THE ENVIRONMENT

Climate change and resource scarcity are widely recognised as complex global challenges affecting businesses and their supply chains and we take our responsibilities in this area seriously. During the year we have measured our total value chain emissions and set a new target to reduce these emissions by 55% by 2030. We are starting to work with our supply chain to understand and implement the sourcing decisions which will help make a real difference on climate change and you can read more about what we are doing in

OUR PRIORITIES

Our priorities for our key operational activities are to:

* Work with suppliers to reduce the environmental impacts of the products we sell

* Improve energy efficiency and identify further opportunities to reduce energy use in our buildings

* Work to increase the amount of waste diverted for recycling and identify opportunities to minimise the waste produced

* Increase the efficiency of our owned delivery fleet

* Offer services for customers that make use of their products when they no longer need them

* Identify opportunities to further improve the sustainability of our packaging and reduce its use

MEASURING OUR CLIMATE IMPACT

We aim to make our operations more efficient and work to reduce our impact through reducing energy consumption and waste. Our direct carbon footprint includes emissions from:

* Stores and warehouse

* Distribution of products to retail stores or customers’ homes, third-party vehicles, delivery of online products to International customers via third-party providers

* Waste from our stores, warehouse & Head Office

* Business travel – by Oxford employees globally including air, rail and road travel

* We actively track energy performance

* At our Head Office, warehouses and 50% of our stores, it is our intention to have building management systems installed. These will manage key functions such as when lighting and air conditioning is activated, directly helping to manage consumption

*LED lighting is fitted as standard in our stores

MEASURING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Our priority is to work to improve energy efficiency as this reduces both carbon emissions and costs for our business. During the year we have:

* Continued to roll out LED lighting installations in existing retail stores. LED lighting is fitted as standard in new stores

* Undertaking increased monitoring of electricity consumption in our stores whilst closed due to COVID, leading to identification and resolution of any usage anomalies

* Continued to work closely with our energy provider and other parties to actively identify opportunities in energy efficiency measures and technology to help reduce our environmental impact and deliver savings for the business

DISTRIBUTION EFFICIENCY 

* The transport and distribution of products in Australia and to online customers accounts for approx. 25% of our CO2e emissions. Our approach is to use vehicles as efficiently as possible to support both our retail and online businesses, which has been especially important during a year where more customers started to shop with us online.

* We are continuing to investigate alternative fuel options, including electric vehicles.

PACKAGING

Packaging is essential to protect products from damage. In some cases, reducing packaging may create more damaged and waste products, so it is important that the right balance is found.

Our approach is to:

 * Eliminate unnecessary or problematic packaging without compromising on quality

* Increase the recyclability of packaging by working towards all packaging being reusable or widely recyclable

* Reduce the environmental impact by working to eliminate more damaging materials such as PVC, acetate and polystyrene which are more difficult to recycle

* Develop plastic packaging with a minimum of 30% post-consumer recycled content