Kmart conducts human rights and environment risk assessments and due diligence on an ongoing basis, with a formal review every two years. These assessments are used to identify key material impacts and trends, opportunities for improvement, and to inform long-term target-setting, strategy and action plans.
This risk assessment and due diligence includes:
Industry peer benchmark analysis and gap analysis using international standards and indexes, such as the Global Reporting Initiative, Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Corporate Human Right Benchmark, Fashion Transparency Index, Baptist World Aid Fashion Report and Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs
Interviews and meetings with experts, such as international brand representatives, speciality consultants, trade unions, membership organisations (e.g. Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Better Work), academics, non-government organisations (NGO) and government
Human rights risks assessment workshops led by renowned global experts and drawing on frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
Product life cycle assessments to understand and quantify impacts along the value chain, such as water and greenhouse gas
Third-party audits of supplier factories and facilities against international labour, and human rights standards
Interviews with factory workers as part of the audit and monitoring process.
Engagement with Kmart Group team members, factory workers and contractors via the SpeakUp channel – a confidential hotline for reporting incidents of misconduct.
Assessment of supplier environmental performance using recognised industry tools, such as the HIGG Index and ZDHC Gateway
Participation in academic and NGO research studies and forums.
Customer insights research and media analysis
Surveys, interviews and workshops with our executive leadership team
We prioritise identified human rights and environment risks and opportunities by considering factors such as: scale of impact and opportunity, country-by-country needs analysis, and our ability to influence change.
Given the scale and complexity of many sustainable development challenges, working in partnership with others is at the heart of everything we do. As part of our risk assessments and due diligence, Kmart understands the importance of working in partnership with worker and producer representatives, and gender experts. For example:
Through the ACT Living Wage partnership we’re in formal partnership with IndustriALL Global Union and work at both a global and national level with IndustriALL and its union affiliates on action plans to promote freedom of association, collective bargaining and responsible purchasing practices.
To support our work on more sustainable cotton, we’re a member of the Better Cotton Initiative and are in regular dialogue with Cotton Australia, the peak body for Australia's cotton growers. We use this strategic partnership to discuss and mitigate material human rights and environmental risks, such as modern slavery and water scarcity.
As part of the Better Work program, women worker representatives in our factories in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia are integrated into worker-management committees to ensure that women workers are provided an adequate voice in identifying and addressing human rights challenges.
With our partners BSR, we’re sponsoring the translation of the HER Essentials program into two local languages in India (Hindi and Tamil) to accelerate the digital delivery of the health and wellbeing program to women workers across India.
Our material human rights and environment topics are organised by theme and published on our website, along with measurable targets and action plans. Further detail on how we apply our risk assessments and due diligence to inform prioritisation and strategy can be found under individual topics. We provide annual progress updates on our website and via the Wesfarmers Sustainability Report.
We develop annual (year-on-year) targets in support of our long-term public targets. These annual targets are integrated with the performance scorecards of our senior buying and sourcing team members to ensure ownership and accountability. We track and report progress against all targets quarterly to our leadership team.
At a leadership-level, the performance scorecards of our Managing Director, as well as senior executives, are linked to the successful achievement of our human rights and environment public targets. Environment and social performance indicators make up between 5% to 15% of the total scorecard for these senior executives.