Our Progress

The Sustainability 2017 Vision was launched in December 2007 and 2009/10 represents the second full year of the initiative. Progress towards our Sustainability 2017 aspirations and the group’s other social, environmental and ethical targets is summarised in the table below (click on the table to enlarge it and view the footnotes). We have developed appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs) to enable us to monitor progress and performance. Data is reported relative to a baseline year which, unless stated, is taken as our performance in 2006/07.

Click on table to enlarge and view footnotes

In 2009/10 performance against all our targets has improved relative to the baseline year. Year on year progress (2009/10 versus 2008/09) has also been steady with improvement against all targets except underlying earnings per share (EPS) and electricity consumption. During 2009/10, EPS growth has been held back by the impact of the global economic downturn on our business and the slight increase in electricity consumption resulted from the inclusion of data from three major new manufacturing facilities. Some data sets have been restated from those presented in the group’s Annual Report which was published in June 2010. These restatements have been included following recommendations made during the assurance process for this Sustainability Report. Further details are given in the section on environmental performance.

Achieving carbon neutrality is an important aspiration of our vision and during the year we have continued to develop our strategy to achieve net zero carbon. Further information on our progress is presented in this report in a special feature on carbon strategy.

A more detailed discussion of the group’s financial, governance, social, health and safety and environment performance are presented in this report. In particular, we have continued to work towards quantifying the financial benefits of our sustainability initiatives as an important marker of progress. In 2009/10 we estimate that savings of up to £12 million have been realised as a result of our initiatives.

Top