Wesfarmers

Lobbying
The company discloses a list of industry associations that it engaged with in FY 2023.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised in stakeholder engagement activities, as well as its engagement process. The issues it covers includes biodiversity and social issues.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts in relation to its sustainability strategy, and provides evidence that its highest governance body has expertise on sustainability related issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company discloses that its business segment, Officeworks, has supported land restoration and provided habitat for native wildlife by planting over 1.45 million trees across more than 1,900 hectares of land. Further, it reports that it restored 300 hectares of habitat including endangered animals.

GHG emissions
The company reduces its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions.

Water
The company reports a qualitative decrease in water pollution.

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

Act ethically
The company enforces a strict anti-bribery policy, publicly available, mandating that personnel understand and comply with this policy, including not engaging in bribery or money laundering. Transactions must be recorded accurately. It stipulates that suppliers must adhere to Minimum Standards and allows for contract termination if these standards are not met. Additionally, the company provides multiple reporting channels, including email, postal addresses, fax number, and a website, allowing stakeholders to report grievances anonymously or by identifying themselves, ensuring confidentiality and protection from reprisal.

Provide and promote decent work
The company is committed to ensuring the health and safety of its workers, as reflected in its policies that require all suppliers to provide a safe and hygienic working environment, comply with local and national safety laws, and offer regular safety training and necessary personal protective equipment. It performs thorough audits, including site visits and third-party assessments, to monitor compliance, with 67% of sites and 66% of suppliers monitored in the past year. The company supports gender equality, evidenced by its longstanding commitment as a WEPs signatory since 2015, and discloses that 40% of its board members are female.

Respect human rights
The company is committed to continual human rights due diligence, assessing risks across operations and supply chains while prioritising critical areas. It employs multiple monitoring strategies including audits, self-assessments, and supplier visits to enforce compliance with its Ethical Sourcing and Modern Slavery Policy. The organisation collaborates with third-party consultants and cross-functional teams to assess and map human rights risks, using these insights to prioritise actions against the most salient issues such as labour rights, indigenous peoples’ rights, and ensuring safe, fair work environments. Furthermore, the company upholds non-discrimination principles, supporting fundamental rights at work as per the ILO Declaration.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets, as well as potential misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
No evidence found that the company has group wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain. No evidence was found that the company links performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company reports that it requires all natural forest timber products to be independently certified and has disclosed relevant targets, but does not provide details of certification models. No evidence found that the company has a commitment regarding the restoration of ecosystems.

GHG emissions
The company has an opportunity to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and set a time-bound target to reduce it. The company should also report against its all targets, and align them to a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company has not holistically assessed its impacts or how it depends on nature, including biodiversity. It has an opportunity to start such an assessment across its value chains, focused on quantification of its impacts or dependencies.

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 does not disclose key species or areas important for biodiversity affected by its operations or suppliers. It has an opportunity to increase its transparency.

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 commit to avoid developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties. The company is not reducing the production of hazardous waste. The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence regarding plastic use reduction and use of sustainable packaging. The company does not report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. It also does not report metrics on air pollutants, nor set time-bound targets to reduce them.

Water
The company does not disclose relevant information on its water withdrawals. The company does not report its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. The company does not regularly report on water pollution metrics, nor targets to reduce water pollution. The company has an opportunity to publicly commit to the right to water and to provide its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

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
There is no detailed process for identifying bribery and corruption risks at the company, nor a formal policy on lobbying and political engagement. Although it practices transparency in political donations, there is no policy statement on political contributions. The company has an opportunity to define its processes for identifying bribery risks and to develop and disclose policies on lobbying and political engagement to all stakeholders.

Provide and promote decent work
The company provides limited health and safety data and does not disclose how it ensures living wages are met by suppliers. It lacks public targets for gender equality and detailed wage comparisons between genders. The company’s minimal disclosures on wages and gender equality offer an opportunity to establish and communicate clear policies and targets that ensure fair practices and promote gender equality across its operations and business relationships.

Respect human rights
The company expects its suppliers to respect laws related to freedom of association and does not interfere with collective bargaining, yet it does not provide a clear commitment to these rights in all operational contexts. There is also no evidence of a commitment to the broader spectrum of ILO-declared fundamental human rights. The company has an opportunity to clearly articulate its stance on freedom of association and collective bargaining universally and to describe its processes for identifying and addressing human rights risks comprehensively.