CSR Highlights for the YEAR

In the 2008/9 CSR Review, County Road committed to achieving the outcomes listed below in 2009/10. We are pleased to report that each of these has been achieved.

  • establish state fundraising committees to further engage employees;
  • launch Kitetime with Redkite to increase employee volunteering;
  • launch a community partnership in New Zealand (with Red Cross);
  • consolidate our relationship with Red Cross to support their Reduce, Reuse, Recycle philosophy;
  • reduce our environmental impact, by achieving our 2-year National Packaging Covenant Action Plan;
  • measure environmental improvements and further minimise our carbon outputs in line with legislative guidelines;
  • ensure vendors are signatories to the Country Road Code of Labour Practice; and
  • ensure compliance to our labour audit strategy of the vendor base to manage risk.

Additional 2009/10 milestones include:

  • launched Fashion Trade, a clothing exchange programme that raises money for Red Cross and reduces textiles waste to landfill by rewarding our customers;
  • developed a 3-year CSR strategy, measures and targets aimed at enhancing our support to the community and minimising our direct impact on the environment;
  • increased employee and customer fundraising and reusable cotton bag sales;
  • launched first community partnership in New Zealand, with Red Cross;
  • launched Sustainable Packaging Policy and Guideline for designers and suppliers;
  • undertook carbon assessment, which reported good reduction in total carbon footprint (against 2007/8 baseline);
  • achieved a 3.9 rating (out of 5) for first Country Road Australian Packaging Covenant Annual Report;
  • received a Fair and Flexible Employer Recognition Award from Workforce Victoria;
  • became a CitySwitch Signatory, committing to improve head office energy efficiency; and
  • launched an Environmental Code of Practice for the Dyeing, Printing and Finishing of Goods supplied to Country Road.

CSR strategy and philosophy

Country Road’s philosophy and practices have consistently demonstrated a commitment to responsible business. In 2008, Country Road launched an internal CSR Framework, the CRSEE, which encompasses the following vision: “Corporate and Social Responsibility at Country Road is about taking a considered approach to the way we conduct business.  Through our brand and people, we will innovate and create social, ethical and environmental changes in the world we live.“

The CRSEE Framework consists or four focal areas: the community, the environment, ethical sourcing and our people.

In 2009/10, 3-year measures and targets were established with the aim to drive performance in each area, and will be integrated into the Corporate Strategy and divisional plans in 2010/11.

Stakeholder engagement

Understanding and responding to the expectations of our stakeholders – customers, employees, shareholders and others – is integral to how we do business.

In 2009/10, we developed a stakeholder engagement framework, which aims to improve sustainability communication (internally and externally) and risk management and identify new innovative ideas, by actively seeking input from key stakeholders on our CSR strategy and processes. This engagement includes:

  • an employee opinion survey which includes questions on CSR; and
  • annual market research, which includes a number of questions about customer views on CSR.