Fourth Quarter Corporate Responsibility Update

21 March 2012

Sainsbury's recognised with three top sustainability awards

• Named in the Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the World 2012 by Corporate Knights, announced at Davos
• Retained ‘Platinum Plus’ status in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index 2012, the UK’s leading benchmark of corporate responsibility
• ‘Green Retailer of the Year’ at the Drinks Retailing Awards 2012

Other notable achievements included:

• Sainsbury's pledged a £10 million package to the new School Games competition over the next four years to make sport accessible to children of all ages and abilities.
• As the largest Fairtrade retailer in the world, we sold over £12 million of Fairtrade goods during Fairtrade Fortnight, 11 per cent more than last year. 
• £26.5 million payout to colleagues as two of our Sharesave schemes matured. This meant over 11,000 Sainsbury's colleagues shared in the company's success.

Justin King, Chief Executive, said: "It's great to have our achievements recognised with these three awards. We've long believed that our values make us different and our approach of embedding sustainability into our business is continuing to deliver real results. Our 20 by 20 Sustainability Plan, launched last October, provides a roadmap to ensure our customers, colleagues and suppliers can be sure Sainsbury's remains at the forefront of sustainability."

Highlights from the quarter include:

1. Best for Food & Health

• As part of our commitment to the Public Health Responsibility Deal, we are now displaying "2221" barker cards in all our stores to help customers understand the number of units contained in the alcoholic drinks they purchase. We launched a campaign, supported by Department of Health and in partnership with Drinkaware, to help customers manage their alcohol intake, including giving out unit wheels which highlight the units and calories in key alcoholic drinks and sampling lighter alcohol wines. This is part of our commitment to double the sales of our lighter alcohol wine and reduce the average alcohol content (ABV) of own brand wine and beer by 2020.
• We opened our fifth GP surgery in our Newton Abbot store. This offers customers the opportunity to visit the doctor in an easy to access, convenient location. This service is also available in our stores in Heaton Park, Colne, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Bath and has proven very popular.

2. Sourcing with Integrity

• The Woodland Trust announced Sainsbury's as the lead corporate sponsor for the Jubilee Woods Project. Over the next fifteen months we're raising £1.5 million to plant at least 1 million trees. Sainsbury's has already helped plant 825,000 trees since 2004 thanks to donations from sales of Woodland eggs and chicken products.
• Sainsbury's launched QR codes, a quick response barcode readable using smartphone technology, on selected own brand Fairtrade products to allow customers to understand more about the products they buy. This year Sainsbury's celebrates five years since converting all of its bananas to Fairtrade and we continue to be recognised as the world's largest Fairtrade retailer. By 2020, our sales of fairly traded products will hit £1 billion.
• Sainsbury's launched our 100th Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified product, Icelandic line caught haddock, leading the way as the UK's largest retailer of sustainably sourced seafood, as part of our commitment that all the fish we sell will be independently certified as sustainable and we'll strengthen our position as the UK's leading retailer for sustainable seafood by 2020.

3. Respect for our Environment

• In February our changes to labelling guidance on freezing food were widely welcomed by customers; advising them to freeze food up to the product's use by date. The move will significantly reduce food wastage, helping shoppers avoid throwing away over 400,000 tonnes of food each year.
• In the quarter we also announced our investment in Tamar Energy Limited, set up to produce 100 mega watts of organic waste-fuelled green power capacity over the next five years. This reinforces Sainsbury's position as the UK's largest retail user of Anaerobic Digestion and our zero food waste to landfill policy.
• Sainsbury's now has 7 mega watts of solar panels capacity on 115 supermarkets. This is believed to be the largest multi-roof installation in the UK and has been achieved using innovative photo-voltaic technology. It will generate the equivalent electricity to power 2000 homes each year.

4. Making a Positive Difference to our Community

• Sainsbury's pledged a £10 million package to the new School Games competition over the next four years. This initiative, combined with Sainsbury's Active Kids programme and London 2012 Paralympic Games sponsorship, aims to make sport accessible to children of all ages & abilities. This is part of our commitment to encourage over 20 million children to enjoy physical activity in the decade.
• Sainsbury's continued involvement in some of the most deprived communities in the UK was recognised during a visit to Tottenham by HRH Prince Charles. The Prince complimented the work in Tottenham of one of our Business Connectors, Kay Horne, who has been working to bring local traders and community groups together in the aftermath of the riots.

5. A Great Place to Work

• Sainsbury's launched its ' Youth Can' programme to boost retail careers for young people. The idea was put forward by Sainsbury's younger colleagues via our National Youth Forum. The programme will see hundreds of younger Sainsbury's colleagues take their personal experiences out into the community, to talk directly to young people about the huge range of careers available in retail. We are committed to helping the younger generation to find work and careers in retail and we currently employ over 40,000 colleagues between the age of 16 - 24.
• Over 11,000 Sainsbury's colleagues shared in the company's success with a £26.5 million payout as two of our Sharesave schemes matured. We are extremely pleased that over the last six years over £139 million has been shared with colleagues, reflecting their hard work in building value for our shareholders. This is part of our 20 by 20 commitment to increase the number of colleagues with shares in our business by 25 per cent.