ENVIRONMENT

The majority of our facilities (stores, Distribution Centres and offices) are located in urbanised areas and are unlikely to impact on biodiversity in protected areas or areas of high conservation values. We have commissioned Environment Resources Management (ERM) Australia Pty Ltd to screen the location of all our facilities and identify which facilities are located in or near protected areas or areas of high conservation values.

The first level of screening has been conducted using a one kilometre radius surrounding any Woolworths Limited’s facility to allow us to identify which locations require further detailed assessment to clarify whether any potential adverse impact is likely to arise from our operations in these locations and the appropriate management practices that need to be implemented. This is work in progress – we have screened 264 addresses so far and found 80 of them within one kilometre of an area of biodiversity value. We need to investigate these in more detail and continue screening the rest of our operating locations.