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(Photo of Tracey Killen)

Tracey Kilen

Board Director responsible for CSR and Chair, Community Investment Committee

"Our governance arrangements for CSR have provided a pivotal role in supporting and directing our efforts and aspirations to continually improve our business sustainability."


OUR GOVERNANCE

Business governance

When John Spedan Lewis founded the Partnership, he created a governance system – set out in a written Constitution – that would be both commercial and democratic. Coupled with our unique ownership structure, the company’s 70,000 permanent Partners share the rights and responsibilities of co-ownership through active involvement in the business.

At the top level, the Partnership Council, directly elected by Partners, holds the Executive Chairman and executives to account, and appoints five non-executives to the Partnership Board. The Chairman and the Partnership Board are responsible for the overall strategic direction of the Partnership, while day-to-day management and strategic direction of John Lewis and Waitrose rest with the divisional Management Boards.

CSR governance

Our Responsible Business Group, led by our Chairman Charlie Mayfield, lies at the centre of our CSR governance arrangements, supported by several Partnership-wide steering groups focusing on environment, marketplace and community. During 2009/10, we took the decision not to formally establish a Workplace Steering Group because this activity is covered through the Partner Strategy (see page 11), where we already have a clear process in place for agreeing priorities and measuring our progress. Instead, the Head of CSR and Head of Employment Strategy and Policy are responsible for ensuring workplace matters are fully considered throughout the development of the Partner Strategy, which includes all the key stakeholders.

Since the structure (shown below) was established, our focus has been on mobilising the steering groups and committees to drive forward our CSR programmes and to continue to embed CSR into our everyday business practices.

CSR audit

An internal assurance audit on CSR was conducted in April 2010, to assess the effectiveness of our key CSR management controls. It focused on the communication and reporting of our CSR strategy and performance within the Partnership and the wider CSR community.

The findings suggested that acceptable processes were in place but that improvements could be made. The key recommendations included:

• continuing to improve the robustness of our internal processes and controls to track and prioritise material CSR issues and risks more efficiently
• improving the way CSR targets are set and monitored, and communicating any changes in targets more openly in our reporting
• refining our approach to stakeholder engagement and communication on CSR issues.

These recommendations were presented to the Responsible Business Group and the Partnership’s Audit Committee, and will be a key focus for the Partnership’s CSR team in 2010/11.


PARTNERSHIP BOARD (elected and appointed members)

PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL (elected)

PARTNERSHIP RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS GROUP Chair: Charlie Mayfield, Chairman

OUR PEOPLE

WORKPLACE

Business leads on CSR Workplace issues: Paul Backhouse, Head of Employment Strategy and Policy and Gemma Lacey, Head of CSR

Employment Working Groups

OUR CUSTOMERS, PRODUCTS AND SUPPLIERS

MARKETPLACE STEERING GROUP

Chair: Tony Solomons, Waitrose Retail Director, and David Jones, John Lewis Divisional Registrar

Divisional Steering and/or Working Groups

OUR COMMUNITIES

COMMUNITY INVESTMENT COMMITTEE

Chair: Tracey Killen, Director of Personnel

Divisional Community Investment Committees

OUR ENVIRONMENT

ENVIRONMENT STEERING GROUP

Chair: Nigel Keen, Director of Property Services

Divisional Steering and/or Working Groups (eg Transport, Responsible Development)