Business Law: Comparing Woolworths and Wal-Mart Sustainability Reports

This report provides a comparative analysis of the sustainability performance of Woolworths and Wal-Mart, two major retail companies operating in different countries. The report begins with an introduction to sustainability reporting and its increasing importance, followed by a description of each company's core business activities, social values, and country of operation. The main body of the report delves into the issues in social reporting, examining the extent to which each company's reports reflect their values, and their compliance with UN Sustainable Development Goals. The report also analyzes the sustainability phase of each company based on the Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn (2017) model. Through this analysis, the report identifies which company is fulfilling its sustainable objectives more effectively, offering insights into their approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental impact. The report concludes with a reflection on the findings and includes references to supporting literature and figures.

BUSINESS LAW

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Description of the companies and their social performances......................................................3
Core business activities and country of operation.......................................................................3
Issues in social reporting.............................................................................................................5
Sustainable development goals....................................................................................................7
Sustainability phase.....................................................................................................................9
Extent to which social report reflect values...............................................................................11
Reflection on discussions..........................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: CSR Model of Woolworths..............................................................................................4
Figure 2: Sustainability Figures by Wal-Mart.................................................................................5
Figure 3: Social Reporting Style of Woolworths............................................................................6
Figure 4: Social Reporting of Wal-Mart..........................................................................................7
Figure 5: UN Sustainability goals compliance by Woolworths......................................................8
Figure 6: Most sustainable retailer survey.......................................................................................9
Figure 7: Sustainability phase model.............................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability reporting has now become a intricate part of the reporting in any organisation
where the law makes it compulsory to detail the relevant facts related to the sustainability
performance of the company (Schroeder, Anggraeni and Weber, 2019). The following report will
analyse the sustainability performance of two major retail sector companies i.e. Woolworths and
Wal-Mart both of which are operating in different countries. The report will segregate the
different aspects such as social values, UN sustainability development goals compliance etc and
then identify which company is fulfilling its sustainable objectives in a more better manner.
MAIN BODY
Description of the companies and their social performances
Woolworths is the Australian origin retail sector company that is the top retailer in
Australia and deals with the retail goods that cater to the multiple needs of the people such as the
household products the health and beauty care products etc. The consumer loyalty towards
Woolworths by the people of Australia is very high where they tend to shop regularly from this
Australian retail giant only (2019 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT, 2020). The company has always
been extremely respectful towards the environment in which they are operating and also towards
the society. They aim to give back at least a part of what they have taken by the nature by
engaging in the social and CSR activities regularly.
Wal-Mart on the other hand is a USA based retail giant that has now expanded in multiple
countries and is one of the top retail brands in the entire world (Dabija, Pop and Postelnicu,
2016). The company mainly deals in the similar products that any retail company offers i.e.
consumer electronics, the household goods, the jewellery etc. The social and CSR work done by
the Wal-Mart company has also been commendable but as it operates in multiple countries the
scale at which these activities are done is much higher than that of the Woolworths company.
Core business activities and country of operation
For Woolworths the core values with which the company works towards giving services
the customers can be summarised in one line i.e. “Better for Everyone” (2019 SUSTAINABILITY
REPORT, 2020). The company has always strived towards the compliance of multiple numbers
of ethical partnerships that promote greenery, cultural well- being, safeguarding the people and
even generating local employment thus contributing in their welfare activities.
3

Figure 1: CSR Model of Woolworths
As the figure one clearly represents the ore social values of the company have been
categorised like this in the similar manner where they aim to segregates their ways of working
from those of others (Masharu and Nasir, 2018). The strategy of the Woolworths to procure their
resources and goods which they sell further from the local people in whichever are the area they
are working is the key value of sustainability and mutual growth that they have adopted.
In Wal-Mart consequently, the scale and the approach that they have developed is
multifaceted i.e. environmental, social and governance aspects are the three aspects through
which they engage in social work and sustainability aspect. The company has always aimed or
strengthen the local community but however, they do so by providing funds and contribution to
the social work rather than by employment generation or by local resourcing aspect (2018
GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT, 2019). Contrary to Woolworths who contributes
immensely by doing maximum extraction of products from the local sellers, the Wal- Mart
Company often tends to either import its products from their home country or they have
developed certain spots from which they collect supplies. The company donates rather than
creates which is an entirely different approach to CSR activities that they comply with
4

Figure 2: Sustainability Figures by Wal-Mart
As it can be clearly seen from the figure above the Wal-Mart company is contributing
towards the reduction in the environmental and social disparities that have arise but they are not
helping in working actively towards removing it rather than working on it.
Issues in social reporting
Social reporting is something that has literally been made mandatory for every company
now and they offer explicit details regarding the different goals that they have set up or the ones
that they want to achieve extremely diligently and carefully (Ferreira and et.al., 2019).
In Woolworths, the reporting has been extremely comprehensive where thy have covered
even the work that they are ding for the aboriginal Australians, the standard that they comply
with, the different sustainable development goals that they are currently meeting etc. (2019
SUSTAINABILITY REPORT, 2020). There is no such evident issue with the reporting as they
have developed proper section where the overall performance of the company is the
sustainability aspect is evaluate, the people, planet and prosperity aspect has been ascertained
and the different sustainability metrics has been presented.
5

Figure 3: Social Reporting Style of Woolworths
As it can be ascertained, al the section of the report are properly categorised and each
section is clearly segregated yet the overall figures related to the people, planet and prosperity
aspect have not been properly disclosed where the theoretical data is more that the practical
figures.
Wal-Mart on the other hand is a presenter of a more detailed report that talks about the
company’s achievements and opportunities more than it does about the actual work that is being
done (Dabija, Pop and Postelnicu, 2016). Although the report is very comprehensive where they
have shared the details related to the social work that have been doing at the global level yet it
fails to address the main purpose by covering majority of section in governance and the
performance aspect.
6

Figure 4: Social Reporting of Wal-Mart
It can be further said that the compliance to the UN sustainability standards have not been
depicted by the company and they have developed their own goals that are similar to the ones
presented by UN but the future work that has been planned is not very widely or intricately
detailed (2018 GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT, 2019).
Sustainable development goals
The UN developed certain sustainable development goals under the name of UN 2030
Sustainable goals. Woolworths has been in stricter compliance to these goals by the three
categorise that it identified earlier, i.e. People, Planet and prosperity.
7

Figure 5: UN Sustainability goals compliance by Woolworths
As it can be clearly ascertained the company has segregated the different goals
systematically into the people planet and prosperity and has interpreted them in the company’s
reference by analysing the core purpose behind these goals. The constantly try to towards the
achievement of these goals (2019 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT, 2020). The approach of the
company has been to engage the internal as well as the external stakeholders of the company
towards the achievement of the maximum sustainable development goals that have been
presented by UN. This also improves the overall strength of the company on a global level.
Hence, the compliance to such sustainable standards is very detailed and Woolworths follows
this very closely.
On the contrary to this, as it was even highlighted above. The sustainability report of
Wal-Mart does not clearly presents the compliance to the UN signified sustainable development
goals (Nilssen, Bick and Abratt, 2019). They have developed their own goals and these are more
8

or less similar but the verifiability and reality of the facts that have been stated by the Wal- mart
company decreases significantly due to this aspect. The company has even displayed a figure in
their latest sustainable report where the surveys on the retail customers regarding their favourite
sustainable firm and the Wal-Mart company was reported as the best company by the majority of
the respondents.
Figure 6: Most sustainable retailer survey
The figures that have been presented however are not very credible and could have easily
been manipulated (2018 GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT, 2019). The Wal-Mart being a
world class company should remove such ambiguous claims and rather works towards
standardisation of their sustainability reporting so that it can improve overall.
Sustainability phase
The sustainability phase as it has been presented by the Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn
(2017), presents different phases or stages at which the company belonging to vastly different
industries operate and try to progress step by step through it (Bhaskar and Harshitha, 2017). The
model or the sustainability model presents every company at a separate stage and this can be
presented in following manner:
9

Figure 7: Sustainability phase model
After the analysis of the model that categorises the different levels on which the firms or
organisations are by analysing their compliance and reporting levels that they implement in their
reporting.
It can be said that Woolworths is at the highest stages of sustainability where they have a
transformative culture, they have redefined the manner in which the business relationships are
developed, the transparency levels is extremely high and the reporting and compliance towards
sustainability aspect is accurate (Chhabra and Kameriya, 2019). They are the perfect company
and this has been possible because of the honest practices that they engage in and the manner in
which they conduct their business throughout the year.
On comparing this with the sustainability level of the Wal-Mart company, it can be
adequately said that the company despite being a world class retailer is still on the efficiency
phase where they tend to do things more form a reputational point of view rather than the
purpose of fulfilling actual sustainable goals (2018 GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT,
2019). This is because the company emphasis more on their systematic practices, the governance
and performance aspect, risk avoidance etc. rather than detailing the different activities that they
undertake or the validity of the figures that they are reporting.
10

Extent to which social report reflect values
On the basis of the evaluation of the sustainability reports presented by both the
companies, it can be adequately said that the social reports of both the companies reflect their
social values that they comply with.
In case of Woolworths, the company has been constantly emphasising on the certain values
that they work on by the tag line of better for everyone and this is truly reflected in the reports
(2019 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT, 2020). The vast variety of sectors for which they have
worked, the manner in which they are hooking the society in which they are operating, the
compliance to the UN standard goal for sustainable development etc. point out collectively that
they are doing an excellent job overall and the social values of the company are very stable and
excellent overall.
For the Wal-Mart company, it is also good in the manner in which they are able to work at
such wide levels of sustainability compliance despite the worldwide scale at which the company
is operating (Naidoo and Gasparatos, 2018). However, there were certain aspects in which the
company was not found very strong and therefore, the reporting of the company was also
questionable in regards to some specific points. Therefore, in terms of the reflection of the social
values it can be said that it is a strong company but needs to work upon its values more so that
they can be termed as an excellent retail company in terms of the level at which they are
operating.
Reflection on discussions
While including in the group discussion I can adequately say that the majority of the group
participants were in the agreement of the conclusions that I myself had drawn. However, earlier I
was a little biased towards the preference of Wal- mart as a better company because it operates
on wider scale but after my fellow team mates presented some starting facts related to the
sustainability aspects of another firms, I decided that I would be neutral in my approach towards
analysis of both the companies. Further, I learnt that the manner in which the reporting is done is
also an extremely intricate process for a company and can depict many things about the
company.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the research done above it can be clearly concluded that in terms of
sustainable reporting and compliance to different sustainable laws and regulation, the
11

performance of the Woolworths Company is much more well developed over the other
companies i.e. Wal-Mart in particular. It can also be concluded that the reporting issues and the
non- compliance to sustainability related aspects is higher in the Wal-Mart which is a world class
retailer which shows that the company needs to work more on their sustainability aspects.
12

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhaskar, H. and Harshitha, N., 2017, October. Retail Marketing in India: Challenges, Strategies
and Opportunities. In National Conference on Marketing and Sustainable
Development (Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 41-45).
Chhabra, V.G.D.M.K. and Kameriya, J., 2019. CHANGING INDIAN RETAIL SCENARIO (IN
TERMS OF INCLUSIVE GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT). Journal Current Science. 20(06).
Dabija, D.C., Pop, N.A. and Postelnicu, C., 2016. Ethics of the garment retail within the context
of globalization and sustainable development. Industria Textilă. 67(4). pp.270-279.
Ferreira, A., and et.al., 2019. Decarbonizing strategies of the retail sector following the Paris
Agreement. Energy Policy 135. p.110999.
Masharu, U. and Nasir, M.A., 2018. Policy of foreign direct investment liberalisation in India:
implications for retail sector. International Review of Economics. 65(4). pp.465-487.
Naidoo, M. and Gasparatos, A., 2018. Corporate Environmental Sustainability in the retail
sector: Drivers, strategies and performance measurement. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 203. pp.125-142.
Nilssen, R., Bick, G. and Abratt, R., 2019. Comparing the relative importance of sustainability as
a consumer purchase criterion of food and clothing in the retail sector. Journal of Brand
Management. 26(1). pp.71-83.
Schroeder, P., Anggraeni, K. and Weber, U., 2019. The relevance of circular economy practices
to the sustainable development goals. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 23(1). pp.77-95.
Online
2018 GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT. 2019. [ONLINE] Available through :<
https://corporate.walmart.com/media-library/document/2018-global-responsibility-
report/_proxyDocument?id=00000170-ac54-d808-a9f1-ac7e9d160000 >
2019 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT. 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :<
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/195583_2019-sustainability-report.pdf
>
13

14