Our sustainability strategy encompasses our most material Sustainability topics. It is developed, reviewed, approved and implemented through a robust governance structure with clear oversight from the Board, Audit Committee and Group Operating Committee.
Board members receive a report on Sustainability activities ahead of every Board meeting, as well as an annual in-depth presentation from our Chief Sustainability Officer that keeps them informed about the evolving global Sustainability context, and our Sustainability strategy and performance.
The Chief Financial Officer is executive sponsor of our overall Sustainability programme and the Company Secretary oversees the Group’s Sustainability function. They both sit on the Group Operating Committee, which receives regular updates on Sustainability performance, and on the Executive Risk Management Committee that oversees risk management with oversight from the Audit Committee.
Our Sustainability Steering Committee, comprising executive sponsors and workstream leaders and chaired by the Chief Financial Officer, meets six times a year to oversee our Sustainability agenda. Topics discussed this year included: social impact initiatives, communications and engagement, data security, climate-related items, and Sustainability policies (including updates to our Global Code of Conduct and Supplier Code of Conduct).
Our Chief Sustainability Officer is responsible for ensuring successful implementation of our Sustainability plans across all our workstreams, with support from a central sustainability team, a network of regional leads and regional business units.
The Compliance, Corporate Secretariat, Finance, Government Affairs, Investor Relations and Sustainability teams support monitoring of relevant market and regulatory developments and stakeholder needs, and their potential implications for our business and stakeholders, for discussion by the Sustainability Steering Committee.
The Finance team monitors and prepares for forthcoming regulation in collaboration with the Sustainability team
We develop metrics and goals to support our sustainability strategy and measure progress. The Finance team centrally collates Sustainability performance data for quarterly review by our Sustainability Steering Committee. Principles of data collection are set out centrally and submitted by each region for global reporting.
Our Sustainability data reporting methodologies are published on our online Sustainability reporting hub, together with detailed performance data that we disclose annually.
See our Annual Report for more information regarding our governance approach to Sustainability.