2016 marks the second year of reporting under our 2020 Global Sustainability Framework. C&A is aligned around our global sustainability goals and continues to make progress toward 2020. To access our 2015 Global Sustainability Report click here.
About our report
We've prepared this report in keeping with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Core guidelines, the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Unless stated otherwise, all data relates to our global performance for the calendar year 2016. Our data is based on science; where unavailable, we take a precautionary approach. 2015 is our baseline year for measuring progress against our goals. Where possible, we have compared our performance to that of previous years and reported regional and global figures. We’ve also tried to present a more balanced view; for every major topic we talk about our challenges as well as the progress we’ve made.
Reporting scope and boundaries
As a privately-held company, we do not report on economic performance. We strive to report on all other standard disclosures as specified in the G4 guidelines.
Unless otherwise specified, we report on our entire value chain. We work with our tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3 suppliers to disclose information, where available. We are working closely with supply chain partners to create a closer link between farmers and farm groups and our tier-3 & 4 supply chain.
Uncertainty
We strive to provide accurate and precise data. However, there are inherent uncertainties in certain data sets. All our data has been collected and consolidated with Credit 360. Internal subject matter experts have validated data points. We have used state-of-the-art Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods to calculate greenhouse gas emissions and water use data, however, uncertainties may rise due to the assumptions used in the model.
Read more about our life cycle assessment work
We used data based algorithms to determine the high and low point estimates for our carbon footprint with a standard deviation of 913 tonnes (scope 1), 7256 tonnes (scope 2), and 1.7 mega tonnes (scope 3), respectively. In all instances, we use the best reasonable judgement and industry standards to collect, consolidate, and validate our data.
Standards of practice
When collecting data or calculating impacts, we only use industry recognised or multi-stakeholder developed guidelines and standards:
What we mean when we say...
C&A is a buying and retailing organisation; we do not own our own factories. It is important to understand what we mean when we use the following terms:
Transparency
We believe that being transparent helps to drive better practices across the industry. Transparency is important to our stakeholders and is becoming increasingly important to our customers. In this report, we strive to cover not only positive progress and detailed analyses of our supply chain, but also the challenges that we have faced along the way.
In this light we have been ranked 28 out of 198 brands, including 734 of their suppliers, who were assessed in the third annual Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI).
We collaborate and share information with our partners, suppliers and other brands. Last year, we published our suppliers' tier-1 factory list. This year, in 2017, we have published our suppliers' tier-1 and tier-2 factories in Europe, Brazil, Mexico and China.
For our full list of our suppliers' factories read more here