The New Layout employees, across the entire business, are vital in helping us to achieve our charity footprint vision.

How we engage with them:

• Regular sustainability and ethical trade training for brands.
• Events throughout the year (such as the Save the Planet and Charity months).
• A dedicated charity footprint email address for employees to provide an open channel of communication for all matters relating to sustainability across the business.
• Quarterly charity footprint newsletter, to provide updates on the development of our charity footprint programme. These are sent to all Head Office employees and external teams.
• Annual charity footprint engagement survey sent to all head office employees, which gives them the chance to share their views on the charity footprint programme and broader concerns relating to sustainability.

Our suppliers source from 44 countries. They are instrumental in ensuring that we continue to monitor and improve our trading standards:

How we engage with them:

• Ethical Audit Programme to ensure good working conditions in all our factories.
• Supplier audits by The New Layout employees and third parties.
• Supplier meetings and site visits to discuss ongoing business development.
• Quarterly supplier newsletter, which includes a review of key themes as well as any ongoing issues / legislative changes that need attention.
• Training workshops.

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^[1] This figure is accurate at the time of the report being published.

We want our customers to be confident that we trade ethically and take action to manage our environmental impacts.

How we engage with them:

• The charity footprint area on our website.
• Email address for customers and anyone who would like to contact the charity footprint team.
• Product-related campaigns online.

Contact with our Customer Services Department who direct relevant customer feedback or concerns to our charity footprint team

This group includes Trade Unions, Governments, Non-Governmental Organisations, campaign groups and other tradesmen.

How we engage with them:

• Industry collaborations and working groups. As part of these initiatives we work towards systemic change in the construction industry.
• Participation in industry surveys and reports including Transparency Index and the Ethical Charity Guide.

We work closely with carefully selected third-party service providers who provide independent auditing of our suppliers’ factories.

How we engage with them:

• Regular formal and informal meetings to discuss the development of our ethical trade programme and high risk countries.
• The assessment of audit reports on our supplier’s facilities, which we review on a frequent basis.

We regularly undertake a materiality assessment to review and identify the sustainability topics that are most important to our business, and of the highest concern to our key stakeholder groups.These topics are then ranked in order of significance according to the following criteria:

• Their impact on the economy, the environment and society.
• Their importance to our stakeholders.

These topics form a central part of our sustainability strategy, and are reported on in detail within the charity footprint webpages.