Governance of sustainability

Blue Label Group is in the process of developing an ESG and sustainability reporting and oversight framework that will assist the Board in exercising oversight of sustainability-related impacts, risks and opportunities as well as the process for integrating sustainability issues into the strategy development, overall governance as well as reporting processes of Blue Label.

A number of initiatives were undertaken during the year including:

• A review of sustainability reporting impacts, risks and opportunities with a view to incorporating these into Blue Label’s risk management systems;
• A gap analysis against the JSE Sustainability Disclosure Guidance issued in June 2022 was performed and has informed some of the enhanced content of the 2023 integrated report and future planned disclosure improvements;
• A review of the sustainability skills, experience and competencies of Board members was performed with a view to identifying development areas; and
• Continuation and refinement of ESG metrics and targets included in our long-term incentive scheme. A proposed structure of Board Committees responsible for oversight of sustainability matters has been presented below:

				Executive Committee
	Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee	Remuneration and Nomination Committee	Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee	Human Capital	Risk and Compliance	Company Secretary Office
Environmental
Climate change			√		√
Water security			√		√
Pollution and waste			√		√
Biodiversity and land-use			√		√
Supply chain and materials			√		√
Social
Labour standards			√	√
Human rights and community development			√	√	√
Health and safety			√	√	√
Customer responsibility			√		√
Supply chain (Social)			√		√
Governance		√
Board composition			√	√		√
Ethical behaviour		√		√	√	√
Remuneration				√
Compliance and risk management	√				√
Tax transparency	√				√
Sustainability reporting
Reporting standards	√		√		√
Assurance	√		√		√
Materiality	√		√		√

Ongoing initiatives to integrate and embed sustainability in our governance, strategy, reporting, business and management processes include:

• Enhancing the work plans and terms of reference for Board subcommittees to create focus and integration on sustainability-related issues;
• Formalisation of sustainability-related issues in the risk management system, strategy and policy development as well as internal and external reporting;
• Further inclusion of sustainability linked performance targets in long-term remuneration incentive schemes;
• Continued alignment of external reporting with the JSE Sustainability Disclosure Guidance as well as global reporting frameworks; and
• Consideration of training and specialist input on material sustainability matters.