BUSINESS NEWS - Woolworths Holdings Limited (WHL) has announced its Good Business Journey (GBJ) goals for 2020. Launched in South Africa in 2007, the initiative aims to reduce the business' environmental impact and increase its social and economic impact across its value chain.
The GBJ focuses on improving eight key areas of the business: energy, water, waste, sustainable farming, ethical sourcing, transformation, social development and health and wellness, with over 200 targets supporting this. The GBJ has also realised R567m in cost savings made through sustainability interventions in the company and its supply chain to date.
GBJ 2020 – new markets, new targets, new initiatives
For the first time, the group’s GBJ 2020 targets will incorporate the WHL international businesses, including the rest of its African operations, David Jones and Country Road Group, extending the knowledge and experiences gained in South Africa across borders.
GBJ 2020 – new markets, new targets, new initiatives
For the first time, the group’s GBJ 2020 targets will incorporate the WHL international businesses, including the rest of its African operations, David Jones and Country Road Group, extending the knowledge and experiences gained in South Africa across borders.
In Australia, WHL will be introducing formal sustainability scorecards for David Jones and Country Road Group towards the last quarter of the 2016 calendar year, aligning the GBJ programme across all its Southern Hemisphere operations.
The WHL Group GBJ 2020 commitments are a progression of its earlier journey and include:
The GBJ 2020 scorecard incorporates traceability and the development of responsible sourcing strategies for high risk commodities including palm oil, cocoa, sugar, soy, cotton, leather and viscose.
- Contributing over R3.5bn across the group to communities over the next five years;
- Saving 500-billion litres of water over five years;
- Ensuring the company halves its energy impact by 2020 and achieves 100% clean energy by 2030;
- Driving responsible sourcing of all key commodities by 2020; and
- Affirming that every private-label product sold has at least one sustainability attribute by 2020.
The GBJ 2020 scorecard incorporates traceability and the development of responsible sourcing strategies for high risk commodities including palm oil, cocoa, sugar, soy, cotton, leather and viscose.
It will also incorporate an improved animal welfare rating system and responses, and make significant progress in eliminating hazardous chemical usage across the clothing supply chain.
