national regulations on food safety, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by disclosing the percentages of its own operations that are certified to a food safety scheme recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) or other widely recognised industry certification.

Child labour
While the company discloses a commitment to prohibit child labour in its supply chain, no similar commitment was found for its own operations.

Forced labour
While the company discloses a commitment to prohibit forced labour in its supply chain, no similar commitment was found for its own operations.

Living wage
The company recognises living wages as an issue. However, it has not disclosed targets or commitments for paying a living wage across its own operations and supply chain.

Woolworths Group provides commitments and disclosure across most key topics related to respect for human rights as well as evidence of grievance mechanisms for workers and third parties. However, there is an opportunity for the company to improve its commitment towards respecting the human rights of workers. Moreover, while Woolworths Group discloses its processes for identifying and assessing human rights risks in the supply chain and modern slavery risks, the company has an opportunity to increase disclosure on its process for identifying and assessing human rights risks across its operations.

Woolworths Group has in place policies and commitments related to most decent work issues. The company commits to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, ensuring health and safety and supporting collective bargaining. However, the company can improve disclosure on health and safety and collective bargaining. In addition, no sufficient evidence was found of commitments to pay a living wage and regulating working hours.

Woolworths Group addresses all key issues for ethical business conduct through publicly available policies or statements, but these can be strengthened. While Woolworths Group has a global tax policy which has been approved by the board of directors, it could improve its disclosure by increasing its reporting on the taxes paid for each tax jurisdiction where the company is a resident for tax purposes. Moreover, the company could also improve by disclosing its corruption risk identification processes, and by extending its responsible lobbying and political engagement requirements to its supply chain partners also.