CEO’s review In progressing our inclusion & diversity strategy, we signed up to the British Retail Consortium’s Charter and committed to its six pledges. We also developed our own inclusion & diversity strategy, called ‘this is me’, with the aspiration that all our colleagues are able to be their true self at work without fear of discrimination. We provided specialist training to all senior leaders across the business and have recently established a series of colleague network groups designed to support and acknowledge diverse communities throughoutour business. We also provided mental health +115% training for all our store colleagues during the year, Digital sales growth to support them in looking after themselves and each other. Having successfully transitioned all our previously +160bps office-based support centre colleagues, including Market share growth the Customer Care Centre, to working from home at the start of the pandemic, we have been thoughtful about how we respond to the relaxing of restrictions. We have listened closely Company’ means that our commitment to net zero to our colleagues throughout the crisis and have emissions is integrated into our company purpose, adopted a goal of ‘feeling at home wherever you metrics and management incentives. work’ for those colleagues who do not need to be in a store or in a distribution centre to fulfil We have established science-based targets for their role. We have redesigned our central office Scopes 1, 2 and now Scope 3 carbon emissions. locations to provide more collaboration space and Over 97% of our emissions fall into Scope 3, which are encouraging teams to adopt the appropriate represents emissions outside of our direct control. hybrid arrangements that work for them. We will We have committed to reduce Scope 1 emissions continue to listen and learn and remain flexible to by 50% in absolute terms by 2030; under Scope ensure we continue to be a great place to work and 2 we will continue to purchase only renewable an employer of choice. electricity; and for scope 3 we are announcing our intention to reduce emissions by 50% in absolute We have found new ways to continue to offer terms by 2030.1 support to charities and our communities during the year, despite the challenges presented Recognising the need for collaboration to ensure by Covid-19. Macmillan has been our main we achieve global emission reduction targets, charity partner since February 2019. During this we are supporting the BRC’s Climate Action partnership our colleagues have taken part in a Roadmap which aims to achieve net zero by 2040. range of fundraising activities and we are proud Additionally, we are members of Textiles 2030,2 that we have raised a total of £1.3m. which is designed to limit the impact clothes and home textiles have on climate change and includes When choosing our new national charity partner targets for water and carbon reduction. for the next two years, we consulted with our colleagues and they overwhelmingly chose Mind, To help us achieve our ambitious targets we reflecting the increasing importance of mental are building capabilities and partnerships to health. Our ambition through this new partnership accelerate both circular sourcing and customer is to create a positive impact that is broader than engagement. We are also making progress on just fundraising. practical improvements, with the introduction of more sustainable product ranges and trialling of As mentioned above, we are deepening our services to support our customers to live more connection with the communities around our sustainably. We are offering more choices in our stores. We ran campaigns through the year to product ranges to help customers care for (and support our local communities, including our repair) products, and we are developing a number ‘delivering joy’ campaign which resulted in over of customer take-back trials. We have set ourselves 18,000 Christmas gifts being donated through our targets to reduce the amount of packaging that stores and support sites. we use and ensure that our packaging is more sustainable. As an example, the packaging Committed to Net Zero Pathway which we use for the mailing bags of our courier- delivered home delivery items is moving to over Sustainability is becoming integrated into our 95% (from30%) recycled content, as well as being thinking at all levels and in all parts of the business, 100% recyclable. and we have moved forward substantially with our plans in this area. Our ambition to ‘Be a Good 1. Scopes 1 and 2 cover emissions from owned sources as well as emissions associated with purchased electricity. Scope 3 includes all other emissions.The baseline year chosen for comparison is FY19. 2. Textiles 2030 is a voluntary agreement, backed by government. Signatories will collaborate on carbon, water and circular textile targets. 22 DUNELM GROUP PLC ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2021