Transcription of WH Smith PLC
1 Corporate Responsibility report 2014WH Smith PLCA bout this reportThis is our 9th published Corporate Responsibility report, covering our social, environmental and ethical performance for the year 1 September 2013 until 31 August 2014. It is an annual report issued alongside the WH Smith PLC Annual report and accounts 2014 and published in December of this reportThis report focuses primarily on the continuing activities undertaken by our retailing operation in the UK and Ireland. The impacts resulting from franchise operations and international stores are excluded from this report. Some of the data reported is not exactly aligned to the year ended 31 August 2014 but is reported for a consistent period each year. Other variances in reporting boundary are highlighted in the relevant is the report written for?
2 Our report is written to provide information to a wide audience, which is interested to understand how WHSmith is performing in terms of managing the social, environmental and ethical impacts of our have aimed to provide both general information for our stakeholders who want to understand how we manage our performance as a responsible company, as well as more detailed technical data for those requiring more in-depth information. The report is published on our website at , where it is also available as a PDF. In addition, a summary of the report and the PDF of the full report are also available to our employees via our of report contentKPMG LLP ( KPMG ) have been engaged to provide assurance over selected aspects of this report for the reporting year ended 31 August 2014.
3 A copy of their independent assurance report can be found on page feedbackWe welcome your comments and feedback on our corporate responsibility performance, either through our website or by writing to Head of Corporate Responsibility, WH Smith PLC, Greenbridge Road, Swindon SN3 to WH Smith PLC s 2014 Corporate Responsibility report1 GovernanceAbout us 2 Management and accountability 3AA1000 AccountAbility Principles Standard 3 Our stakeholders 3 Continuous improvement 5 Benchmarking our performance 52 Environmental managementManaging our carbon emissions 6 Reducing energy consumption 7 Improving transport efficiency 7 Waste management 8 Tar get s 93 Responsibility in the marketplace Customer focus 10 Responsible sourcing 13 Forest sourcing 13 Ethical trading 14 Tar get s 154 Workplace practiceEngaging with our staff 16 Learning and development 17
4 Diversity 18 Health and safety 20 Tar get s 215 Community impactSupporting local high streets 22 Championing literacy 23 WHSmith Group Charitable Trust 25 Products for charitable causes 26 Fundraising with staff and customers 26 Measuring our community investment 27 Targets 276 AssuranceIndependent assurance report 28 ContentsFind out more at to WH Smith PLC s 2014 Corporate Responsibility reportThe last year has seen WH Smith PLC deliver further profit growth, demonstrating the continued success of our strategy in both our High Street and our Travel businesses.
5 I am pleased to report that, at the same time, we have also made good progress with our corporate responsibility strategy. At WHSmith, we believe that a commitment to the principles of corporate responsibility makes good business sense and naturally complements our core business strategy, and our recent results provide clear evidence of focus on managing the issues which are most material to our business and to our stakeholders and seeking to deliver gradual but continuous improvements in performance every year. Our approach continues to evolve, informed by and responding to key issues, ranging from climate change to deforestation and from healthy lifestyles to factory define our responsibility under four key headings: Environmental management, Responsibility in the marketplace, Workplace practice and Community impact.
6 This report details the progress made under each of these impact areas, together with the progress we have made towards our 2020 change is a key focus for WHSmith, as it is for so many other businesses, and we are taking steps to reduce our carbon emissions where we can. A series of incremental changes to lighting and refrigeration are helping us to deliver material savings. Since 2007, we have achieved a 38 per cent reduction in our CO2e per square foot. Another global issue which is central to our CR work is deforestation. Since 2010, WHSmith has sold over 44m units of Forest Stewardship Council-certified books and stationery, giving our customers reassurance that these products are from sustainably managed sources. We are also proud to have funded the planting of over 150,000 trees with the Woodland Trust, funded through our carrier bag reduction one of the UK s leading stationers and booksellers, another major theme for us is literacy, which continues to be at the heart of our community investment strategy.
7 This year we started a new project with our long-term partner, the National Literacy Trust, which has seen WHSmith stores partnering with schools in a project which uses peer learning to help change the school s literacy culture. It is an exciting project, both for the impact on literacy levels, as well as the strong links we are beginning to develop between local WHSmith stores and the partner the year ahead, we will continue to work towards further improvement in all aspects of our CR performance, listening carefully to the expectations of our stakeholders and making a positive contribution to our overall business Clarke Group Chief Executive, WH Smith PLCW orkplace Community Marketplace EnvironmentAssurance1WH Smith PLC Corporate Responsibility report 2014 GovernanceIntroduction by Stephen ClarkeWH Smith PLC Corporate Responsibility report 20142 About us WH Smith PLC is one of the UK s leading retailers and is made up of two core businesses Travel and High Street.
8 WHSmith has a presence in a wide range of locations including airports, train stations, motorway service areas, hospitals and UK high streets, with a growing international business. WHSmith reaches customers online via and its specialist personalised greetings cards and gifts websites, and Overall WHSmith employs approximately 14,000 staff. WH Smith PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SMWH) and is included in the FTSE 250 sells a range of products to cater for people on the move or in need of a convenience strategy is to be the leading retailer in convenience, books and news for the world s travelling at 31 August 2014, the business operated from 725 units (2013: 675 units) mainly in airports, railway stations, motorway service areas, hospitals and workplaces.
9 129 of these units (2013: 94 units) are outside the Street sells a wide range of Stationery, Books, Newspapers, Magazines and Impulse strategy is to be Britain s most popular high street stationer, bookseller and at 31 August 2014, the business operated from 604 High Street stores (2013: 615 stores), located in almost all of the UK s major high Trading profit is stated after directly attributable share-based payment and pension ser vice charges and before allocation of central costs, interest and taxation. 2 High Street and Travel trading profit are stated after directly attributable share-based payment and pension ser vice charges and before allocation of central costs, interest and taxation. WHSmith TravelWHSmith High StreetSales Profit2 684m 58m(2013: 726m)(2013: 56m)Stores 604(2 013: 615)Sales Profit1 477m 73m(2013: 460m)(2013: 66m)Stores 725(2013: 673)Workplace Community Marketplace Environment GovernanceAssurance3WH Smith PLC Corporate Responsibility report 2014 GovernanceAA1000 AccountAbility Principles Standard+We align our CR programme and reporting with the A A1000 AccountAbility Principles Standard (2008).
10 The principles are:Inclusivity: Including stakeholders in developing our approach to : Assessing the CR issues most relevant for our business to act and report : Responding to the material concerns and issues relevant for our business and are descriptions of how we meet each of the three principles. These processes will be continuously improved in line and as part of our CR stakeholders: identification, engagement and responsivenessWe identify our stakeholders as those that we affect and those who affect seek views from our stakeholders to help us shape our individual initiatives as well as our overall approach. This includes a wide range of groups including customers, staff, local communities, suppliers, policy makers and non-governmental organisations.
