WORKING AND ENGAGING WITH OTHERS

As a responsible retailer, we respect the interests of our stakeholders and take their needs seriously. Through ongoing, open dialogue, we strive to build strong long-term relationships with them. In doing so, we aim to increase our responsiveness to their concerns, reduce our impacts and balance the Partnership’s competitiveness, profitability and sustainability.

We have recently begun to review our stakeholder engagement activities to prioritise our existing relationships and to consider the need for developing new ones. Through this process, we have identified seven stakeholder groups on which our continued success is dependent (see diagram). We recognise the role these stakeholder groups can play in our decision making on the direction of our CSR strategy.

We also continue to work with a range of organisations, forming strategic partnerships and alliances. These relationships help to support the delivery of our CSR commitments.

For example, since 2007, Forum for the Future has helped us to benchmark our leadership position on products and services, supplier relations and community impacts; improve our governance arrangements and our environmental performance; assess our indirect transport impacts; and develop our Responsible Development Framework.

Senior leaders across our business have also taken on leading advocacy roles to make progress in areas of importance to our business. For example:

• we are a member of the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change

• our Chairman Charlie Mayfield is a commissioner for the UK Commission on Employment and Skills

• the Partnership has been closely involved with Business in the Community for many years, and is represented on several leadership teams and programmes.

We recognise that we can’t tackle the challenges in this area in isolation but that by working in partnership with others, our shared passions will help make the Partnership a more sustainable business.

"The ability of the John Lewis Partnership to take a long-term view, along with its unique ownership structure, means that the business has the potential to push its current CSR programme further and faster to deliver a truly sustainable business. The ambition to decouple the growth of the business from its carbon emissions is the first, important step towards this end goal. The challenge is to match the ambition around carbon with other aspects of the current CSR programme. This will ensure that the Partnership delivers sustainability for all the people it touches, both now, and for the next 50 years to come."

DR. Sally Uren - Deputy Chief Executive, Forum for the Future

OUR STAKEHOLDERS’ KEY ISSUES

MEDIA

• Our progress on the CSR agenda.

• Comparisons against competitors and peers.

LOCAL COMMUNITIES

• Acceptability of development/building projects and support for their community needs.

NGOS AND CAMPAIGN GROUPS

• Establishment of mutually beneficial relationships.

 • Environmental protection, social and economic development.

• Sustainability of raw materials.

• Supply chain labour standards.

PARTNERS

• Education and awareness regarding sustainability.

• Employee satisfaction.

• Long-term future of the company and its impact and sustainability.

• Business change and job security.

• Business principles and democracy.

CUSTOMERS

• Customer satisfaction.

• Quality and value.

• Sustainable products and services.

SUPPLIERS

• Increasing the sustainability of their products and their companies.

• Long-term relationships.

• Fair treatment and pricing.

GOVERNMENT AND REGULATORS

• Information sharing, particularly on our co-ownership model.

• Compliance and shaping future regulation.

• Skills, economic development and employment opportunities.

• Minimising environmental impact.

• Labour standards and worker exploitation.

Further information about CSR at the John Lewis Partnership can be found at: www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/ourresponsibilities

If you have any comments regarding this report, please contact:

Gemma Lacey

Head of Corporate Social Responsibility John Lewis Partnership Partnership House, Carlisle Place London SW1P 1BX

Email: csr@johnlewis.co.uk Design and copywriting: Flag Date of publication: 08/10

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READ OUR FULL CSR REPORT AT

www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/csrreports