Enhance environmental focus

Woolworths’ goal is to support biodiversity protection and accelerate water, soil and environmental conservation programmes thereby saving more than 30% of our current direct water usage

Woolworths will reduce the business’ impact on the natural world through the following initiatives:

Organic and free range

We will continue to accelerate Woolworths organic and free range** journey, delivering the following by 2012:

• triple the sales of organic food and clothing;
• R1 billion rand sales on organic cotton by 2012; and
• developing a South African organic cotton pipeline.

** Whilst Woolworths acknowledges that free range farming may have a greater impact on the natural environment than traditional battery farming, Woolworths is committed to balancing the environmental impact with a clear focus on animal welfare issues.

Healthy eating and lifestyle programmes

Woolworths’ good food journey is a multi-faceted, long-term commitment to addressing issues such as care for the environment, animal welfare and consumer food issues – meeting the increasing demand for food that is safe, healthy and produced minimal damage to either the environment or other species.

This programme will be accelerated to:

• offer our customers more healthy food options;
• Phase out, as far as possible, the use of hydrogenated vegetable oils, and hence trans fatty acids (Note: This applies to trans fatty acids produced by the hydrogenation process, and not those found in nature);
• assist customers to make more informed food choices by providing full nutritional information;
• continue to improve the health benefits of our core food range;
• develop foods with specific health benefits; and
• expand the nutritional educational programme through the MySchool programme and parent talks.

Accelerate environmental programmes

Promote environmentally-sound farming methods:

• ensure that our conventional produce farmers migrate to organic production or environmentally-sensitive farming methods; and
• extend the food group’s Eco-Efficiency Awards programme for food suppliers to the whole business – setting these awards to drive more sustainable practices.

Reduce water usage and manage waste water and water effluent - water being one of South Africa’s most scarce natural resources:

• reduce Woolworths relative water consumption unit by 30%;
• work with suppliers to reduce water used and improve waste water management during the growing, production and manufacture of our products; and
• entrench our strict code of conduct regarding dyes (including the removal of Azodyes), chemicals and water management in our supply chain.

Biodiversity

Woolworths commitment to preserving South Africa’s biodiversity and managing the impact on the world’s natural environment is core to the Good business journey.

Woolworths will:

• ensure that key raw materials come from the most sustainable sources possible in order to protect the environment and the world’s natural resources including:
   
  • only sourcing wood which is recycled or independently certified as coming from approved sustainable sources (e.g Forest Stewardship Council - FSC):
  • selling only fish certified as coming from sustainable sources (e.g Marine Stewardship Council – MSC-sources); and
  • introduce wide ranges of hemp, bamboo and soya fabrics.
• reduce the impact of production on the natural biodiversity:
   
  • work with experts to resolve wildlife/human conflicts e.g. the hive-raiding honey badger (resolved), predators which attack lamb thus distressing sheep farmers;
  • sell no product or by-product of threatened species:
  • be one of the first major retailers to partner with the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative and use their red/amber/green colour coding system to indicate threatened species;
  • work on a sustainable solution for potato farmers in the Sandveld:
  • encourage wine farmers in the Cape floral kingdom to be members of the Biodiversity and Wine (BWI) initiative;
  • shift conventional farmers to adopt environmentally-sensitive farming practices – reducing their impact on the environment.

Reduce and recycle packaging from source through to customer

Woolworths is committed to reducing packaging to the minimum necessary to protect, inform and promote the product. This will be supported by an intensive customer education programme. The packaging shift will start with reduction where possible, and include a focus on recycling, reuse and compostable packaging:

Reduce

• reduce packaging to little more than the essential requirements of product protection and information;
  
  
  • Reduce clothing packaging by more than a third;
  • Reduce food packaging by 20%;
  • Eliminate excess packaging and offer more bulk packs;
• decrease food plastic bag usage by encouraging customers to use reusable bags;
• reduce clothing plastic bag usage where possible;

Recycle

Stores and product

• Increase the amount of recycled plastic in clothing and home bags to 100% and in food bags to 50%;
• Set high targets for the inclusion of recycled material into all product packaging;
• Ensure that our entire fleet of trolleys and all in-store shopping baskets are made from recycled material;

Distribution

Move to a target of zero waste-to-landfill from distribution operations – although Woolworths operations produce relatively little waste for landfill due to the use of re-usable lugs for the movement of food products and the predominant use of recyclable cardboard packaging in clothing, where operations do produce waste such as pallet wrap waste on longlife and frozen goods and plastic dust covers for clothing, Woolworths will work closely with suppliers to review alternative packaging resulting in further reductions in packaging waste, and in completely recyclable packaging; Customer waste recycling Woolworths will introduce a nation-wide programme supporting the recycling of our customers’ waste and we will work with our local recycling industry to develop the demand for recycled product, ensuring a market for recycling in South Africa. The Woolworths customer programme will include education through stores and schools, using in-store communication and the MySchool programme, and we will work closely with partners in the recycling and retail sectors, as well as our suppliers, to heighten awareness and reduce the customer waste-to-landfill. This commitment will include:

• A consumer waste recycling pilot project in the Western Cape in 2007. Upon assessment of the pilot, a national consumer waste recycling project will be considered for implementation in late 2008;
• Additional educational material for inclusion in the MySchool curriculum and improved education and awareness through the MySchool programme; and
• Facilities for the recycling of customer waste in design specifications for all new buildings (stores and corporate buildings) e.g. recycling bins in shopping centre.

Reuse

• Restrict packaging materials to those that can be recycled locally;
• Put symbols on plastic packaging to help customers and recyclers easily identify packaging for sorting;
• Involve and influence the packaging industry to develop more sustainable materials; and
• Recycle all store equipment including food trays and hangers;

Compost

• contribute to the investigation of compostable packaging solutions