About this Report
This report details Musgrave Group initiatives and actions in the implementation of our Environmental Policy Charter (2000) through which we are endeavouring to create a more environmentally sustainable business.
The report is a record, in this context, of the calendar years 2004 and 2005, as defined in the scoping statement here. This is our fourth report (our last report was published in 2004 based on data for the calendar years 2002 and 2003), and we believe that it is a positive step forward in the quality of our reporting.
Musgrave Group is satisfied that we continue to improve on the standard of our reporting since the last report, and we recognise that the standard and quality of our disclosure must continue to improve as our business and the information requirements of our stakeholders grow.We have identified our core stakeholders as our shareholders (family and employees) and executives, our employees, our suppliers, our customers (i.e. retailers), and consumers (i.e. shoppers in our stores). We have, for the purposes of this report consulted with all these stakeholder groups on materiality issues for the content of this report; and we are pleased that the outcome of those discussions has led, this time, to a more rounded report (see Stakeholder Consultations).
This report is divided into three separate sections, which we feel accurately reflect how we have managed environmental issues taking account of our impacts, namely:
- Economic Performance,
- Environmental Performance, and
- Social Performance
Interspersed in these sections are descriptions of how we have progressed in the implementation of our Environmental Policy Charter, published in 2000, as well as some dialogue on how we will progress these issues (as well as others) in our recently revised Environmental and Social Accountability Policy. In future, we will use the revised policy as our touchstone for our progress toward sustainability.
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ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE:
In this section we detail, from a business perspective, how our company has progressed financially
during the reporting period, as well as detailing the changes within the structure of the company
in that timeframe.
ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE:
This section addresses our environmental performance in relation to: (i) Energy in Buildings,
(ii) Energy from Transport and (iii) Waste Management, within our business.We also report
our data on climate change and pollution emissions arising from each of those facets of our
operations.We have detailed resource use, major impacts and sustainability initiatives
undertaken during 2004 and 2005 at our retailers' stores, and in our distribution centres and
cash & carry outlets.
SOCIAL PERFORMANCE:
This section gives details of the company's record on human resources management,
employment statistics and communications and training of our staff.We describe some of
our employees' involvement in initiatives through which our company has achieved
environmental and social improvement.
We also deal with our interactions with the world outside our company - our retail partners, our
suppliers, our consumers and our contribution to public affairs.
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REPORTING FRAMEWORK AND STANDARD
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an international, multi-stakeholder effort to create a
common framework for voluntary reporting of the economic, environmental and social impact
of organisation-level activity. This report has been prepared using the 3rd Revision (Draft) of
the GRI Guidelines (G3) as a framework. While, at this time, there are no criteria for reporting
'in accordance' with this framework, we have successfully met the 'in accordance' criteria of the
2nd draft of the GRI Guidelines.
We have used the GRI Sector Supplement in relation to Logistics and Transport for reporting on our transport fleet and have also referred to the GRI Boundary Protocol to assist us in defining the Scope of our Reporting Process.
By continuing to report 'in accordance' with the GRI Guidelines, as we did in our last two reports, we believe that we are reporting to the highest possible standard, and that we are allowing readers to compare our sustainability efforts with those of other companies throughout the world. We are reporting on 100% of the G3 GRI indicators (both core and additional).
DATA REPORTING & MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
In reporting our Emissions Data we have used 2001 Emissions Factors (for Thermal Emissions, for
Electricity Emissions and for Transport Emissions) for all reporting years (for comparativeness of
data, i.e. to avoid 'claiming' any improvements in emissions attributable to other parties). The
Emissions Factors used were taken from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, the OECD,
Sustainable Energy Ireland and the Irish Electricity Supply Board (ESB). International defaults were
used for transport efficiencies,where specific facility data was not available.
ASSURANCE STANDARD
Musgrave is committed to independent verification of the information we report.We
instructed our assurers, csrnetwork, to undertake their assurance audit of this report with
reference to the open-source AA1000 Assurance Standard.We believe this standard to be
worldwide best-practice in this regard.
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SCOPE OF BUSINESS AND REPORT BOUNDARY
This report discloses information on the activities of Musgrave companies in the Republic
of Ireland (RoI), Northern Ireland (NI) and Great Britain (GB) in the implementation of our
Environmental Policy Charter (2000). We are reporting on the activities of:
- Musgrave SuperValu-Centra (RoI),
- Musgrave SuperValu-Centra (NI),
- Musgrave Wholesale Services (RoI and NI),
- Musgrave Budgens Londis (GB),
- 'Own Stores' (NI) and
- 'Own Stores' (GB).
The information reported is based on data gathered for the years 2004 and 2005, unless where specified. For elaboration purposes,we have also included some information on initiatives and projects undertaken in 2006.
We are confident that this report represents just over 96% of our business (it was 95% in the last report), based on turnover in 2005. We have not reported on our Spanish business in this reporting cycle.
We feel that we have reported honestly on the 'real' impact of our company, in that we have included the 'outsourced' transport logistics,where practicable, within our transport data. Furthermore, during this reporting period, we have removed more of our suppliers' transport logistics (initiated some years ago through our backhauling process) by integrating it in our own business operations. [See the feature on 'New Distribution Depot for MSVC']
Our acquisition of the Londis business within GB has also increased the effective geographic boundary of the report, in that our Logistics now covers effectively all of the GB territories, compared to our Budgens business, which was based in South East England, heretofore.
We have also endeavoured to focus on issues 'outside' the recognised company 'boundaries' in this report. For instance, we have reported on our retailers'wastes, through our successful initiative on waste contracts; and we detail our negotiations with our suppliers to streamline commercial packaging.
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