Comprehensive Analysis of Wesfarmers' Corporate Social Responsibility

This report provides a comprehensive review of Wesfarmers' corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. It begins with an introduction to CSR and Wesfarmers' business model, then examines the company's sustainability practices, including diversity, employee development, ethical sourcing, and community contributions. The report highlights specific examples of Wesfarmers' CSR efforts, such as the adoption of natural refrigerants at Coles and investments in solar energy by Bunnings. It also addresses instances where the company faced criticism, including controversies related to Richard Goyder's stance on the Business Council of Australia and the accounting scandal at Target. The report concludes with an overall assessment of Wesfarmers' CSR performance, considering both its successes and failures.

Name
College

A review of Wesfarmers social responsibility........................................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Corporate social responsibility?............................................................................................................4
Sustainability of Wesfarmers.................................................................................................................4
Corporate social responsibility features of Wesfarmers........................................................................5
Particular instances for and against the company in social corporate roles..........................................9
Natural refrigerants are set standard at Coles.....................................................................................9
Bunnings continuous solar investment..................................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................................................10
References.......................................................................................................................................10
Goyder and BCA facing the criticism....................................................................................................11
Accounting scandal of Target..............................................................................................................11
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................12
....................................................................................................................................................12

A review of Wesfarmers social responsibility
Introduction
It is imperative to say that in today’s world, corporate social responsibility agendas of a
company can make or break their business’ future. No matter if it is the subway or it is
McDonald's, all sorts of companies are being forced by their customers to e more
environment-friendly and be more healthy. Companies such as coca-cola are facing tough
times in order to maintain their same consumer base and expand it at the same time with the
pre-existing principles and products. This is why they are in a continuous process of changing
themselves and being more socially responsible and healthy. Today, the company we would
be covering is Wesfarmers.
A company which has its origin in the West Australia and was booted up in 1914 and has
ventures in different sectors such as department stores, supermarkets, liquor, convenience
stores, office supplies, fertilizers, department stores, industrial and safety products. The main
principle or motive of Wesfarmers is to provide all its stakeholders with a good an handsome
return. The aims of the company are as follows:-
a. Providing a safe and fulfilling environment for all its employees
b. Satisfying the customers through quality products and services
c. Contributing in the growth and productivity of a country and seeking out
opportunities for the unemployed section of the country
d. Having a strong emphasis on maintaining the environment around the vicinity of
our factories and office centers.
e. Maintaining integrity and honesty while doing both internal and external tasks related
to the company.

Corporate social responsibility?
We can define CSR as something which helps companies in minimizing adverse effects for
all the stakeholders and hence, achieving tall the goals of organization keeping in mind the
welfare of the environment. Wesfarmers CSR addresses various imperative issues related to
environment and stakeholders (McGraw, 2013).
(Wesfarmers.com)
Sustainability of Wesfarmers
After going through the internet regarding the company, we came across lot of positive points
related to Wsfarmer and the way they have been managing their human force as well as other
assets along with environment and we would be discussing them in detail in the next section.
Let us discuss them in concise over here.
a. People
b. Diversity
c. People development
d. Community contributions
e. Product safety

f. Climate change resilience
g. Waste and water use
h. Ethical sourcing
These were some of the salient features regarding Wesfarmers and we have listed them down
over here which concern corporate social responsibility.
Corporate social responsibility features of Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers for its employees
People
Safety. Wesfarmers have a robust system for its employee's safety and also for all the visiting
parties, suppliers, and stakeholders safe at all different sites. The good thing about
Wesfarmers has been that they have kept safety as one of their objectives in all the previous
corporate social responsibility. Risk reduction processes, safety leadership and improvising
safety at all times seems to be their agenda. Diversity. It is important to say that before the
safety comes to the process of choosing employees and it is great to see that Wesfarmers have
been able to maintain diversity as their first basis of choosing employees. This has given
company enough stars from the employer's side and Wesfarmers is regarded as one f the hubs
for employees to land at. As per Wesfarmers, there can be broadening of skills, experience
from this pool of knowledge, family responsibilities and family etc. improves innovation and
improving and last but no the least, a responsible corporate citizenship. People development.
Wesfarmers has always focussed on giving its employees opportunities to improve their
careers and it is to be noticed that every one Australian out of 60 Australians is currently

working for Wesfarmers and to be more precise, every child under 20 out of each 17 children
is working for Wesfarmers.
(Wesfarmers.com)
Sourcing
Ethical sourcing. Major sourcing of Wesfarmers is from outside Australia and from
countries such a China, South Korea, USA, Europe, India. One should understand that depth,
breadth, and interconnectedness of different supply chain that issues such as child labor,
freedom of association and forced labor becomes challenging aspects to take care of. We
ensure that all are suppliers adhere to strict ethical business conduct and then these issues if
occur are dealt with strict and liable actions (Evans, 2015).
(Wesfarmers.com)

It is essential to notice that human rights and modern slavery statement of Wesfarmers cover
all the salient steps which have been stated in the section 54 part 6 of United Kingdom's
Modern Slavery Act, 2015.
Community
Contribution to the community. the company has affected so many people in so many
different ways. As earlier stated every one Australian out of 60 works fo Wesfarmers. Almost
96% of revenue is being earned by Australian markets and the majority of these shares have
been used for the betterment of communities in Australia and have also contributed to the
economy of this island commonwealth. At Wesfarmers, it has always been marked that an
inclusive and cohesive environment I always essential for better business'. It is essential to
note that in 2016. Wesfarmers group contributed in an excess of $57 million for direct
funding into the community organizations across both New Zealand and Australia.
Wesfarmers is also known for its latest donations to community and employees which totaled
more than $53 million (Wesfarmer, 2016).
(Wesfarmers.com)
Community partnership. Wesfarmers contribute in excess of more than $110M for
community partnership. The major focus areas of Wesfarmers are medical research and
health. Indigenous programs, educating employees and community initiatives. Some of the
major tie ups with Surf Life-Saving WA & Reconciliation WA proved to be so good for the

company in the year 2016. They have helped Wesfarmers in soldering loop holes of past and
bringing in new indigenous plans.
Climate change resilience. Wesfarmers have been striving to reduce a number of emissions
intensity in our business and also improve the resilience towards climate change. It is good to
see that companies such as farmers are thinking about depleting the ozone layer, diminishing
water beds, increase in the scarce of food supplies and the way our industries are affecting the
environment. The basic concept behind this is that betterment of environment is going to
benefit us all economically, community wise and economically.
Firstly, we monitor our own green houses gases emissions and try to reduce it as much as
possible.
Secondly, we keep a surveillance of environment and look out for possible risks and
accordingly mitigate them out of our system.
"The science is clear: globally, we must reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to limit the rise in the earth's temperature. Wesfarmers, like all
Indirect
2016 53.8
2015 52.9
2014 50.8
2013 43.8
2012 40.4
Direct
2016 57.8
2015 50.0
2014 44.6
2013 51.2
2012 31.8

other businesses, communities, and governments, must do everything it
can to make a positive difference." Richard Goyder, Managing Director.
It is imperative that as the population increases it is up to the bigger companies to take up the
onus of building economies dependable on affordable energy.
Particular instances for and against the company in
social corporate roles.
Cases for
Natural refrigerants are set standard at Coles
One of the subsidiary organization of Wesfarmers, Coles store at Coburg North, California
has been developed with an idea of creating first of its kind. It will be energy efficient and by
minimizing the impact of environment and increasing sustainability. Coles has been able to
reach a level of 100 percent efficiency by using natural refrigerants instead of the synthetic
once. The power being stored has been reduced by almost 16 percent and earlier also Coles
had been recognized for its refrigeration design. Wesfarmers is proud to announce that it has
now endowed this technology in all its network and more than 120 stores have been
converted into natural refrigeration units and they would be increasing this number
continuously. Coles has seen several improvements in heating, aid conditioning, ventilating
and last but not the least refrigeration itself (Wesfarmers, 2016).
Bunnings continuous solar investment
As per the current efforts for improving the energy efficiency of the existing business
operations, Bunnings has been on the road for trialing different renewable power projects
since 2009. All the initial trials in the field of solar photovoltaic at the Bunnings Warehouse,
wind turbines at the Bunnings Warehouse were all followed by the installation of solar
photovoltaic systems at the Bunnings Alice Springs (northern territory) in the year 2014. In

this current fiscal year, solar panels at different warehouses had been placed an in the coming
fiscal year, many more plants would be covered with solar panels (Wesfarmer, 2015).

Cases Against
Goyder and BCA facing the criticism
It was against Richard Goyder that Victorian Liberal Party president Kroger alleged that
BCA was a useless organization and should be shut down. For this statement of a president,
Richard came in to defend BCA and he was clear in stating the fact that BCA has a pivotal
role in shaping up the policies. The company as agreed has not been treating the rules for
human rights and employees in America suffered an abrupt jolt after Richard announced need
of looking again at its employee bandwidth as they are facing troubled times (ABC news,
2017).
This association between BCA and Wesfarmers has potentially made a certain section of
stakeholders dubious. This might have been the reason for a dip in profits of more than 86%
and Richard Goyder has been humble enough to take the onus of loss on to him. On the other
hand, he did not agree with the BC president's view as the president stated, " it is not the duty
of the organization to campaign on policy". Mr. Goyder felt that it was very much part and
parcel for the organization to campaign on the policy and he also added that Wesfarmers has
done it and will continue to do it in the near future also.
The groups are an owner of Target Kmart and Coles and its profit dropped down from $407
million to a shocking amount of as low as $2.4 billion.
Accounting scandal of Target
One of the major responsibilities of a company is to stay true its stake holders and provide
information which is true as per there knowledge but it is sad to say that one of the
subsidiaries of Wesfarmers group has been squandered into an accounting blunder or dumb
move. Though it I good to see that the head of Target groups is taking steps against the
employees who had helped in inflating the discount department's stores earnings which have
been produced after a probe was being set down. It was found out that the subsidiary

company of parent giant Wesfarmers had inflated its incomed by as much as $21 million in
the last six months of 2015. Wesfarmers reported that the overall earning accounted for by
the target group would be 1.1 percent lower than the initial report. It is imperative that now
target sits with its suppliers to work out an arrangement. Goyder was really angry and he
condemned the act by his employees and said that such conduct would not be admissible
anywhere in his organization.
He was quick to mention that clear cut code of conduct had been laid down for the employees
and they should adhere to them. In one flow, he also mentioned that specific departmental
group policies also have been laid down as well as regular staff training was given to all of
them (Parker, 2016).
The corporate reputation of Wesfarmers has been seriously dented due to this scandal
of accounting and Mr. Goyder was lamenting over this fact in his interview. Mr. Goyder
mentioned in his interview that the amount may not be important for us but the future
damage it has done to our image and reputation is grievous.
Conclusion
In the end, we would conclude with the fact that parent body of Wesfarmers has been doing
well on the policy and code of conduct designed but there is a need for the company to take
care of its subsidiaries. Even though Coles has been on a new high but issues keep arising out
from the Coles side too and Wesfarmers has until now been able to subdue them in a
professional manner. The scandal of the target has given them a new all time low and it
would be interesting to see the way in which they cope up and the president maintains his
legacy and be a true president for the organization. In today's world, it is essential that
companies adhere to strict CSR's otherwise they can meet fate such as this of Wesfarmers
(Kemp, 2011).

References
References
ABC News. (2017). Wesfarmers and Business Council boss Richard Goyder
defends BCA against critics. [online] Available at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-24/wesfarmers-richard-goyder-defends-
business-council/7782386 [Accessed 10 Sep. 2017].
Evans, S. (2015). Wesfarmers' decades-long disaster. [online] Farm Online.
Available at: http://www.farmonline.com.au/story/3378190/wesfarmers-
decades-long-disaster/ [Accessed 10 Sep. 2017].
Kemp, S. (2011). Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility:
lessons from the land of OZ.
McGraw, P. (2013). CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTING IN
AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST COMPANIES. [online] Taylor & Francis. Available
at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10301763.2010.10669411
[Accessed 10 Sep. 2017].
Park, J. (2016). Wesfarmers taking action over 'mind-blowingly stupid' Target
scandal. [online] ABC News. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-
04-11/wesfarmers-taking-action-over-target-accounting-scandal/7317178
[Accessed 10 Sep. 2017].
Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au. (2015). Bunnings continues solar investment.
[online] Available at:
http://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/case-studies/environment/bunnings-
continues-solar-investment/ [Accessed 10 Sep. 2017].
Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au. (2016). Bunnings continues solar investment.
[online] Available at:
http://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/case-studies/environment/bunnings-
continues-solar-investment/ [Accessed 10 Sep. 2017].
Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au. (2016). Natural refrigerants set the standard at
Coles. [online] Available at: http://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/case-
studies/environment/natural-refrigerants-set-the-standard-at-coles/ [Accessed
10 Sep. 2017].