Environmental, social, and governance (ESG)

Improving ESG performance is an integral part of our strategy.  As a FTSE100 company, we recognise and embrace that our scale enables us to make positive, lasting changes. 

Overview – climate change and environment

“Reducing our collective environmental impact to protect the future”

Environmental stewardship is of critical importance to our Group – from local to global. Climate Change (in particular the reduction of carbon emissions) and responsible water usage are integral parts of the ‘E’ element of our ESG strategy. Our continued progress on management of climate change-related issues is recognised by CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project) – the largest global platform providing independent, comparative analysis of both Climate Change and Water Stewardship strategies.

JD Group retained its ‘A-‘ grade in the ‘Climate Change’ category for a fourth successive year. Two grades above sector performance. Our Water Stewardship score of ‘B‘ also reflected the huge progress being made by our Private Label teams in terms of reducing water usage from raw materials sourcing to goods manufacturing to product ‘end of life’ decisions.

We are a committed member of the RE100 (moving to 100% renewable energy usage in Europe by 2022, global by 2025). JD Group submitted its Science Based Targets which were approved in 2022.

We support the necessity for a resilient, zero-carbon future to reduce the impact of climate change, slow the worrying growth of extreme weather events, while enabling quality employment, and inclusive, sustainable growth.

We are proud of our achievements to date - from improving conditions for workers in our supply chain to increasing our efforts (and those of our suppliers) to reduce the impact of climate change.

We understand that there is still so much more that we can do. Our ESG committee governs our approach to sustainability, including such critical topics as Climate Change, Sustainable Sourcing and the Circular Economy.

Social

People experience & global empowerment

We strive to create a workplace in which everyone is safe, supported and respected, treated fairly and taken care of, listened to, and motivated to achieve their full potential. This is achieved by educating, informing and responding to our colleagues, delivering a consistent colleague experience.

These are values that we do not just promote internally, but ones which we want to enact upon within our local communities and empower urban youths around the world. We want to support our consumers as they support us. The JD Group takes its responsibility a global business extremely seriously and aims to promote ethical values and behaviours to provide opportunities and assistance to those who need it most.

Governance

”Reducing our collective environmental impact to protect the future”

The Board’s role is to ensure that the JD Group is led in a manner which protects the long term interests of its shareholders, while balancing and promoting the interests of its other key stakeholders – including its employees and suppliers. The Board promotes the principles set out in the UK Corporate Governance Code 2018, as issued by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) (the ‘Code’), and monitors the effectiveness of JD Group policy and performance relating to environmental, social and governance matters.

To find out more about Our Committees, Our Policies and Tax Strategy, please visit the relevant sections on our website.

Our board

Board composition and diversity

The JD Board recognises the importance of achieving meaningful change in the levels of diversity within the Board, the senior leadership team and across all levels of the Group.

The Board welcomes the initiative and focus of the Parker Review and will engage with the Parker Review, as appropriate, just as it did with the Hampton-Alexander review in recent years. The Board strives to build a diverse and inclusive team and to promote a diverse and inclusive culture throughout the business. The Board is pleased to confirm it is fully compliant with both the Hampton-Alexander and Parker Reviews.

It is the Board’s strong belief that if colleagues feel supported, respected and empowered to achieve their ambitions and develop regardless of background, this will ultimately promote the long-term success of the Group.