Scentre Group provides information to stakeholders on its sustainability performance through various voluntary and mandatory reports:
- 2017 Sustainability Report
- Corporate Governance Statement and report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency
- Carbon Disclosure Project submission
- Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark submission
- National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting on energy and emissions for operating assets in Australia
Organisational boundaries
Scentre Group is a vertically-integrated business which designs, constructs and operates the pre-eminent portfolio of Westfield branded shopping centre assets in Australia and New Zealand. The scope of this report covers assets owned and operated by the Group, including shopping centres, related commercial buildings and our major development, design and construction projects during the reporting period.
Scentre Group owns over half of its shopping centre portfolio in joint venture agreements with co-owners. Assets that are jointly owned and operated by Scentre Group are considered under its operational control. The performance of these assets is reflected in this sustainability report. Scentre Group also works with the world’s leading retail brands to create a unique shopping and leisure experience for customers. The impacts of suppliers, service providers and tenants are external to our shopping centres and are excluded from this report.
Approach to reporting on material aspects
Scentre Group’s 2017 Sustainability Report contains standard disclosures as prescribed by the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines. Our GRI G4 content index provides a summary of these disclosures and their location within our report. The content of this report is informed by our stakeholders’ views and interests in various aspects of Scentre Group’s performance in the environmental, social and economic areas. Decisions related to the preparation of this report are consistent with the GRI G4 principles for defining report quality:
- Balance: both favourable and unfavourable year-on-year results are presented.
- Comparability: this report includes historical information for Scentre Group, to enable year-on-year comparison of performance. There have been no significant changes to the organisation during the reporting period.
- Accuracy: Scentre Group is committed to maintaining best practice in relation to the measurement, calculation and reporting of sustainability performance data. The Group strives to use actual third party information, however, whenever estimates are used, references to the methodologies employed are made available. Reporting processes are in alignment with applicable global reporting standards and documented in methodologies to ensure consistency.
- Timeliness: Scentre Group will continue to report on its sustainability performance indicators annually, using the same period as its financial statements. This report is for the period 1 January to 31 December 2017.
- Clarity: Scentre Group provides sustainability performance information in various formats (case studies, quantitative data packs, GRI G4 content index) across a range of reporting platforms to ensure the specific information relevant to each stakeholder group is more easily accessible.
- Reliability: The information presented in this report is subject to extensive review by the organisation’s most senior executives. A number of indicators covering energy, greenhouse gas emissions, water and waste have been externally assured by independent assurance providers Ernst & Young.