Officeworks has released its People & Planet Positive report, covering the first year of progress against 2025 community and sustainability commitments.
Officeworks reduced Scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions by 7.2% on the prior year, representing a 32% reduction since 2015. The first phase of the onsite solar energy rollout commenced as part of its commitment to move to 100% renewable energy by 2025.
Further, the business recycled 91% of its operational waste and reduced waste sent to landfill by almost one-third (32%) as part of its commitment to become a zero-waste business. The annual equivalent of 6.7 million pieces of plastic were removed with the goal of having all packaging either reusable or recyclable.
Providing a safe workplace for all team members remains a key focus and was reflected in TRIFR (the frequency of recordable work-relatable injuries or illness) of 6.1, which was a 22.8% improvement on the prior year.
Ensuring the team reflect the communities in which Officeworks operate is a key component of the Diversity and Belonging Plan with Indigenous team members now representing 3.8% of the team.
Together with customers and partners, Officeworks supported 7,525 students through partnerships to improve educational outcomes, provided $6.44 million in community contributions to local and national causes, planted 794,000 trees and restored 1,500 hectares of land through the Restoring Australia initiative and collected 1,474 tonnes of unwanted products to be recycled, repaired or repurposed.
“Our role in helping drive positive change across social and environmental issues is more important than ever,” Officeworks managing director, Sarah Hunter said.
“The past year has presented challenges that impacted all parts of our business but the safety and wellbeing of our team and customers has remained our absolute priority. We have significantly increased our focus and investment in this area during the global pandemic, resulting in our safest year ever.
“Our success against our People & Planet Positive 2025 commitments is shared and our achievements are only possible thanks to our team, customers and partners. As we look ahead, we know some of our goals are ambitious, but we’re committed to making a lasting, positive difference by putting people and the planet at the heart of what we do.”