Over the past year, we have continued to build on our Corporate Responsibility (‘CR’) strategy. Overall, we have made good progress on our CR journey and continue to drive further improvement across our business, particularly in the areas of supply chain and environmental performance. In addition, and in response to feedback from our stakeholders, we have enhanced the scope of our performance reporting relating to people metrics.
We regard CR as a long-term, sustainable approach to business that seeks benefits for all our stakeholders, be they customers, employees, communities, suppliers, the environment or the Company and its shareholders. We support sound CR policies and practices for good business reasons. Our commitment to CR is not simply a response to increased market attention to this area, but acts as a reinforcement of the way that our business operates on a daily basis. The Board believes that the progressive integration of CR across the Group and the inclusion of broader social and environmental issues into our decision making will help us to achieve our business goals, act as a building block for growth in shareholder value and benefit the communities in which we operate.
