Sustainability strategy
The group’s sustainability strategy prioritises issues that impact its ability to create, protect or enable value across a range of stakeholder groups.
The group’s sustainability objectives support its vision of being the leading health, wellness and beauty retailer in its chosen market segments. This is aligned with the group’s strategy of creating long-term shared value for its stakeholders.
The group recognises the significance of sustainability metrics and targets in addressing long-term stakeholder value concerns and needs. The group aligns its ESG targets to SDG goals and monitors its sustainability performance across its value chain.
The group’s sustainability framework is informed by key material issues identified through benchmarking and important stakeholders’ engagement. This is vital in informing the group’s decision making processes in response to current and emerging social and environmental challenges and alignment to global sustainable development goals.
The group aims to create sustainable long-term shareholder value through a retail-led health, beauty and wellness offering strategy. A key business objective for the group is to ensure sustainability through efficient cash and capital management and adoption of robust environmental, social and governance practices. This requires sustainability integration into decision-making across the group.
As the ESG focus by the investment community and financial services sector increases, progressive ESG performance may increase its access to preferential terms and lines of funding. This has added impetus to the group’s shift to science-based targets for greenhouse gas emissions and its commitment to disclosure in terms of the TFCD.
The group conducted a gap analysis on its TCFD readiness and alignment in 2020 to identify areas for improving its climate change disclosures. This was done within the remit of its governance, risk management and metrics reporting. This was done to communicate the group’s commitment to climate change-related risks to investors. To this end, the group has conducted reporting and target setting exercises, which include:
- TCFD diagnostic report in May 2021
- TCFD action plan in June 2021
- Target setting exercise in terms of the science-based targets in December 2021
- Carbon footprint restatement in May 2022 in alignment with TCFD
- Environmental and climate change policy
The group-wide sustainability effort is further engendered by the strategic drivers of long-term growth that underpins its business practices across the value chain. The group recognises the need to align its business objectives with UN SDGs. To this end the group has adopted priorities that contribute towards alleviating poverty, improving health and education, social inequalities, and economic disparities. This is in addition to tackling climate change and preserving its natural environment.
The group’s sustainability strategy is aligned with the following SDG themes:
