Creating a sustainable business is a strategic initiative of Scentre Group. The Group incorporates sustainability into operations through its business plan, which all teams work towards.
Scentre Group has in place a number of governance bodies responsible for the strategic guidance of the organisation. Those bodies are the Board of Directors, the Audit and Risk Committee, the Human Resources Committee, the Nomination Committee and the Executive Committee. Sustainability is managed and implemented by Scentre Group’s:
- Board – among other responsibilities, the Board is responsible for setting and reviewing the strategic direction and overseeing the effective management and operation of the Group.
- Audit and Risk Committee – maintains oversight of the risk management framework, including sustainability risks.
- Executive Committee – operates the business in alignment with the policies set by the Board. The Executive Committee comprises the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer, Director Risk and Internal Audit, General Counsel and operational directors.
The Executive Committee is responsible for the implementation of key sustainable business strategies, and operational teams provide support for the execution of initiatives throughout the business. Scentre Group continues to build sustainability accountabilities in role descriptions at all levels of the organisation, ensuring there is widespread understanding of, and responsibility for our sustainability priorities, both strategically and operationally.
The Executive Committee delegates the implementation of key community, people and environmental strategies to committees composed of diverse representatives from the business ensuring there is a framework of clarity and accountability that enables sustainability considerations to form a key part of all organisational actions.
In 2017 the Design and Construction and Customer Experience Work Health and Safety (WHS) Steering Committees formed a single committee – the WHS Council – allowing for greater alignment of the Group’s safety culture improvement programs. The Council’s objective is to align culture, systems and behaviours to a create a ‘generative’ safety culture. It includes people from each part of our organisation as a truly representative body of Scentre Group. It will develop a charter and a strategy, including initiatives against each of these three core elements while continuing to bring to life the purpose statement of people protecting people.
During the year we also started training our people across the business to adhere to our WHS cultural journey, commitments and expectations and have set up WHS cultural objectives for project and operational teams. We have begun the process of WHS procedural alignment, communications and cultural change. For more details and results of our strategic initiatives, refer to the People section of this report.
The priorities of the WHS strategy revolve around three core elements: visible leadership, workforce engagement and WHS planning and strategy.
The Diversity and Inclusion Council (D&I) meets every two months to support the Group’s aspiration to create a workforce and environment reflective of the communities in which we operate. The Council’s efforts also contribute to ensuring a culture where everyone feels safe to bring their ‘whole selves’ to work and succeed to the best of their ability. Overseeing multiple working groups dedicated to particular D&I pillars, the Council ensures all levels of our organisation are engaged with D&I through Champions of Change, general managers driving agendas through their own management lines, and People Champs.
The D&I Council drives strategies and implements initiatives focussing on:
- Diversity: to attract, recruit and retain a diverse workforce.
- Inclusiveness: to provide a work environment where people feel safe to bring their whole selves to work, one that embraces all the ways in which we are different.
- Awareness and education: to raise awareness and increase commitment to workplace diversity and inclusion across the organisation.
In 2017 the Council focussed on embedding diversity and inclusion into the fabric of the Group’s culture and operations. This was supported by a range of structural initiatives and programs which encompassed D&I as a way of working, driving accountability and empowerment through the organisation.
More details are provided in the People section of this report.