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Sustainability & Governance Priorities

We center our efforts and reporting on our sustainability and governance priorities — the issues that are most important to the long-term health of our business and stakeholders across our value chain. 

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Our approach

Engaging in sustainable practices helps fortify our business as we seek to drive growth for the future. We are committed to and accountable for reporting our progress and continually examining issues that are most important to our business. 

º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ conducts sustainability and governance priority assessments regularly by engaging key stakeholders and seeking their insights to identify, understand and validate key issues affecting our business. 

Sustainability and governance priorities

Climate

  • Greenhouse gas emissions  
  • Climate-related risks and opportunities  

Circularity  

  • Product and packaging design  

  • Waste elimination and reduction  

Resource Use 

  • Environmental impacts of products  

  • Water use and management   

  • Chemicals  

  • Biodiversity 


Human Capital Management

  • Compensation, benefits and well-being  

  • Workplace health and safety   

  • Talent and development   


Diversity, Equity & Inclusion   


Serving and Strengthening Communities   

  • Community impact  

  • Access to products and services  

Ethical Business

  • Public policy and civic engagement

  • Data privacy and cybersecurity   

  • Product safety and quality

Responsible Supply Chains   

  • Sourcing and manufacturing practices   

  • Human rights   

  • Animal welfare 


The Sustainability and Governance priorities identified and categorized in this assessment are increasingly interconnected and can often impact each other. As such, they should not be viewed in isolation. 


Stakeholder engagement

The following is an overview of our stakeholder engagement during fiscal year 2023. This is an illustrative list of topics discussed.

Business partners

How we engage

All vendors 

  • Business Partner Code of Conduct 

  • Capability building 

  • Standards of Vendor Engagement (SOVE) 

  • Trainings and workshops 

  • Vendor portal 

  • Vendor surveys 

Merchandise vendors 

  • Annual assessment 

  • Annual meeting 

  • Regular ongoing meetings 

  • Topical calls as requested 

  • Vendor think tank 

Sample topics considered*

  • Human rights 

  • Labor practices 

  • Materials and resource use, and traceability 

  • Product and packaging design 

  • Setting and measuring science-based targets 

  • Transparency and reporting 

Our response

  • Help our vendors strengthen their social and environmental performance through programs and capability building, and advise them on establishing and executing grievance mechanisms and monitoring performance 

  • Make training and guidebooks available on our expectations for supply chain human rights, ethical business and environmental standards available in multiple languages 

  • Support our vendors’ ability to meet responsible design and material commitments  

  • Engage vendor think tank to address challenges and cultivate new ideas 

Civil society organizations

How we engage

  • Partner visits and community dialogues 

  • Collaborations to advance shared priorities 

  • Contributions through community partnerships and volunteerism 

  • Philanthropic investments 

  • Trust-based philanthropic approach 

  • Select topical engagement 

  • Memberships and coalitions 

  • Participation in conferences and forums 

  • Strategic relationships and consultation on priority issues

Sample topics considered*

  • Climate-related risks and opportunities

  • Community impact

  • Efficiency and energy management

  • Environmental impacts of products

  • Greenhouse gas emissions

  • Human rights

  • Labor practices

  • Materials and resource use

  • Philanthropy

  • Workplace health and safety

Our response

  • Continue our iterative learning process through listening, engagement and collaborations to guide our strategy and goal-setting on our sustainability and governance priorities

  • Focus investments, philanthropy, human and in-kind support to communities º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ serves, including across our stores, global supply chain and logistics (GSCL) facilities, HQ offices in the U.S. and India and in our sourcing communities

Government officials & influencers of public policy

How we engage

  • Direct legislative advocacy as º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ. 

  • Informational discussions with governmental officials. 

  • Advocacy through trade associations and/or in partnership with other companies. 

  • Grassroots advocacy. 

Sample topics considered*

  • Creating value in a global economy

  • Employee scheduling

  • Investments in our team and communities

  • Mitigating the impact of organized retail crime

  • Payments

  • Protecting privacy

  • Securing º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ’s owned brands worldwide

  • Supporting our º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ Forward efforts

Our response

  • Intake and assess policies with both enterprise-wide and community specific impact

  • Advocate at all levels of government to help shape constructive policy solutions that impact our team members, business, industry and communities

Guests

How we engage

  • Corporate website and newsletter

  • Face-to-face interactions in our stores

  • Focus groups

  • Guest insights

Sample topics considered*

  • Community impact

  • Environmental impacts of products

  • Materials and resource use

  • Non-discrimination

  • Product and packaging design

  • Responsible marketing

Our response

  • Elevate and expand how we share our inclusivity and sustainability work in stores and through our digital channels

  • Increase access to sustainable products and experiences through new and enhanced store and digital channels

  • Offer our guests the opportunity to direct our giving funds locally and nationally

Investors

How we engage

  • Annual meeting of shareholders
  • Financial community meeting
  • Participation in conferences and forums
  • Periodic engagements
  • Quarterly earnings conference calls

Sample topics considered*

  • Board and workplace diversity, equity and inclusion

  • Civic activity

  • Community impact

  • Compensation and benefits

  • Corporate governance

  • Equitable supply chains and communities

  • Environmental impacts

  • Financial performance 

  • Human capital management

  • Human rights

  • Philanthropy

  • Privacy and cybersecurity

  • Transparency and reporting

Our response

  • Increase transparency of social and environmental strategy and associated investments, including expanding key data disclosures to demonstrate how our sustainability and governance priorities support long-term value creation

  • Responding to the following frameworks in our annual reporting on sustainability and governance: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework (UNGPRF) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 

Team members

How we engage

  • Community engagement through volunteering, philanthropy and civic participation

  • Daily e-newsletter, team and all-company meetings, social media and speaker series

  • Employee resource groups, diversity action committees and affinity networks

  • Executive leadership emails and videos

  • Focus groups and listening sessions

  • Inclusion acumen training and toolkit resources

  • Integrity Hotline

  • Multi-channel listening program (annual, weekly and topical surveys)

  • Personal and professional development and training

Sample topics considered*

  • Compensation and benefits

  • Community impact

  • Diversity, equity and inclusion strategy

  • Employee well-being

  • Nonpartisan voter information and resources 

  • Philanthropy

  • Strategic progress and business goals

  • Talent and development

  • º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ Forward, º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ’s sustainability strategy

  • Ways team members can support each other and local communities

  • Workplace health and safety

Our response

  • Give our team members equitable opportunities to grow professionally in their careers; take care of themselves, each other and their families; and make a positive impact on our guests and our local communities

  • Extend opportunities, resources and tools for team member engagement

  • Share metrics and information externally, including wages and benefits, to enhance our transparency and accountability

In our annual reporting on sustainability and governance priorities and through the disclosures on our website, we report against topics that are most important to our business and our stakeholders. For purposes of our reporting on sustainability and governance priorities and those website disclosures, we use the Global Reporting Initiative’s definition of materiality, which is different than the definition used for filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Issues deemed material for purposes of our sustainability and governance reporting and those website disclosures may not be considered material for SEC reporting purposes. 

* Organization of topics are listed alphabetically and does not indicate order of priority. 

Issue Advocacy

We engage with policymakers about many legislative issues, and advocate at all levels of government.
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Team Members & Guests

º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ is committed to equitable experiences for team members and guests
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Investor Relations

º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ embraces innovation to drive strong financial performance and create new opportunities for profitable growth.
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Suppliers

º£½ÇÉçÇøÆƽâ°æ works closely with suppliers around the world, together delivering value to our guests while strengthening communities where we do business.
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