Coles Group

Stakeholder engagement
Coles Group discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and describes the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, its stakeholder engagement covers nature, nutrition, and social issues.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Coles Group 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 and reports consistently against all its targets.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company discloses some activities to minimise ecosystem conversion.

GHG emissions
Coles Group discloses its target to reduce combined scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by more than 75% by the end of FY30 from a FY20 baseline. Additionally, its targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Furthermore, the company reduces its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

Solid and air pollution
Coles Group partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Water
Coles Group requires access to water and sanitation, including refraining from negatively affecting access to safe water, to be included in contractual arrangements with its business relationships.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion and community impact area.

Act ethically
Coles Group 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
Coles Group’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
Coles Group 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.

Lobbying
The company does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and social inclusion. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, while the company discloses a remuneration policy related to non-financial measures, it could link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Lastly, although the company states that the board of directors has expertise in sustainability and climate, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics including nutrition, water, soil health, social inclusion, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company does not disclose a commitment to minimise ecosystem conversion or to ensure zero conversion, nor does it have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Furthermore, it does not disclose activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Moreover, the company is not committed to restoring ecosystems and it does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company discloses a target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which currently only includes the company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions. It also states that it 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. The company’s scope 3 targets are aligned with well below 2 degree scenario, as is permissible by SBTI, but should align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company has an opportunity to disclose assessments of its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations and in its supply chain. It also has the opportunity to disclose its dependencies on nature within its own operations and upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
The company has an opportunity to disclose locations within or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity, both in its own operations and its supplier locations. It could also disclose existing species populations existing in or adjacent to both its own and its suppliers’ locations, as well as the conservation status of species identified at its own sites according to national and international lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Solid and air pollution
The company does not disclose relevant information related to pollution in its operations or supply chains.

Water
The company does not disclose relevant information on water withdrawal or water pollution. It has an opportunity to make a public commitment to rights of water.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

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.