Kathmandu Sustainability Report 2018
KATHMANDU HOLDINGS LIMITED
Sustainability
Report 2018
INTRODUCTIONSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20181SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Caroline Bellamy
Adventurer and artist from
Nelson, New Zealand
Lake Marian, Fiordland
National Park – South Island
New Zealand
World ready
.
We come from New Zealand,
home to some of the world’s
harshest conditions. Since
1987 we’ve been engineering
outdoor gear for adventurers
all over the world – preparing
all kinds of people for their
next adventure.
For us, preparation is more
than having the right gear.
It’s a mindset. It’s having
curiosity, an open mind, and
a hunger to learn.
Whether you’re on an epic
expedition, volunteering in
a remote part of the world,
or exploring the best local
trails, you can be confident
you can take on any
destination in any weather
conditions with Kathmandu.
We believe travel and
adventure is the ultimate
life experience. With
product engineering and
expert advice, we aim to
give you the confidence
to discover the world.
Recycled 6.7
million bottles
into our gear
Our top 5
sustainability
highlights.
Fair Labor
Association
accredited
#2 world ranking
by the Textile
Exchange for
preferred materials
80% towards
our zero waste to
landfill target
Scored an 'A'
in the Ethical
Fashion Report
A
2
At Kathmandu, sustainability
isn’t a department, it’s a way
of doing things. Here are some
of our highlights from last year.
INTRODUCTIONSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201832SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Contents.
10Our Journey
Since 1987, we’ve been building a culture of sustainability and
now we’re starting to think even bigger.
18Our Suppliers
Looking after the people in our supply chain is our number one priority.
We’re evolving a new approach to how we do it.
28Our Products
The materials we choose make a big difference to our impact.
We’ve made big strides this year in sustainable textiles.
46Our Footprint
Operational efficiency supports environmental sustainability.
First we measure and then we act.
54Our Community
Connecting our communities, customers and causes we care about.
Our strategy focuses on three ways to improve people’s lives.
64Our Team
The three pillars of our People Plan are helping us develop a safe,
engaged and high-performing team.
INTRODUCTIONSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201854SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Chairman’s and
CEO ’s r e p o r t.
There have been some big wins
for Kathmandu this year in our
sustainable practices. Not only
did we have our human rights
work validated by Fair Labor
Association accreditation, we
also received an 'A' score in the
Ethical Fashion Report.
We know that workers’ rights is
the issue that our customers
and shareholders care most about,
so these results are important in
more ways than one.
We’re also incredibly proud of
our second placed Textile Exchange
ranking for sustainable material
use and for diverting 80% of our
waste from landfill.
This year, Kathmandu acquired
the Oboz footwear brand based in
Montana, USA.Oboz is a leader in
footwear and product design and
have been one of our customers
since its inception more than ten
years ago.
All our achievements are possible
because of the many passionate
people who champion
sustainability at Kathmandu –
from our store network to support
offices. Sustainability isn’t a
department, it’s a way of
doing things.
XAVIER SIMONET
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DAVID KIRK
CHAIRMAN
“I think too many
people are waiting
for someone else
to save us all from
climate change.
It will come down
to individuals and
organisations to be
the change agents.”
TIM JARVIS
KATHMANDU AMBASSADOR
INTRODUCTIONSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201876SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Kathmandu Ambassador Tim Jarvis
is an environmental explorer and
adventurer. He uses his world-first
expeditions to share stories about
environmental causes and help
people to take action.
Tim was awarded 2016 Conservationist
of the Year by Australian Geographic
for his 25zero project, which is raising
awareness about the loss of
equatorial glaciers.
FINDING HIS WAY
When he was just 12 years old,
getting lost (and then finding his way)
in a Malaysian jungle helped Tim
understand what he was capable of.
“I was scared, but I got back. That
began a feeling of being empowered
in the outdoors that’s kind of
continued ever since,” he says.
Spending time in nature made Tim
want to protect it, and that led to a
career in environmental sciences.
“Things have kind of gone full circle
because now I use my expeditions
around the world to try and highlight
environmentalism,” he says.
ADVENTURE ADVOCACY
Tim has led expeditions to the South
and North Poles, across many deserts
and up many mountains. He retraced
the journeys of Sir Douglas Mawson
and Sir Ernest Shackleton using the
100-year-old equipment that they
would have used.
With his latest project, 25zero,
Tim is highlighting the real impacts
of climate change by climbing all
the mountains around the equator
that still have a glacier, documenting
and recording their recession.
“There are 25 of those, and they’re at
0 degrees latitude. In a quarter of a
century they’ll be gone due to climate
change,” he says.
GEAR TO GET OUT THERE
Tim worked with Kathmandu in the
redesign of our XT expedition gear
series, which he tested on a climb
of Mt Kilimanjaro in June.
“To me, Kathmandu is about
getting out there, travelling,
doing it responsibly, expanding
your horizons and discovering new
things for yourself. It’s also about
making a contribution. I think too
many people are waiting for someone
else to save us all from climate
change. It will come down to
individuals and organisations to
be the change agents.”
Tim Jarvis
uses adventure
to champion
the planet.
Adventurer and Kathmandu
Brand Ambassador Tim Jarvis
testing the new XT range.
Oboz outdoor footwear
joins our family.
This year, Kathmandu acquired Oboz –
an outdoor footwear company from
Bozeman, Montana. Founder John
Connelly shares some insights about
the Oboz journey and the
sustainability ethos that has been
core to the brand from the very
beginning.
HOW DID OBOZ COME TO BE?
In January 2007, I was having dinner
with REI’s footwear category manager
and Chuck Roth (our director of
design). I mentioned that I was
considering starting a new brand.
The category manager said REI
would support it and become our
first customer. The next day,
Kathmandu said they’d become
our second customer. With these
votes of confidence, a plan was put
into motion. A factory was lined up,
investors were signed up, designs
were started, samples were made.
The brand launched at Outdoor
Retailer in November 2007. We
started a footwear company and
came to market in record time.
WHERE DID THE NAME
OBOZ COME FROM?
Oboz is a combination of Outside
and Bozeman. Bozeman, Montana,
is our home base and lies in the
Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, which
includes five major mountain ranges
and Yellowstone and Grand Teton
National Parks. Oboz is a unique land
of glaciers and geysers, of bison,
wolves and grizzly bears where there
is world-class fly fishing, hiking, biking,
climbing, river running, skiing and
wildlife encounters. It’s our inspiration
and our testing ground.
HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOUR
VISION AND PURPOSE?
Our motto is ‘true to the trail’. Our
vision is to become the next great
American outdoor footwear brand.
We think our greatness will come
from manifesting passion, truth and
soul in every pair we sell.
Our purpose is to inspire, enhance
and promote active outdoor lives.
Our mission is to treat our employees
and customers with respect and
dignity, build collaborative and
profitable alliances with our retail
and distributor partners, create
shareholder value and continually
strive to do things better, to minimise
our carbon footprint and to always
build the best-quality and best-
performing outdoor footwear we
possibly can.
HOW DOES WORKING WITH
KATHMANDU TAKE THE OBOZ
VISION FURTHER?
For me, selling the company to and
working with Kathmandu is the
perfect ending to what was a great
beginning. Having worked with
Kathmandu and visited New Zealand
for three years prior to starting Oboz
made it feel very comfortable and like
it was meant to be. The businesses
are very compatible, and we share the
same values. Although we were
successful and had strong year-over-
year growth, moving up to the
number three functional outdoor
brand in the US, it has been
challenging at times competing with
giant, well established brands. We
don’t have the resources our big
competitors have, so joining up with
Kathmandu opens more growth
opportunities and we are so excited
to continue our journey as partners.
We’re excited to help Kathmandu
grow its footwear business in New
Zealand and Australia and to have the
support and resources to develop our
international businesses together.
Two key areas I believe we’ve needed
help in are sustainability and
innovation. We’re already seeing some
benefits. I couldn’t be more pleased.
HOW IS SUSTAINABILITY
APPLIED AT OBOZ?
One of the things I’m most proud
of (and I can’t remember whose idea
it was) is that we decided to plant a
tree for every pair we’d sell. This was
before we even had a company name
or any samples. We’ve now planted –
through Trees for the Future – just
under 2,000,000 trees. Almost from
the beginning, we’ve run our offices
on wind power, and we’ve offset
our carbon footprint. All recyclable
materials are recycled. With
Kathmandu’s help, we hope
to do more.
Another thing I’m very, very proud
of is that, for the last two years, 2016
and 2017, we’ve won REI’s Vendor of
the Year Award for their outdoorwear
division, their largest division.
“Our motto is
‘true to the trail’. “
JOHN CONNELY
OBOZ FOUNDER
8SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018INTRODUCTIONSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20189
Copyright Stephen Matera
OUR JOURNEY10SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201811
Our Journey.
“I use my
expeditions around
the world to try
and highlight
environmentalism.”
TIM JARVIS
GLOBAL BRAND AMBASSADOR
Tim Jarvis explores New
Zealand’s Tasman Glacier.
A sustainability
programme built on
passionate individuals.
“Sustainability is about awareness and
then positive behaviour change,” says
Kathmandu Sustainability Specialist
Oliver Milliner.
From our store team members taking
action to recycle shop fittings to the
brand manager picking up rubbish on
her favourite running trails, it is a
collection of passionate individuals
that have piloted Kathmandu’s
sustainability journey.
We are guided by our Sustain the
Dream strategy, which provides a
framework for measuring impacts
and driving change across the
company. The strategy uses the
Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s (SAC)
Higg Index framework and aligns with
the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals. Our partnerships
and certifications help guide us as
well as providing a future pathway for
improvement.
“At Kathmandu, sustainability goes
hand in hand with everything that we
do,” says Oliver. It’s about the people
and empowering them to get involved.
There is nothing more rewarding to
see when new staff join the company
and start making sustainable choices
both at work and at home.”
HOW DO WE KNOW
WHAT’S IMPORTANT?
Everyone who connects with our
brand in some way deserves a voice in
how we prioritise our environmental
and social work. That means
employees, customers, shareholders
and people in our supply chain.
This communication is happening all
the time, through interactions in store,
online and in the boardroom. We see
part of our role as education, sharing
what we have learned along the way
about the impacts of materials,
reducing waste and working with
supply chains.
We look to industry partners who can
see the industry impacts as a whole –
did you know that the apparel
industry accounts for 25% of global
chemical use? Organisations like the
Sustainable Apparel Coalition help
brands better understand and
manage their impacts.
Overarching all this is the question
what’s important to a healthy planet?
The United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals are a great
framework for us to check ourselves
against. We’re looking for new ways
to align our business to these goals.
For more information about how we
engage with people close to our brand
and prioritise environmental and
social impacts, visit: www.kathmandu.
co.nz/corporate-responsibility/reports-
and-policies.
“Sustainability is
about awareness
and then positive
behaviour
change.”
OLIVER MILLINER
SUSTAINABILITY SPECIALIST
OUR JOURNEYSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20181312SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Tim Jarvis testing the new XT
range in New Zealand’s Aoraki/
Mt Cook National Park.
A little
help from
our friends.
OUTDOOR INDUSTRY
ASSOCIATION
We participate in OIA’s
Sustainability Working Group,
a collaborative platform of
more than 300 outdoor brands
and suppliers working together
to identify and implement
better business practices.
“The Higg Index
empowers
organisations at
any stage of their
sustainability journey
to reduce their
environmental impacts
and strengthen the
communities where
they operate.”
JASON KIBBEY
SUSTAINABLE APPAREL
COALITION CEO
SUSTAINABLE APPAREL
COALITION
Membership of the SAC gives
us access to the Higg Index
modules. We’ve been using
the index since 2014, which
supports our sustainability
strategy. The index guides us on
the environmental and social
impacts of our products and
how we can improve.
BLUESIGN
®
Our bluesign
®
system
partnership supports our
chemicals management
programme, materials
and products so that
they are environmentally
and socially friendly.
CARBON DISCLOSURE
PROJECT
We submit an annual
report to the CDP, which
supports our carbon
measurement and reduction
programme.
FAIR LABOR ASSOCIATION
We became the first brand in
the southern hemisphere to
achieve FLA accreditation.
This verifies that our social
compliance programme in our
supply chain exceeds the most
stringent global standards.
ENVIRO-MARK SOLUTIONS
Our membership with
Enviro-Mark Solutions helps us
to measure our carbon
footprint as well as facilitating
carbon offsetting projects.
AUSTRALIAN PACKAGING
COVENANT ORGANISATION
We submit an annual report
to the APC, which supports
our packaging and waste
strategy.
GREEN BUILDING
COUNCIL AUSTRALIA
Our membership with the
GBCA supports our green
building programme.
We also work in
collaboration with this
organisation in trialling
new projects.
HIMALAYAN TRUST
NEW ZEALAND
We have recently partnered
with the Himalayan Trust to
further improve outcomes in
education, health and
sanitation in Nepal.
AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS
We have partnered with
Australian Red Cross since
2011. We support its
humanitarian work and
emergency responses.
NEW ZEALAND RED CROSS
We have partnered with
New Zealand Red Cross
since 2011. We support its
humanitarian work and
emergency responses.
Every explorer knows that a journey is better
with someone by your side. As we continue the
journey of sustainability, industry partnerships
provide important support - resources,
information and frameworks.
TEXTILE EXCHANGE
Our membership with the
Textile Exchange supports
our materials strategy, and
we also participate in their
Preferred Fibre and
Materials Market report.
AUSTRALIAN HIMALAYAN
FOUNDATION
We have been partners with
the AHF since 2012. We work
with the AHF to support
communities in Nepal, the
nation that inspired our brand.
OUR JOURNEY14SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201815
OUR JOURNEY16SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201817
New Zealand
Samoa
Ireland
Switzerland
Germany
Poland
Netherlands
Belgium
Iceland
Norway
Arctic
Greece
Austria
Egypt
Ethiopia
Brazil
Macedonia
Israel
South Korea
Nigeria
Yemen
Algeria
Somalia
Iraq
Malta
Italy
Denmark
France
UK
India
Myanmar
Malaysia
Pakistan
Chile
Zambia
Rwanda
Mexico
Fiji
Nepal
Cambodia
Afghanistan
Argentina
Canada
China
Russia
Japan
Taiwan
Philippines
Vietnam
Laos
Thailand
Indonesia
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Australia
Antarctica
Our world.
KEY
MANUFACTURERS
COMMUNITY
PARTNERSHIPS
46 NATIONALITIES
ACROSS OUR TEAM
MATERIALS SOURCING
OPERATIONS
75 TOTAL
(Only Kathmandu
manufacturers)
China – 59
Vietnam – 7
Taiwan – 2
New Zealand – 2
Indonesia – 2
Israel – 1
Nepal – 1
India – 1
13 Adventure Sponsorship
winners travelled to:
Antarctica, Iceland,
Egypt, Brazil, Australia,
Arctic, Norway, New Zealand,
Ethiopia, Thailand.
214 adventure sponsorship
recipients
New Zealand
47 stores
1 distribution centre
1 office
Australia
116 stores
1 distribution centre
1 office
America
1 office
United Kingdom
1 store
USA
Scotland
OUR SUPPLIERSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20181918SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Our Suppliers.
This year’s Christmas gifts for
good are hand-crafted by
women in Nepal.
“We are not
about ticking boxes.
We are about
making change.”
GARY SHAW
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY MANAGER
150
Kathmandu
and branded
suppliers
8.6
YEARS AVERAGE TENURE
WITH SUPPLIERS
Support office employees trained = CSR Specialist based in China
OUR SUPPLIERS 2018
NEW SUPPLIERS
SCREENED USING
SOCIAL CRITERIA
100
40
0
12
TOTAL AUDITS
Unannounced
Audits
Corrective
Action Plans
13
Exits
200
Hours training office staff
%
20SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR SUPPLIERSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201821
We’re learning to
use audits as a step
towards change.
Sustainability is about people,
especially when it comes to
protecting human rights in our
supply chain.
Over the last 18 months, our
approach to looking after people
all the way down our supply chain
has evolved. We’ve put values and
transparency front and centre,
which means our suppliers are
clear about how we expect them
to look after their workers, but they
also understand why this is important
to us and to our customers.
RESPONSIBLE PURCHASING
We’ve used responsible purchasing to
make sure we’re not putting pressure
on our factories that would make it
harder for them to keep excessive
overtime in check.
And we’ve put more weight on
improvement than on perfection.
Auditing helps us find areas that
need improvement, but working
closely with factories to make change
is when we have a real opportunity
to improve conditions for workers.
CODE OF CONDUCT
For more information about our
Supplier Code of Conduct, visit
www.kathmandu.co.nz/corporate-
responsibility/reports-and-policies .
DriFill down jackets being
produced in Shenzhen, China.
A worker fabricates jackets at
a factory in Shenzhen, China.
OUR SUPPLIERS22SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201823
FLA accreditation
shows collaboration
and transparency.
Scoring an 'A'
in the Ethical
Fashion Report.
Each year, the Baptist World Aid and
Tear Fund rate apparel brands in
Australia and New Zealand on their
supply chain practices. In the 2018
report, Kathmandu received an 'A'
score for the first time.
“This score shows they have confidence
that our systems are robust and follow
best practices,” says Corporate Social
Responsibility Manager Gary Shaw.
VALUES DRIVE IMPROVEMENT
Gary attributes the increase from
'B+' in 2017 to 'A' in 2018 to a number of
changes. “We partnered with ELEVATE,
a company that better reflects our
values,” Gary says. “We started using
a technology platform called RizePoint,
which helps us manage audit scores so
that we can see trends and measure
ourselves against best practice. The
focus is not just on policing the supply
chain but improving it. The software
delivers e-learning modules to suppliers
in their own language so that that
they can learn how to make changes
and why those changes are important.”
CONNECTING DIGITALLY
Other improvements this year include
the introduction of a grievance
mechanism that utilises the popular
Chinese social media platform
WeChat. Gary says the next range
of improvements will be about
going beyond compliance towards
proactive supply-chain capacity
building and development.
“We are not about ticking boxes. We
are about making change,” Gary says.
“We commend
Kathmandu for
its strong
commitment to
transparency.”
SHARON WAXMAN
FLA PRESIDENT AND CEO
After a four-year journey, Kathmandu
became the first in the Southern
Hemisphere to have its compliance
programme accredited by the Fair
Labor Association (FLA).
There are just 43 brands to have
received this accreditation. It comes
after lengthy reviews, assessments
and audits designed to make sure
companies fulfil the principles of fair
labour and responsible sourcing.
IN LEAGUE WITH GIANTS
“This puts us alongside companies like
Patagonia, Adidas and Nike,”
says Corporate Social Responsibility
Manager Gary Shaw.
The FLA grew out of a group of
multinational companies and NGOs
brought together by President Clinton
in 1996 to improve working conditions
in the apparel and footwear industries
after a series of high-profile incidents
exposing sweatshop labour.
Today, the non-profit helps around
5.5 million workers across the world to
have a voice in their own futures and
feel safer at work.
LEARNING CONTINUES
“Working with the FLA has really
helped us understand what good
corporate social responsibility (CSR)
looks like,” Gary says.
FLA President and CEO Sharon
Waxman says, “We commend
Kathmandu for its collaboration
with other brands and civil society
to remediate labour rights violations,
along with the company’s strong
commitment to transparency in
publishing its supplier list and results
of FLA factory assessments online.”
Sewing jackets in
Shenzhen, China.
OUR SUPPLIERS24SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201825
For years, the official grievance
channel for workers in our supplier
factories sat dormant. Even if workers
had access to email,
they would have struggled with
the English email address.
Last year, we introduced a new
method through the ubiquitous
Chinese social media platform
WeChat that worked by scanning a
QR code. The hope was that workers
would be able to contact us if they
weren’t being treated fairly in their
workplace, even though it can
sometimes go against traditional
Chinese culture to make such a
complaint.
There are signs that these cultural
norms are shifting. This year, we
received our first grievance from
workers in our supply chain. It
became an opportunity to test our
systems and drive real improvements
for workers.
The workers reported various
health and safety breaches and
that the factory was subcontracting
work to other factories without our
knowledge or approval.
RELYING ON TRANSPARENCY
“CSR and human rights relies on us
being able to inspect and do audits so
we can say with confidence that the
people are being treated well,” says
Corporate Social Responsibility
Manager Gary Shaw. “It relies on
transparency. That’s why our terms
of trade don’t allow outsourcing
without asking our permission first.”
COLLABORATING FOR IMPACT
The grievance was sent to Kathmandu
and to MEC in Canada. Kathmandu
approached four other brands with
production at the same factory.
Together, the six companies made up
almost all the factory’s business.
“We knew that, through collaboration
and joint problem solving, our efforts
would have greater impact due to our
group influence at the facility,”
Gary says.
Initially, the factory denied the charge,
but eventually conceded they had
covered up subcontracting.
“In the end, they were very apologetic,”
Gary says. “They seemed surprised
that we genuinely wanted to know
about their problems so we could help
them improve. I think they assumed
that we only cared about having our
boxes ticked at audit time. They have
said they didn’t understand the value
we placed on transparency.”
ELEVATING STANDARDS
The factory is now working with
our ethical sourcing partner
ELEVATE on a six-month improvement
programme. Kathmandu’s China-
based CSR specialist is also running
training to help the company build
more robust internal grievance
mechanisms for the factory.
“It starts with us having to explain
to them why we care about their
workers and why our customers care,”
Gary says. “They have gone on a
journey of improvement, which all the
brands will be watching closely. We
will keep working with them as long
as they are willing to improve.
Working together on these problems
is where the real opportunity for
change exists.”
Outside Ho Chi Minh City, TGI’s
two factories make fleece and
woven garments for Kathmandu.
TGI CEO is Ms Nguyen Bao Tran,
who was trained by the Chairman,
Mr Vu Duc Giang, to take this role.
Mr Giang says his philosophy with
rural factories is to find local talent
and train them through to senior
management. Along with the CEO,
six of the seven senior management
are women.
Kathmandu Sourcing Manager Phil
Bailey says, “I have been to more
than 1000 factories in my career, and
only a handful of those are run by
wo m e n."
TGI has taken other initiatives
to look after workers. It uses
mindset training to help workers
set goals and to help them grow
into management roles.
Both factories have water recycling
systems. At one, the water supplies
a small farm that helps to feed the
workers, who are split between
their two factories according to
their food preferences.
The company also rewards employees’
children with money for each year of
school they complete. In 2018, they
gave financial prizes to 218 children of
workers. TGI also gives university
scholarships to rural children.
Phil says the TGI factories rate
highly for quality, delivery and
corporate responsibility. As a result,
Kathmandu has increased its orders
through the factory.
CASE STUDY
SUPPLIER SPOTLIGHT
WeChat complaint
opens doors for
improvement.
Women-run factory
recycles water to feed
workers fresh vegetables.
“CSR and human
rights relies on us
being able to inspect
and do audits so
we can say with
confidence that the
people are being
treated well.”
GARY SHAW
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY MANAGER
A Kathmandu employee runs
training to help build better
grievance mechanisms.
Workers from TGI, a supplier outside
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
26SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR SUPPLIERSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201827
Moving the dial
on human rights.
AUSTRALIAN MODERN
SL AVERY ACT
The Australian Modern Slavery Act is
currently in the process of being
legislated . The law is similar to others
in the UK and USA, which
acknowledge that there are more
people in slavery today than ever
before in history – 45 million people
according to estimates from the
Global Slavery Index. “A lot of them
are hiding in the global fast fashion
industry,” says Kathmandu Corporate
Social Responsibility Manager Gary
Shaw. The International Labour
Organisation reports that half of
modern slaves are in debt bondage,
working to repay impossibly high
debts. Kathmandu has policies and
practices in place to ensure that we
do not allow forced labour in any of
our production facilities. The
legislation requires companies with
more than $80 million in revenue to
submit an annual report showing the
work they are doing to insure there is
no forced labour in
their supply chain. “All companies
have a role to play,” Gary says.
WORKER VOICE
Our audit partner ELEVATE has
partnered with Laborlink, an
award-winning mobile platform
that establishes a two-way
communication channel for
workers to share their viewpoints
in real time and for companies to
have clear visibility of worker
wellbeing in their supply chains. From
2018, every full audit we conduct will
be integrated with Laborlink and
allow us to ask our workers specific
questions about their safety and
wellbeing. This tool will facilitate
better detection and risk analysis,
enhanced reporting and prevention
by engaging with vulnerable workers
in hard-to-reach places.
OBOZ
With the acquisition of Oboz footwear,
Kathmandu will add Vietnamese
footwear factories to its list of
suppliers. These will be transitioned
into the Kathmandu corporate social
responsibility programme in the
second half of 2018. “We’ll be learning
from the good work that Oboz has
done in CSR and looking forward to
aligning best practices across our
brands,” says Gary.
Workers in Shanghai sewing
the women’s hooded pullover.
“All companies
have a role to
play in making
sure there is no
forced labour.”
GARY SHAW
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY MANAGER
Our Products.
MANU RASTOGI
RESPONSIBLE MATERIALS MANAGER
“Change comes from
an understanding
between two humans.”
OUR PRODUCTSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20182928SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Summit Club member Ben
on location in Kaikoura.
30SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR PRODUCTSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201831
Combining forces
for better material
choices.
Wool or polypropylene? Down or
synthetic? Hemp or cotton?
Consumers are asked to make these
choices every day. We all want to do
the right thing, but the answer is
rarely clear.
One tool that we use at Kathmandu
is the Higg Materials Sustainability
Index (Higg MSI). This online database
is available to anyone at msi.higg.org.
It has been developed by the
Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC),
a group of businesses from the
apparel, footwear and textile
industry who have come together
to make it easier for the industry to
measure and reduce impacts.
LEARNING TOGETHER
SAC’s framework for this is called
the Higg Index. It’s an online self-
assessment tool that lets companies
measure their impacts across the
entire business and see how they’re
doing compared to other companies.
The Higg Index is an unprecedented
industry collaboration. It’s a resource
that no single company could ever
have hoped to build on its own.
By doing all the heavy lifting,
calculations and assessments in
the background, brands are
empowered to make better choices.
The Higg MSI collects data from
the industry, for the industry.
The SAC uses the data to conduct
environmental assessments from
raw production through to finishing.
This produces a measure of how a
material impacts on things like
climate change, water scarcity and
pollution. Centralising all of this into
one index means that everyone is
using the same process to arrive at an
impact score. Without this, it would
be impossible to make comparisons.
The Higg MSI is constantly being
improved as more data feeds in.
You might be surprised at some of
the results.
SURPRISING IMPACTS
We tend to think of cotton as good
because it’s a natural material and
polyester as bad because it’s made
from petrochemicals. But the Higg
MSI rates the impact of polypro at
39 and the impact of conventional
cotton at 98 (a lower score equals
lower impact). But the story doesn’t
end there. Diving into the cotton
impacts, you can see that growing
the cotton makes up the bulk of the
impact, contributing a whopping 66
points. Choosing a more sustainable
raw material source reduces the
impact dramatically. If a designer can
swap conventional cotton for recycled
cotton, they can reduce the material
source impacts to almost zero and
cut out the dying process completely,
bringing the impact score down to
just 27 points.
Simple? Not exactly. But it’s a
valuable tool for our teams to make
informed decisions based on very
detailed assessments of the impacts.
“It’s not perfect,” says Group
Product Operations Manager
Tara Strangwick, “but all the world’s
heavyweights have got a better
chance if they’re working together.”
END OF LIFE
The Higg MSI measures impacts up to
finished materials, but of course that
is only about halfway through the
lifecycle of a garment. Turning
finished material into a product that
adapts to your needs and lasts a
lifetime is our job. After that, it’s over
to our customers to put our products
to good use and to manage the
impacts of washing and disposal, so,
we’re also building resources to guide
customers on the best ways to care
for our products along with easier
ways to send products back for repair.
The journey continues. It’s exciting
to see solutions emerging and to
know that together we can make
a difference.
For our full list of priority of preferred
materials, visit
www.kathmandu.co.nz/corporate-
responsibility/responsible-materials.
We tend to think
of cotton as good
because it’s a
natural material
and polyester
as bad because
it’s made from
petrochemicals.
RECYCLED
COTTON
P O LY P RO
39
27
98
CONVENTIONAL
COTTON
Recycled cotton
has a lower
environmental
impact on the
planet than
other materials,
bringing the
impact score
down to just
27 points.
32SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR PRODUCTSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201833
Number two
in the world for
materials...again.
The Textile Exchange ranked us
second out of 19 global outdoor
brands for our use of sustainable
materials for the second year in a row.
The Textile Exchange is an industry
platform where brands can
collaborate on industry challenges.
Its aim is to support companies
to transition away from conventional
fibres and materials to ‘preferred’
fibres and materials – or those
with less impacts.
TRACKING PROGRESS
The Textile Exchange’s Preferred Fiber
and Materials Market Report tracks
the progress of the textile industry
in its mission to accelerate
sustainable practices.
The 2017 report included 97 apparel
brands. Preferred cotton and
preferred down were the top
performers in the overall index
while the report cited room for
improvement amongst recycled
fibres and man-made cellulose.
MATERIALS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
By choosing preferred materials, the
industry has saved enough to meet
the needs of everyone on Earth for
13 days, enough energy to power
2.16 million 100 watt lightbulbs for
a year and the CO2 equivalent of
289 Boeing 747s flying from London
to Delhi.
In the outdoor and sports category,
we maintained our overall position as
#2, while the field grew from 14 to 19
brands. Our total score improved from
64.3/100 to 73.85/100.
Responsible Materials Manager Manu
Rastogi says, “The improvement was
primarily because of our commitment
to using 100% preferred man-made
cellulosics and because of our uptake
of recycled cotton.”
FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS
Manu says moving into the top
spot might be possible with the
introduction of Responsible Wool
Standard (RWS) products, more
recycled fibres and bio-based
materials as well as closing in on
the goal to reach 100% sustainable
cotton.
“This recognition is huge for us,”
says Group Product Operations
Manager Tara Strangwick. “The Textile
Exchange is the most recognised
industry body, and the rankings are
very detailed.”
GLOBAL SCOREBOARD
INCLUDED IN THE 100% CLUB
ON THE PREFERRED DOWN
LEADERBOARD & THE PREFERRED
MAN-MADE CELLULOSICS
LEADERBOARD
2
100%
WORLD RANKING IN THE
TEXTILE EXCHANGE PREFERRED
MATERIALS REPORT
#
6
5
by Volume on the Preferred
Down Leaderboard
by Growth on the Preferred
Down Leaderboard
#
#
ON THE R ACE-TO -THE-
TOP LEADERBOARD FOR
PREFERRED COTTON
BY VOLUME ON THE
RECYCLED COTTON
LEADERBOARD
9#
10#
“This really
validates that
our approach
to materials is
corre c t.”
TARA STRANGWICK
GROUP PRODUCT
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Our plastic bottle
recycling journey
7. 5
MILLION
2019
GOAL
3.9
MILLION
1.2
MILLION
6.7
MILLION
2017
2018
2016
OUR PRODUCTS34SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201835
Manufacturer
gives Kathmandu
the All-In Award.
We thought we had big ambitions
for recycling plastic bottles into
garments – starting with a 1 million
bottle goal in 2016 and growing to
a 7.5 million target for 2019. But
REPREVE, who makes most of the
recycled polyester in our range, are
aiming for 30 billion bottles by 2022
(current count is around 12 billion).
INSPIRING DESIGNERS
REPREVE has created the Champions
of Sustainability Award to inspire
designers and consumers to choose
sustainable fabrics and ultimately
help solve the problem of plastic
bottles ending up in the landfill, or
worse, in the oceans.
At the 2018 awards, Kathmandu
was recognised with the All-In Award
for integrating REPREVE extensively
into product lines from the start.
REPREVE is now used in 71 products in
the Kathmandu range, bringing this
year’s bottle count to 6.7 million.
LEARNING MORE
Responsible Materials Manager Manu
Rastogi visited the REPREVE plant in
China in March 2018 to learn more
about how the plastic bottles are
transformed into fibre.
“It’s not a fancy process,” Manu says.
“They use a mechanical grinder to
break down the bottles into plastic
chips. This means there are less
chemicals in the process.”
Manu also likes the traceability of
REPREVE. “All recycled fibres are not
alike. REPREVE uses a standard that
means we can trace the material to
make sure it comes from post-
consumer waste. REPREVE makes it
easy for us to keep track of how many
bottles we are recycling in our ranges,
which also helps us to keep improving.”
THE UNCOUNTED BOTTLES
The Kathmandu recycled polyester
bottle count only includes numbers
that have been verified by REPREVE,
but the range includes lots of other
recycled polyester too. “We only claim
bottle counts where we can back
those numbers up 100%, every time,
with traceable documentation.
I think if we converted all our recycled
plastic use, the number would be
closer to 20 million,” Manu says.
Last year, the impact of microfibres
exploded into public consciousness.
Tiny particles from our clothes are
escaping from washing machines and
into waterways where the chemicals
in those fibres are consumed by fish
life and eventually even make it back
into our food chain.
NATURAL FIBRES
ALSO CONTRIBUTE
The focus has been on polyester
fibres, which are essentially tiny pieces
of plastic. But a closer look at the
data shows that natural fibres are
also heavily treated with chemicals
and can in some cases be even worse.
To create solutions, we need to
understand the issue more clearly.
We’ve undertaken a study to quantify
Kathmandu’s impact and set a
baseline. The research is being carried
out by fabric technologist Georgia
Tangney as part of her postgraduate
research with the University of Otago.
The study is looking at how many
microfibres are generated by
Kathmandu products (including
fleece) and what the impact of
those fibres might be. It’s also
looking at solutions – measuring
the effectiveness of the Guppy Friend
microfibre filter, which is available in
Kathmandu stores.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
“There are lots of questions
about microfibres that are still
unanswered. This study will help
us understand the issue as it applies
specifically to us so we can look for
ways to manage it,” says Responsible
Materials Manager Manu Rastogi.
Microfibre research ramps
up with new study.
The Cotinga Backpack is made
with REPREVE fabric and
recycles 17 plastic bottles.
The United Nations is calling
for a “fundamental shift” in
the way water is managed.
By using more recycled cotton and
solution-dyed polyesters, we have
been able to increase our water
savings from 8.5 million bottles to
11.5 million bottles of water this year.
Our sustainable
cotton journey
59
2014
%
38
2015
%
59
2016
%
74
2017
%
100
2020
%
53
%
BCI
15
%
Organic
7
%
Fairtrade
3
%
Recycled
Sustainable
cotton breakdown
78
%
bottles worth of fresh
water saved in 2018*
11.5
MILLION
* based on 500ml bottles.
78
2018
%
36SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR PRODUCTSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201837
We’re on track
for our sustainable
cotton goal.
Because we’re narrowing in on our
target fast, it wasn’t a huge leap
when we joined the Sustainable
Cotton Communique. Driven by
Prince Charles, as part of the
Prince of Wales International
Sustainability Unit, the
communique asks brands to
commit to using only sustainable
cotton by 2025. Kathmandu is one
of 36 brands to sign up so far.
GETTING THERE
This year, we increased from 74%
to 78% sustainable cotton. A mix
of recycled cotton, Better Cotton
Initiative (BCI) cotton and organic
cotton will get us there.
Responsible Materials Manager
Manu Rastogi says the final push
to 100% is the most difficult.
“This is the long tail that is hardest
to get across the line. When you
have a glove or a sock with 5%
cotton or a big complex product
like a child carrier with a bit of
cotton, we have to find solutions
for all these last little details to
reach our goal.”
WORKING WITH SUPPLIERS
These changes require suppliers to
come on board.
“One example is our sleeping bag
stuff sacks. These are made from
80% polyester and 20% cotton.
All up, this represented just 0.13%
of the cotton we use, but to get it
across the line we had to engage
with the supplier, educate them
about why this is important to us,
introduce them to the BCI, and
have all the discussions about
quality and cost that go along
with any changes.
“At the end of the day, the change
comes from a face-to-face
conversation and an
understanding between two
humans. It’s never as simple as
just swapping out the fabric,
but hopefully the process helps
shift the needle for the industry
as a whole.”
Cotton harvesting at a Fairtrade cotton farm
run by our supplier Pratibha Syntex in India.
OUR PRODUCTSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20183938SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
This year, we launched the
EarthColors Hoodie. It was a
challenge thrown down by our
designers – what’s the most
sustainable hoodie we can make?
The starting point was the
EarthColors dye, a natural organic
dye made by global dye house
Archroma from agricultural waste.
The inedible parts of nuts, fruits and
seeds are used to create a
sustainable non-petroleum dye
alternative.
TRACEABLE DYES
Apparel designer Keb Brabazon says,
“I love the fact that, with EarthColors,
you can trace it all the way back to
the land and that there is a face to
the people making this stuff. By
investing in these new technologies,
we help build capacity so that
eventually we can incorporate these
things into all of our products.” But
the design team didn’t stop there.
DESIGN TRANSFORMATION
“The design process has been about
transforming an ordinary hoodie
into a ground-breaking garment.
Every detail has been questioned,”
says Keb. “From eyelets to trims to
packaging – we just keep asking
ourselves how can we make these
more sustainable?”
The trim is a blend of BCI cotton and
REPREVE recycled polyester. The logo
print has been done using a low-
impact dye.
JUST THE START
The EarthColors Hoodie was the start
of our garment dyeing programme.
This year, the design team will look
for more opportunities to incorporate
these sustainable materials and
processes into the range. A range
of shirts, pants and tees will be
launched later this year.
Bio-based synthetics
will help meet growing
global textile demand.
As part of our work helping to
push the industry needle on
sustainability with the Textile
Exchange, Kathmandu has joined
the biosynthetic working group.
Biosynthetics are made from
natural, renewable resources.
These could be crops like corn or
sugarcane, waste from agriculture
or forestry industries or non-food
sources like fungi and bacteria.
With the global demand for textiles
expected to more than double by
2050, these emerging fibres will be
critical to building a more sustainable
industry. Unlike petrochemical-based
fibres, biosynthetics can even mitigate
climate change by absorbing CO2
during the growth phase.
The working group is pulling together
metrics and lifecycle data so that
impacts can be quantified and
compared.
Kathmandu Responsible Materials
Manager Manu Rastogi is part of
the working group. “The lifecycle
analysis tells us that the first
generation biosynthetics, which
come from crops, compete with the
food industry. We need to work on
more alternatives in the second and
third generation that are from
waste and non-food sources.”
The EarthColors Hoodie released by
Kathmandu in 2017 is an example
of a second-generation biosynthetic.
Agricultural waste replaced fossil-fuel
based dyes.
Design challenge
delivers most
sustainable
range yet.
“I love the fact that,
with EarthColors, you
can trace it all the way
back to the land...”
KEB BRABAZON
APPAREL DESIGNER
Kathmandu team member Jacinta
wearing the latest EarthColor range
on location in Sapa, Vietnam.
OUR PRODUCTS40SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201841
Synthetic down
jacket takes home
Gold Award.
We’ll always argue that there’s no
substitute for down when it comes
to performance. That’s why we’ve
worked hard to make sure 100% of
our down is certified by the
Responsible Down Standard.
There will always be a place for down,
but that doesn’t stop us from looking
at alternatives. ThermoPlume by
PrimaLoft is the first down-like
synthetic that has passed our
standards for performance and
production. It is easy to wash,
fast to dry and keeps you warm
even when wet.
We used ThermoPlume in our
Lawrence travel jacket, which
won a Gold Award at the ISPO
outdoor product fair.
“This is our first true down alternative,”
says Responsible Materials Manager
Manu Rastogi. “It’s a great alternative
for people who don’t want to buy
animal products.”
But Manu says that, on performance
and sustainability scores, down still
wins.
“The Higgs Materials Sustainability
Index looks at the overall
sustainability of a huge list of
materials according to a lifecycle
analysis. Down rates number two. I
am a vegetarian myself, but as long
as people in China are eating geese
and ducks, down will be an extremely
sustainable by product of that
industry.”
“This is the first true
down alternative for
people who don’t want
to buy animal products.”
MANU RASTOGI
RESPONSIBLE
MATERIALS MANAGER
Summit Club member Hannah
wearing the Lawrence Jacket on
location in Wanaka, New Zealand.
45k
CARE AND REPAIR
Product RecallsProduct Recalls
04907
REPAIRS
Inspections
270
OUR PRODUCTS42SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201843
Our customers rely on us to keep
them safe in the outdoors. This is a
big responsibility. This year, we have
two safety issues to report. A
customer reported frostbite when
wearing Kathmandu XT Fitzgerald
Unisex NGX Alpine Mountaineering
Boots. The boots were being used in
conditions outside their intended use
so the problem was more a problem
with the quality of advice given than
the quality of the product.
The customer received professional
medical attention and the retail
general manager worked through and
resolved the complaint with the
c u s to m e r.
In January, a power bank was
reported as exploding and catching
fire in a backpack at Melbourne
Airport. There were no injuries but it
was investigated and
a report forwarded to Melbourne
Airport Security.
Customer health
and safety.
Designing with a
sustainability lens.
Keeping an
eye on quality.
Kathmandu designers are using
a tool from the Sustainable Apparel
Coalition (SAC) to score and
improve the sustainability of
products at the design stage.
The Higg Index is a self-assessment
tool that is used throughout
Kathmandu to measure sustainability
and benchmark performance against
others in the industry.
RIGHT DOWN TO THE TRIMS
Designers use the Higg Design
Development Module (Higg DDM) to
score a product by rating the
sustainability of the materials – right
down to trims and tiny details. Once
scored, a product can be
benchmarked against
other Kathmandu products and those
of competitors, challenging designers
to continually look for ways to
improve the sustainability score.
“It brings in a sense of competition
for our designers – looking at how to
beat their score,” says Kathmandu
Head of Design Darren Barry. “Two
designers have gone through the Higg
DDM this year as a trial and
we will introduce more products
and designers next year.”
Darren says the Higg DDM helps
designers stop and consider impacts
early on. “It’s resetting the way you
design. You have to ask, if I choose
this product or this trim, what impact
am I going to have?”
IT’S IN OUR DNA
Sustainability is part of Kathmandu’s
product design DNA. “Whenever a
designer is starting a new concept,
they have to look at the four design
philosophies: original, engineered,
adaptive, sustainable,” Darren says.
He makes the point that
sustainability cannot override
performance. “Durability is key to
sustainability. I think a lot of
consumers are pushing back from the
whole concept of fast fashion and the
throwaway culture. We are offering an
alternative as a stylish technical
outdoor brand with strong
sustainability principles.”
To make products with less impact,
they need to last. To make sure our
products meet quality standards,
we carry out planned inspections
on high-risk products when they reach
our distribution centres. Reactive
quality inspections are done when a
team member or a customer raises
a concern about a product. When
the team receives negative feedback,
they investigate the root cause of the
issue and consider the impact on the
c u s to m e r.
“We make products for activities of
consequence, and we need to ensure
that our gear meets and exceeds
customer expectations” says Group
Product Operations Manager Tara
Strangwick. But performing
inspections at distribution centres in
New Zealand and Australia is not the
answer to improve manufacturing
quality. To that end, we are working
on creating and rolling out a
Quality Excellence programme to
better manage product quality at the
point of manufacture. As well
as reactive inspections, Kathmandu
has also been working with a third-
party inspection company to verify
product quality for high-risk
products prior to shipment.
“We can only improve product quality
by working with our manufacturing
partners at a factory level so that
they are fully aligned with our
inspection and quality standards,”
Tara says. “We look forward to sharing
more about this programme
as it unfolds.”
“Durability
is key to
sustainability.”
DARREN BARRY
KATHMANDU
HEAD OF DESIGN
“We make products
for activities of
consequence,
and we need to
ensure that our
gear meets and
exceeds customer
expectations.”
TARA STRANGWICK
GROUP PRODUCT
OPERATIONS MANAGER
44SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR PRODUCTSSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201845
Our responsible
wool journey
2019
First
products
in store
2016
RWS launched and
Kathmandu became
part of the industry
working group
FUR-FREE FIRST FOR
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
Kathmandu has become the first
retailer in the southern hemisphere
to join the Four Paws Global Fur-Free
Retailer programme.
Four Paws is an international animal
protection group that opposes the
fur industry’s treatment of animals.
The group says the global fur trade
sources 95% of its fur from animals
forced to live in small wire cages.
Now running in more than 20
countries, Fur-Free Retailer includes
more than 880 major labels.
“Caring for the welfare of animals is
important to Kathmandu because it is
important to our customers, our team
members and our shareholders. We
are proud to be considered a leader in
this space and encourage other
retailers to join and make the pledge
to eliminate animal fur in any of their
products,” says Ben Ryan, Kathmandu
General Manager of Product.
LEATHER WORKING GROUP
This year, we signed up to the Leather
Working Group, a consortium of
around 400 brands who are focusing
on environmental impacts at the
tannery level.
Kathmandu uses leather in footwear
only. Responsible Materials Manager
Manu Rastogi visited tanneries this
year to seek answers to some of his
questions.
“Tanneries use huge amounts of
water, chemicals and waste. Only
20–25% of an animal skin (based
on weight) is turned into leather,
so I wanted to know where the rest
goes. I also wanted to know more
about what chemicals are used and
what happens to those chemicals.
I’m also interested in the traceability
of the leather. Do they know where
it has come from?” says Manu.
“Leather is a bit like down. It’s OK to
use as long as we address the issues.
Just like down, leather is a byproduct
of the meat industry so as long as we
manage the chemical and water use
and can trace the source, it can be
pretty sustainable.”
Already, 100% of
leather used in
Kathmandu footwear
comes from tanneries
that are certified gold
or silver by the Leather
Working Group.
Responsible wool
lands in store.
Next January, Kathmandu will
be the first brand in the southern
hemisphere to have Responsible
Wool Standard (RWS) products on
the shelf.
This comes after years of working
with farmers and others in the
supply chain to convince them of
the value of the programme.
The RWS is an animal welfare and
land management standard
developed by the industry under
the Textile Exchange umbrella. Like
the Responsible Down Standard,
the RWS aims to create a
traceable certification programme
that ensures animals and land
have been looked after right
through the supply chain. The RWS
prohibits the practice of mulesing,
where strips are cut from the
sheep’s rear. This is still common in
Australia but has been phased out
in New Zealand.
“We’ve finally done it,” says
Responsible Materials Manager
Manu Rastogi. “It happened by
engaging deeply with farmers and
supply chain partners, helping
them understand the vision and
helping to make it their vision too.
That’s how we change the status
quo and make sustainability stick.”
“That’s how we
change the status
quo and make
sustainability stick.”
MANU RASTOGI
RESPONSIBLE
MATERIALS MANAGER
Tiber ngx hiking boots are made with
leather from tanneries that are certified
by the Leather Working Group.
Our Footprint.
“Carbon credits give
us a land purchase
fund. That means
regenerating forest
and more carbon
being fixed.”
HUGH WILSON
BOTANIST AND HINEWAI
RESERVE MANAGER
OUR FOOTPRINTSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20184746SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Hugh Wilson uses carbon credit
funds to restore native forest on
Banks Peninsula.
Smart reductions
make sense to
the bottom line.
Our environmental footprint is a way
to measure our impact on our planet.
Only when armed with an accurate
measure can we take meaningful
steps towards reducing our footprint.
Carbon and waste are our biggest
impacts as a business. We are guided
by the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals as we look for
ways to be part of a shift towards
a more circular economy.
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
Goal 12 is all about sustainable
consumption and production patterns.
This means using resources more
efficiently and minimising waste.
This year, we took steps in both of
these areas, having our carbon
accounting system certified by a third
party and increasing the percentage
of our waste diverted from landfills.
DOUBLE BOTTOM LINE
The good news is that both of
these are driven not just by those
looking after our environmental
impact but also by those looking
after the bottom line.
“Using and managing resources
responsibly like recycling and reducing
energy consumption is a bit like good
housekeeping,” says Chief Operating
and Financial Officer Reuben Casey.
“This is something we can all
contribute to.”
“Recycling and reducing
energy consumption is a bit
like good housekeeping.”
REUBEN CASEY
CHIEF OPERATING & FINANCIAL OFFICER
48SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR FOOTPRINTSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201849
Kathmandu’s Christchurch support
office is one of three 5 Green Star rated
buildings the company operates.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation
estimates that 98% of plastics being
produced today come from virgin
plastic. This is because most plastic is
not recycled and a worrying amount
is either sent to landfills (40%) or into
the environment (32%).
A few years ago, in our eagerness
to run a more sustainable business,
we set an ambitious zero waste goal.
LEARNING FIRST
“When we set the target, we didn’t
even know what waste we were
producing,” says Kathmandu
Sustainability Specialist Oliver Milliner.
“We hadn’t done any waste audits.”
Aspirational goals help us achieve
aspirational results. We started
with audits that helped us
understand where our waste
comes from. We created waste
scorecards for each store so we
can see exactly what is recycled.
“A key learning was that clear plastic
was our biggest waste to landfill
issue,” Oliver says. “88% of our stores
are recycling their clear plastics now.”
Another challenge is landlords
who control recycling in many of
the shopping centres where our
stores operate.
“I’m really proud that this year we
recycled 100% of plastic polybags
from stores in New Zealand. All up,
we have saved 15 tonnes of soft
plastics from landfill,” Oliver says.
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS
To achieve this, we employed some
new solutions. “We were down to just
five stores where recycling was not
available, so we got the stores to
package up all their polybags and
send them to stores in larger centres
where they could be recycled.”
We did look at eliminating polybags
completely, but nothing else does as
good a job at getting product to
store undamaged. We figured out
that damaged stock would have
more impact on waste than
recyclable polybags.
“I’m really proud
that this year we
recycled 100% of
plastic polybags
across stores in
New Zealand.”
OLIVER MILLINER
KATHMANDU
SUSTAINABILITY SPECIALIST
Store waste
breakdown
50
% Paper/
Cardboard
10
% Co-mingled
recycling
30
% Polybags and
shrink wrap
10
% Non-recycled
material
Over 15 tonnes of soft
plastics now being
recycled each year.
80
2018
%
69
72
2016
2017
%
%
Our overall
recycling rate
98
% Paper/
Cardboard
27
% Co-mingled
recycling
88
% Polybags and
shrink wrap
Sustainability Specialist Oliver Milliner, left, talks to
Hugh MacEwan of Waste Management at the
recycling transfer station in Christchurch.
50SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR FOOTPRINTSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201851
We’ve set a goal to reduce the
emissions we’re directly responsible
for by 20% from 2012 levels by 2020.
New Zealand emissions are already
low because of the high amount of
renewable energy we use. In Australia,
where coal power is still the primary
source of electricity, the footprint is
larger.
A growing business comes with
growing emissions, but we’re focusing
on reducing our per-store footprint.
This year, we achieved certification
under the Carbon Emissions
Measurement And
Reduction Scheme (CEMARS).
CEMARS
®
is globally recognised as
one of the most rigorous carbon
emission verification programmes.
CEMARS
®
auditors spent three days
assessing and verifying our scope
1, 2 and 3 emissions as well as our
management and reduction strategy.
Our carbon footprint gets
audited and certified.
Our carbon offsetting
regenerates native forest.
In 2016, we started a programme to offset
all of our business air travel emissions
through the Hinewai Reserve on New
Zealand’s Banks Peninsula. The Hinewai
project focuses on the regeneration of
native vegetation and habitat for wildlife.
Renowned botanist and Hinewai
Reserve Manager Hugh Wilson says,
“Most important of all is carbon credits
give us a land purchase fund. That means
more land going into regenerating forest
and more carbon being fixed.”
4788
2020
20
% REDUCTION
OF 2012 CO2
646488142
2016
7387
2016
45.9
TONNES CO2
2017
45.4
TONNES CO2
2018
41.7
TONNES CO2
TONNES CO2
OUR FOOTPRINT52SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201853
OUR CARBON JOURNEY
TOTAL EMISSIONS
TRANSPORT EMISSIONS
6477
6222
879
630
2017
2018
AUSNZUK
7356
6852
TONNES CO2
TONNES CO2
CARBON EMISSIONS PER STORE
851 TONNE OF STOCK MOVED2367 CO2 TONNE26017 TONNE OF STOCK MOVED
956 CO2 TONNE2
Our Community.
The Australian Himalayan
Foundation supports education
for Nepalese children.
OUR COMMUNITYSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20185554SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
At Kathmandu, we believe travel and
adventure is life-changing. That’s why
experiences and learning sit at the
heart of all our community work.
Our community strategy starts with
empowering our customers to use
travel and adventure to make a
difference in the world. We do this
with our Adventure Sponsorship
programme, which supports Summit
Club members on purpose-driven
adventures. This is a way for our
customers to tell us what is most
important to them.
At a local level, we encourage team
members and customers to be more
active in sustainability through beach
clean ups and tree planting.
Globally, we focus on the region
that inspired our brand, Nepal.
Experiences drive our work here too,
from the Neverest Challenge in
Australia to fundraising treks to
Everest Base Camp.
RAISING MONEY FOR AHF WITH
THE NEVEREST CHALLENGE
Not everyone can make it to the
world’s highest mountain, but anyone
can climb 8848 metres. This is the
idea behind Neverest, a series of
fundraising events that challenges
individuals or teams to climb the big
one, without leaving Australia. This
year, we sponsored events in Sydney,
Canberra and Melbourne where 467
participants raised $45,143 that the
AHF puts toward health, education
and environmental work in Nepal.
At Kathmandu, we believe travel and
adventure is life-changing. That’s why
experiences and learning sit at the
heart of all our community work.
Our community strategy starts with
empowering our customers to use
travel and adventure to make a
difference in the world. We do this
with our Adventure Sponsorship
programme, which supports Summit
Club members on purpose-driven
adventures. This is a way for our
customers to tell us what is most
important to them.
At a local level, we encourage team
members and customers to be more
active in sustainability through beach
clean ups and tree planting.
Globally, we focus on the region
that inspired our brand, Nepal.
Experiences drive our work here too,
from the Neverest Challenge in
Australia to fundraising treks to
Everest Base Camp.
GIVING BACK TO
NEPAL WITH EDUCATION
The place that inspired our name
will always have a special place
in our hearts. The global arm of
our community strategy aims
to improve the lives of the people
of Nepal.
To do this we work alongside our
partners, the Australian Himalayan
Foundation (AHF) and the New
Zealand Himalayan Trust (NZHF).
This year, we’ve increased the ways
that our team and customers can
be a part of this mission.
Learning from
our community
of adventurers.
69
PARTICIPANTS
EVERESTING
NEVEREST
CHALLENGE
3
Locations
477
PARTICIPANTS
Raised
45k
$
Raised
54k
$
Neverest participants
OUR COMMUNITY56SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201857
EVERESTING IN MAY
WITH THE STRAVA APP
Everesting is an idea started by the
grandson of British Everest climber
George Mallory. While training to
retrace his grandfather’s footsteps,
George used cycling as part of his
training and started tracking his
vertical climb to the height of the
famous peak. Twenty years later,
Everesting is still a thing. We helped
raise money for the NZHF using the
fitness app Strava. We challenged our
staff and customers to climb 8848
metres during the month of May.
People chose the way they wanted
to participate. Some ran, some biked.
One of our Kathmandu teams in the
Melbourne support office even got
together and did 8848 squats.
GIVING BACK TO
NEPAL WITH EDUCATION
The place that inspired our name
will always have a special place
in our hearts. The global arm of
our community strategy aims
to improve the lives of the people
of Nepal.
To do this we work alongside our
partners, the Australian Himalayan
Foundation (AHF) and the New
Zealand Himalayan Trust (NZHF).
This year, we’ve increased the ways
that our team and customers can
be a part of this mission..
THE YAK THAT GAVE BACK
Last Christmas, thousands of
customers bought a yak ornament
to take home or give as a gift.
This generosity raised $45,000 for
the people of Nepal, allowing the AHF
to deliver education programmes
to 42,000 children and 1700 teachers
in more than 800 schools.
The yak is one of the most enduring
symbols of the high Himalayas.
Kathmandu covered the cost of
purchasing 4500 yaks, which were
hand made by the people of Nepal.
This meant that 100% of the
purchase price could go to the
AHF’s programmes.
“There’s no greater gift that you
can give than education,” says
AHF Chairman Simon Balderstone.
Nepalese trekking guides in
Dusa Village, Solu Khumbu, Nepal.
New Artist Series
supports art
therapy in Nepal.
Nepalese illustrator Shradda Shrestha
created our first Artist Series
collection to raise money for the
Australian Himalayan Foundation.
Shradda won the 2015 AHF Art Award,
which gave her the opportunity to
focus on her work and open her first
exhibit. It also led to her being invited
to collaborate with Kathmandu on its
first Artist Series.
Kathmandu invited Shradda to
Christchurch, where she collaborated
with local street artist Wongi to
create two artworks in the laneways
around Kathmandu’s central city
support office. The artworks were
created as part of an event with
music and Nepalese food.
Shradda says there are a lot of
opportunities for artists in Nepal.
“Since the local contemporary art
scene is not very old, there are many
mediums, materials, histories and
places still to be explored. People are
still sceptical about taking up art as
their career, so there are not many
artists who practise art full-time.
So there are many things that need
to be done to tighten this gap and
give Nepal a presence in the global
art scene.”
Christchurch street artist Wongi is
the second artist to be a part of
the series. He travelled to Nepal
with a Kathmandu trekking group to
experience the work of AHF first hand.
For each t-shirt sold in Australia,
Kathmandu gives $5 to AHF to
support their annual art awards
and art therapy camps for children
who are suffering the effects of the
devastating 2015 earthquakes.
In New Zealand, donations go to
the Himalayan Trust New Zealand.
Our guided treks
raise money for
the people of Nepal.
AHF Art Award winner Shradda Shrestha
designed the first Artist Series t-shirts and
visited Christchurch to create a street art work
in the lane behind Kathmandu’s head office.
58SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR COMMUNITYSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201859
AT EVEREST
BASE CAMP
BHUTAN
26
PEOPLE
TREKS
NZ HIMALAYAN TRUSTAUSTRALIAN HIMALAYAN FOUNDATION
JUNE 2017
OCTOBER
2017
RAISED
25k
$
9278
$
RAISED
People
26
Summit Club members raise money for
the Australian Himalayan Trust by
joining our treks in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Adventure Sponsorship
supports 70 women on
Antarctic leadership
expedition.
The Summit Club Adventure
Sponsorship programme aims to
inspire and equip more of our Summit
Club members to travel with purpose.
In February, we supported 70
women scientists on a leadership
expedition to Antarctica. The
ambitious Homeward Bound project
aims to empower 1000 women in
the science, technology, engineering,
mathematics and medicine (STEMM)
fields to become decision makers
who can influence policy.
The organisation is pushing back
against the 60% attrition rate for
women in STEMM fields. Co-founder
Jess Melbourne-Thomas says, “The
voice of women in translating science
into informed, sustainable decision
making is missing – or at least very,
very soft. It matters because it’s
women who may stand to lose the
most from poor environmental
decision making.”
Homeward Bound is challenging the
role of women in STEMM fields and
using leadership training to open
doors for participants like PhD
candidate Briony Ankor.
“Travelling and adventure provides
excellent means to developing
leadership skills,” Briony says.
“You have to learn to think on your
feet, be prepared for anything, get
creative to solve problems along the
way. Travel makes you step out
beyond your comfort zone. But that
is where the magic happens.”
The all-female exhibition has made
two leadership trips to Antarctica,
equipped with 100 Kathmandu XT
DriFill Jackets and cameras to capture
their experiences on the ice.
1250km
6853km6124km
SUMMIT CLUB ADVENTURE SPONSORSHIP
Ran
Paddled
Hiked
2
RESEARCH
EXPEDITIONS
TO THE ARCTIC
1
RESEARCH
EXPEDITION
TO ANTARCTICA
Kathmandu supported the Homeward
Bound leadership programme to take
70 women to Antarctica.
OUR COMMUNITYSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20186160SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
At Kathmandu, we think a lot about
waste. We calculate and measure and
divert store waste as we work towards
our zero waste to landfill goal.
But the real impacts of waste are
never more tangible than when you’re
standing on what should be a pristine
beach with a foul sack of rubbish.
This year, we partnered with
Sustainable Coastlines for a tree
planting event and a beach clean-up.
Staff and Summit Club members
planted 1600 trees and collected
15,500 pieces of rubbish.
Sustainable Coastlines Co-founder
Camden Howitt says people who
come along usually leave with a more
tangible understanding of waste –
especially the staying power of
plastics. They meet new people
and importantly, have fun. “We
pride ourselves on the events
being infused with fun and adventure
being a core part of them.”
Camden says a shared love of the
outdoors makes the partnership work.
“We always refer to a quote from
Jacques Cousteau – people protect
what they love, and there’s research
to show that’s true. A love of the
outdoors is common between
Kathmandu and Sustainable
Coastlines, and it’s crucial to
sustainability,” Camden says.
He says the partnership has helped
Sustainable Coastlines to have
conversations about sustainability
and the protection of waterways with
tens of thousands, if not hundreds of
thousands of new people.
In Australia, we partnered with
Tangaroa Blue Foundation to run a
series of beach clean-ups in Brisbane,
Sydney, Melbourne and Perth on 15
April. A total of 464 kilograms of
rubbish was collected by 127
participants. The rubbish was audited
for the Australian Marine Debris
Database and included common
items like food packaging, plastic
straws, cigarette butts and Easter egg
wrappers as well as more unusual
items including a drone.
Summit Club
members help
protect places
we love.
RUBBISH
COLLECTED
Trees planted
1600
Participants
260
SUMMIT CLUB VOLUNTEERING
Oboz acquisition
adds to tree planting.
Oboz was acquired by
Kathmandu this year.
The Bozeman, Montana-based
company plants a tree for every
pair sold – totalling 1,931,527
since it was founded in 2007.
“A love of the
outdoors is
common between
Kathmandu and
Sustainable
Coastlines and
it’s crucial to
sustainability.”
CAMDEN HOWITT
SUSTAINABLE COASTLINES
CO-FOUNDER
OUR COMMUNITYSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20186362SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
520
465
litres (NZ)
kg (AU)
We partnered with Sustainable
Coastlines to remove 520 litres of waste
from Motutapu Island near Auckland.
Our
Team.
“Twenty-one years
later and I’m still
here. Kathmandu
has really helped
me become who
I am.”
FALE MAOAMA
KATHMANDU’S LONGEST-SERVING
CURRENT EMPLOYEE
OUR TEAMSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20186564SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
Fale Maoama, Jaspreet Kaur and
Rebecca Groom at the Christchurch
central city store.
CAPABILITY
We have continued our focus on
the development of our teams.
For our store teams, we’ve been
working on improving our induction
and onboarding programme. “We
know that, if we don’t grab someone’s
interest in that first day or week, they
might not last six months,” says Kelly
Hopkins, Group Learning and
Development Manager. “We also
understand that it needs to be more
than just the first few days and that
it’s important to allow time and
resources for team members to take
in everything they need to learn, at a
pace that helps them feel confident
and capable.”
This year, we have ensured new store
managers begin their Kathmandu
journey with a dedicated week of
training in a host store with an
experienced manager and created
a framework with regular check-ins
for the first three months until
induction is completed.
To further develop our store teams, we
partnered with Christchurch company
RedSeed to deliver retail-specific
training. All our store managers
receive training on coaching and
recruiting that involves online learning
modules as well as personalised online,
and in-person coaching from their
designated coach.
“We’re really investing in our store
managers to give them training on
how to develop the talent in their
team. The retail environment can be
challenging, but there are so many
skills to be learned – teamwork,
communication, organisation, time
management – not to mention
learning about visual merchandising
or inventory control. Like many of
our support office team members,
I started in retail and it gave me great
experience that I’ve carried all the way
through my career. I have enjoyed
every step because of the great
leaders and managers I encountered,”
says Kelly.
This year, we awarded one store
manager who has excelled at
developing their team with a trek in
Nepal. “We often base our rewards on
sales results, so it was great to be
able to recognise leadership skills too.”
Building capability with access to
ongoing training is the third pillar of
our People Plan. Team members
across the business have attended
various training courses throughout
the year including Marketing and
presentation skills etc. New team
leaders are supported with leadership
training and our wider leadership
team all participated in workshops
focused on personality styles and
leadership.
For more information, please see our
appendix with all the data and tables:
https://www.kathmandu.co.nz/
corporate-responsibility/reports-and-
policies.
Our human resources team has a
vision of enabling future innovation
and delivery of business performance
through safe and engaged high
performance teams. Safety, talent
and capability form the three pillars
of our three-year People Plan, which is
now in its second year of execution.
SAFETY
“Getting people home safely is and
always will be our number one
priority,” says General Manager for
Human Resources Rebecca Edwards.
“Team members all across our business
are putting safety first, and we are
well on our way to embedding a
strong safety culture at Kathmandu.
We have continued to raise awareness
and generate commitment right
throughout the company, which has
led to some great results this year in
our metrics on lost time and injury
frequency rates. We’re also very proud
of the continued focus in the areas of
wellbeing and mental health this year.”
TALENT
Our goal is to attract, retain and
engage a world-class team of
passionate professionals.
Team members have joined the
business from all around the globe in
the past year, and we now have 49
nationalities represented throughout
the company.
We are also proud to have supported
existing team members to develop
their careers, with 75% of roles being
filled by internal promotions this year.
With such a diverse team of
professionals, we are striving to
become a more inclusive and
progressive employer.
FLEXI-TIME
Our team members have full lives,
and we know their families, sports
and other activities are important to
them. We believe a more flexible and
supportive work environment will help
our team members be the best they
can be and help deliver the company’s
core purpose and values. To empower
team members to find the right
balance between work, life and
personal needs, we support flexible
working hours where practical. We’ve
been trialling a formal flexible working
policy in our Christchurch and
Melbourne support offices, which
defines core hours of business and
allows workers flexibility around
these core hours.
MORE TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE
This year, we also introduced a
programme that allows employees
to buy extra holiday time to pursue
their travel and adventure dreams.
By putting aside 2% of their salary
every fortnight, team members can
purchase an extra week of holiday
every six months. “This makes it
possible for people to book longer
travel adventures or get away a bit
more regularly and still have paid
le ave.”
People Plan
puts safety
first.
1997
KATHMANDU STAFF
TOTAL STAFF
NEW HIRES
MALE
STAFF TURNOVER
MALE
NEW HIRES
FEMALE
STAFF TURNOVER
FEMALE
363387528508
891
NEW HIRES
Up 0.2%
on last year
57%
53
FEMALE MANAGEMENT
EMPLOYEES TOOK
PARENTAL LEAVE
59%
FEMALE
41%
MALE
Injury rate
5.3
5.0
2017
2018
Number of lost time injuries
17
16
2017
2018
Total recordable incidents
203
189
2017
2018
OUR TEAM66SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201867
Kathmandu Brand Manager
Olivia Barclay.
From packing
boxes to managing
a central city store.
Fale Maoama as a teenager took a
job for two weeks and ended up
staying for 21 years. In that time,
she's gone from a factory picker,
quality controller, fabric sorter,
warehouse assistant, seam sealer
through to a outward supervisor. This
opened the door to a new journey
towards her desire/goals for
management. Kathmandu's longest
serving current employee explains
how great managers gave her a new
set of dreams for herself.
In June 1997, 19-year-old Fale Maoama
took a couple of weeks' temp work at
Kathmandu.
“And they just held on to me,”
she laughs.
Fale describes her teenage herself as
intensely shy. “You’d never see me
talk. I would get my sister to ring
my manager when I was sick.”
Fale's manager Martin promised that
they would love and enjoy working at
Kathmandu."Martin made it feel like
family. And so for me being this
young girl, I started to change my
mindset and my mentality. We set a
culture of respect and integrity
towards each other as well as towards
our employer, our saying was 'it's all
about give and take - it's never one
sided'. There was always appreciation
towards staff for working hard and in
turn it created an environment where
the team loved to be at work, when
they needed leave it was for genuine
reasons, staff who are parents and in
particular the working mums were
provided flexibility with their work
hours.This type of support was
appreciated by our team and added
to the family environment, we love to
have fun and lots of laughs in the
workplace too - it was really all about
the people.
“Martin made it feel like family. And so
from me being this little teenage girl,
I started to change my mindset and
my mentality. We set a culture of
respect where we were honest and
it was really about the people.”
The company was growing fast, and
soon Fale applied to be a supervisor.
She brought that culture of respect
along with her as she built up to
having 25 full time staff and 20 temp
staff working under her. She trained
2000 temp staff over eight years.
Kathmandu put Fale through
leadership development and time
management training. Her goal was
to develop teams that could run
smoothly even if she wasn't there.
As she grew into her supervisor role,
Fale started looking for her next
challenge. She applied to be a store
manager but had no customer
service or retail skills.
“I didn't get the job, but I was given
the opportunity to go into a store
every week and learn as part of my
development. I loved it! I was then
given the role of assistant manager
for Christchurch's largest store and
worked there for two years.” Fale took
on a new role, managing a store on
her own at the Christchurch CBD
central city location. In one year
(2017) Fale and her team were
awarded Kathmandu NZ Store of the
Year.
After two years as assistant
manager for a large store, Fale
has taken on a manager role at
a smaller central city store.
Fale brings her own approach with her
christian faith and her love for God to
customer service - showing kindness
and genuine care for people, because
people are important! “This is why
we’re here on the front line – to serve
with respect and with a smile.
Because people are important.”
Is this the same shy girl that got her
sister to speak for her? Fale laughs.
“I never thought I'd want to work in
retail, but Kathmandu has been so
great to me throughout, and I am
excited in knowing there is so much
more in our company that is yet to be
explored. Over all these years I have
watched it grow into a great and
successful company and I feel so
honoured and privileged to still be a
part of it.”
68SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018OUR TEAMSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201869
“I never thought I’d become
a manager. I didn’t think I
could do much in life. It did
kind of take me a while,
but now I’m just making the
most of every opportunity
within this company.“
FALE MAOAMA
KATHMANDU STORE MANAGER
Fale Maoama has worked at
Kathmandu for 21 years.
OUR TEAM70SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201871
Safety goes
beyond ladders
and boxes.
We’ve been working for the last few
years to take safety beyond ladders
and boxes. Our safety programme
now encompasses wellbeing initiatives
and mental health resources.
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS
This year, we continued our mental
health awareness campaign with
posters and a dedicated resource on
the intranet. The aim was to take
away the stigma and awkwardness
of mental health, as well as giving
managers and team members better
tools. All employees have access to a
free, confidential counselling service.
ADDICTION SUPPORT
Our work in looking at health and
safety in a wider sense was reflected
in the update of the Drug and
Alcohol Policy. “We didn’t just roll
out the policy,” says training and
Development Manager Kelly Hopkins.
“We also included an online education
module about how alcohol and drugs
impact people and about how
addiction happens. We have also
included a rehabilitation component
so that, in some circumstances we’ll
be able to support people through
rehabilitation.”
NURTURING FINANCIAL WELLBEING
We understand that financial
health impacts the wellbeing of
our employees. “Finances can have
a big impact on stress,” says Kelly.
“We’ve been working with our banking
partners to provide training on money
management. We’ve hosted seminars
and also made one-on-one financial
planning sessions available for all our
team members.”
AOTEAROA BIKE CHALLENGE
We participated in the New Zealand
Bike Challenge for the second year.
The challenge is an NZ Transport
Agency competition designed to
encourage more bike riding. The
Christchurch support office had
66% participation. Together, we
cycled 11,324km and saved 2599kg of
CO2. We were ninth in the country for
our category of workplaces.
THE GIFT OF SIGHT
FOR 2500 PEOPLE
Typical employee Christmas gifts
often don’t make it to the new year.
Last Christmas, we put our brand
lens on the gift-giving process and
took some time to think about
how we could combine what our
employees care about with our
aspirations to be a more socially
conscious company.
We partnered with TOMS eyewear
to design a collab sunglass product
featuring the Kathmandu brand
green. Because each pair of TOMS
eyewear gives sight to someone in
need, our corporate Christmas
gift actually changed the lives of
2500 people.
Full-time staff also received a Khusi
Beanie from our winter range –
a hand-knitted beanie made by
Nepalese women, which provides
education, employment and social
opportunities.
WORKPLACE GIVING
A sustainability self-assessment
tool provided by the Sustainable
Apparel Coalition, the Higg Index,
challenges us to involve our staff
in our partnerships. This year, we
continued our workplace giving
program following its relaunch
in 2017.
100% of our executive team are
donating and the company is
matching every employee donation.
‘The Workplace Giving program
allows all of our staff to get involved
and make a difference with our
charitable partners’, says Brand
Manager Olivia Barclay.
Walking the talk.
Queensland store
manager lives our
values every day.
Nathan Billett is the store manager at
Kathmandu Kawana in Queensland.
Nathan is this year's team member
recipient of the Outward Bound
scholarship for his real-world
demonstration of the company values.
A few years ago, Nathan
demonstrated resourcefulness and
environmental action when he took
a six-hour road trip to a Brisbane
Kathmandu store to rescue multiple
sheets of grid mesh that were no
longer needed.
“As stores are refurbished, many of
the old fixtures and fittings are
unfortunately destined for landfill. To
minimise waste and upcycle, I used
these sheets to make structures in my
community garden plot. I donated
the excess mesh to the community
garden, which they’re still using three
years later,” Nathan says.
Nathan says this not only had a
practical benefit, but it also inspired
others.
“I now have others asking me
‘Where can I ... How can I ...?’ which
is ultimately the start of a ripple
effect of thinking globally but acting
locally,” he says.
“Having studied environmental science
before starting with Kathmandu,
sustainability and environmental
awareness have always interested me.”
Another value Nathan lives is the
love of travel and adventure.
“Travel gives us a perspective of
what’s going on in the world and
provides first-hand insight into the
environments around us and how we
can improve or maintain them. I have
visited both pristine and polluted
environments, which provide me with
a purpose and understanding of the
sustainable lifestyle I strive for,”
Nathan says.
One example is a recent snorkelling
trip to Sabah, Borneo.
“The islands were beautiful but the
water quality was mediocre, and the
pollution in the water from plastic and
rubbish was horrendous. Plastic bags,
bottles, coffee cups and drinking
straws were some of the main
offenders – all of which I now avoid,
recycle or upcycle where possible to
minimise my impact locally.”
At work, Nathan says he is passionate
about excellent customer service,
corporate community affiliation and
training and development.
“My ambition is to explore these
passions further and become a
representative at a regional or
company level in one of these
disciplines.”
Foketi Ausage at the Christchurch
distribution centre.
Store manager Nathan Billet
recycled store fittings for his garden.
This is our seventh annual
sustainability report. It covers
the period from 1 August 2017
to 31 July 2018. The report is
prepared in accordance with the
core requirements of the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI)
Standards reporting framework.
It accompanies our Kathmandu
Annual Report 2018, available online
at kathmanduholdings.com, which
includes our full financial results.
Data in this report covers
Kathmandu’s operations, including
our stores, distribution centres and
support offices in New Zealand,
Australia, United States of America
and United Kingdom. If any issues
are material beyond these
boundaries, we have reported on
these issues and our approach to
managing them, but we may not
have complete data available.
Financial figures are expressed in
New Zealand dollars unless
otherwise specified.
We’d love to hear your feedback
on the report. Feel free to send
comments and questions to our
team at sustainability@
kathmandu.co.nz .
About this report
Values
in action.
73OUR TEAMSUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201872SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
It’s great to have a list of values to
guide us, but it’s the way that our
team puts them into action that
makes them real. Here’s some ways
we lived our values this year.
OPENNESS AND DIRECTNESS
Using social media platform WeChat
we made it possible for workers in
China to contact us with grievances.
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION
We made it possible for Summit Club
members to collect 520kg of rubbish
in NZ and 465kg in Australia.
INTEGRITY
Our corporate social responsibility
programme was officially endorsed
by the Fair Labor Organisation.
RESOURCEFULNESS
Our design team created the most
sustainable hoodie yet – using natural
dyes from agricultural waste.
LOVE OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE
We introduced a programme that
allows employees to purchase extra
holiday time.
PASSION AND DETERMINATION
We found creative solutions to get
100% soft plastic recycling in our
New Zealand stores.
SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 20187574SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018APPENDICES
Sustainability Report
2018: Appendices
IND.DESCRIPTION REFERENCE PAG E #NOTES
ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE
102–1Name of the organisation Our Story Cover pageKathmandu Holdings Limited.
102–2Activities, brands, products
and services
Our Story 3Kathmandu is an outdoor travel and adventure
brand. We sell our own branded gear including
other brands through our online, retail and
wholesale network
102–3Location of headquartersOur World 16 – 17—
102–4Location of operations Our World 16 – 17—
102–5Ownership and legal form This index This indexKathmandu is a publicly listed company. For
more information, please read our Annual
Report 2018.
102–6Markets served Our World, this index 16 – 17Kathmandu sells products through our store
network in Australia, New Zealand and the
UK. We also sell online and have begun to sell
through wholesale partners internationally.
102–7Scale of the organisation
Our World, Our Team.
Annual Report 2018
16 – 17For full financial disclosures, please see our
Annual Report 2018.
102–8Information on employees
and other workers
Our Team, this appendix 64 – 71—
102–9Supply chain Our World, Our Suppliers,
Our Products
16 – 17,
18 –27
—
102–10 Significant changes to the
organisation and its supply
chain
Our World, Our Suppliers,
Our Products
16 – 17,
18 –27
—
1 0 2 – 1 1Precautionary principle
approach
Our Suppliers, Customer
health and safety, Our
Footprint
16 – 17,
18 –27
We use the precautionary approach across
each department of the business to ensure we
do not harm the environment or people.
102–12External initiatives Our Partners14 – 15We collaborate with specialised organisations
to support our sustainability strategy and
outputs. Collaboration is absolutely core to our
development as a business.
102–13Membership of associations Our Journey, Our
suppliers, Our Products,
Our Footprint, Our
Community
14 – 15Collaboration is fundamental to our sustainability
strategy and programme. Without our
memberships, we would not understand the
complexities of our impacts and outreach to
global initiatives and communities.
STRATEGY
102–14Statements from senior
decision maker
Chairman's and
CEO's report
5—
ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
102–16Values, principles, standards,
and norms of behaviour
Our Team 73—
GOVERNANCE
102–18Governance and structure
Annual Report 2018The Board guides the overall governance of
our organisation. Please see our Annual Report
2018 for more information on our governance
structure.
TABLE 1: GRI GENERAL STANDARD DISCLOSURES
IND.DESCRIPTION REFERENCE PAG E #NOTES
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
102–40 List of stakeholder groups Our Journey,
Our Stakeholders
14 – 15,
Table 3
—
102–41Collective bargaining
agreements
This index This indexNone
102–42Identifying and selecting
stakeholders
Our Journey,
Our Stakeholders
—
102–43Approach to stakeholder
engagement
Our Journey,
Our Stakeholders
14 – 15,
Table 3 &
Table 4
—
102–44Key topics and concerns
raised
Our Journey,
Our Stakeholders
14 – 15,
Table 3 &
Table 4
—
REPORTING PRACTICE
102–45Entities included in the
consolidated financial
statements
Annual Report 2018Kathmandu Holdings Limited, Milford Group
Holdings, Kathmandu Pty Ltd, Kathmandu
Limited and Kathmandu UK Limited.
102–46Defining content and topic
boundaries
Our Journey, Our
Stakeholders, Our
Impacts
14 – 15,
Table 3 &
Table 4
—
102–47List of material topics Our Journey, Our
Stakeholders, Our
Impacts
14 – 15,
Table 3 &
Table 4
—
102–48Restatements of information This index No restatement this year.
102–49Changes in reporting This index This is our second year using the new GRI
Standards reporting framework.
102–50Reporting period This index 1 August 2017 to 31 July 2018.
102–51Date of most recent report This index Kathmandu Sustainability Report 2017
(1 August 2016 to 31 July 2017).
102–52Reporting cycle This index Annual (1 August 2017 to 31 July 2018).
102–53Contact point for questions
regarding the report
This index Oliver Milliner (oliver.milliner@kathmandu.co.nz
or sustainability@kathmandu.co.nz).
102–54Claims of reporting in
accordance with the GRI
standards
Back cover This report has been prepared in accordance
with the GRI Standards Core option.
102–55GRI content index This index This index
102–56External assurance This indexKathmandu has adopted numerous
certifications, partnerships and programs that
verifies our various sustainability initiatives.
76SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201877APPENDICES
TOPICREFERENCE PAG E # NOTES
GRI 407: FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Suppliers
14 – 15,
1 8 – 27,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
407–1: Operations and suppliers in which workers'
rights to exercise freedom of association or
collective bargaining may be violated or at
significant risk
Our Suppliers18 – 2785% of our suppliers are in China. Due to the
communist government, individual worker rights
including freedom of association and collective
bargaining are inevitably at risk. Collective
bargaining is almost unheard of, and independent
unions do not typically have any real power to
leverage change in wages or working conditions.
Updating our Code of Conduct and terms of
trade documents; creating a new CSR strategy
that puts more emphasis on performance and
partnership and less emphasis on policing and
compliance; investing in a new CSR professional
services company specialising in sustainability and
supply chain analytics designing and implementing
customised programmes that reflect our unique
supply chain; worker surveys and improved
grievance mechanisms supplier training and
education.
GRI 408: CHILD LABOUR
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Suppliers
14 – 15,
1 8 – 27,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
408–1: Operations and suppliers at significant risk
for incidents of child labour
Our Suppliers18 – 27Child labour is common in the international
apparel industry, especially in Tier 2 and 3. We
created and implemented a Mandatory Child
Labour and Forced Labour Policy company wide.
Also cemented a partnership with a consultancy
specialising in advising businesses in child rights
and improving the lives of children in supply
chains across Asia.
GRI 409: FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Suppliers
14 – 15,
1 8 – 27,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
409–1: Operations and suppliers considered to
have significant risk for incidents of forced or
compulsory labour
Our Suppliers18 – 27Forced labour is still common in the international
apparel industry. Migrant workers are especially
vulnerable to forced labour. China, Taiwan,
Vietnam, India and Indonesia are all high risk for
forced labour and these are all areas where we
source our product. Created and implemented a
Mandatory Child Labor and Forced Labour Policy
company wide investing in a new CSR professional
services company specialising in sustainability
and supply chain analytics with the ability to
access worker voice through social media and
anonymous worker surveys.
TOPICREFERENCE PAG E # NOTES
GRI 412: HUMAN RIGHTS ASSESSMENT
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Suppliers
14 – 15,
1 8 – 27,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
412–1: Operations that have been subject to
human rights reviews or impact assessments
Our Suppliers18 – 27Nil.
412–2: Employee training on human rights policies
or procedures
Our Suppliers18 – 27100 hours and percentage of employees trained at
Head Office is 53%.
412–3: Significant investment agreements and
contracts that include human rights clauses or
that underwent human rights screening
Our Suppliers18 – 27Every one of our 140 suppliers has to enter into
an agreement with Kathmandu, which includes
signing and agreeing to abide by and be assessed
against our Code of Conduct. A significant
investment includes any and every supplier
because no matter how much we spend with a
supplier, our commitment to our stakeholders
and shareholders is to invest our resources into
our supply chain to ensure that human rights are
protected.
GRI 412: SUPPLIER SOCIAL ASSESSMENT
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Suppliers
14 – 15,
1 8 – 27,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
414–1: New suppliers that were screened using
social criteria
Our Suppliers18 – 27100%.
414–2: Negative social impacts in the supply
chain and actions taken
Our Suppliers18 – 2740 audits were conducted last year. Two suppliers
were identified with major issues requiring
intervention and intensive consultation and
remediation plans. 13 transactional suppliers
were exited in keeping with our sourcing strategy
to only work with suppliers who share our values
and with whom we have some influence to effect
positive change when violations are detected.
GRI 301: MATERIALS
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Product
14 – 15,
28 – 45,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
No indicator—We do not collect recycled materials as a
percentage according to topic indicator
requirements. We collect data and information
in accordance with the Higg Index and Textile
Exchange reports.
TABLE 2: GRI TOPICS
78SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201879APPENDICES
TOPICREFERENCE PAG E # NOTES
GRI 303: WATER
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Suppliers
14 – 15,
28 – 45,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Table 5—
GRI 303–1: Water withdrawal by source Our Products37—
GRI 416: CUSTOMER HEALTH AND SAFETY
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Product
14 – 15,
28 – 45,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
GRI 418–1: Substantiated complaints concerning
breaches of customer privacy and losses of
customer data
—2—
GRI 418: CUSTOMER PRIVACY
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Product
14 – 15,
28 – 45,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
GRI 416–2: Incidents of non-compliance
concerning the health and safety impacts of
products and services
— This
index
—
GRI 305: EMISSIONS
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Footprint
14 – 15,
28 – 45,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
GRI 305–2: Energy indirect (scope 2) GHG
emissions
—5 2 – 5 3We account for our greenhouse gas emissions
in alignment with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG)
Protocol. Our emission figures are derived from
scope 2 purchased electricity usage across
our stores, distribution centres and support
offices. Our emissions factors are sourced from
government GHG reporting guidance documents
published in each jurisdiction that we operate in.
GRI 305–3: Other indirect (Scope 3) GHG
emissions
—5 2 – 5 3We have aligned our scope 3 emissions
quantification with the Higg Index scoring
requirements. We used the CEMARS software
platform to calculate scope 3 emissions using the
certification's latest emission factors.
GRI 305–4: GHG emissions intensity —5 2 – 5 3
TOPICREFERENCE PAG E # NOTES
GRI 306: WASTE
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Footprint
14 – 15,
46 – 53,
Table 4
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
GRI 306–2: Waste by type and disposal method —50 – 51—
GRI 401: EMPLOYMENT
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Team
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
GRI 401–1: New employee hires and employee
turnover
—64 – 71—
GRI 401–3: Parental leave —64 – 71—
GRI 403: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Team
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
GRI 403–1: Worker' representation in formal
joint management-worker health and safety
committees
—64 – 71—
GRI 403–2: Types of injury and rates of injury,
occupational diseases, lost days and absenteeism
and number of work-related fatalities
—64 – 71—
GRI 404: TRAINING AND EDUCATION
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Team
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
GRI 404–2: Programmes for upgrading employee
skills and transition assistance programmes
—64 – 71—
GRI 404–3: Percentage of employees receiving
regular performance and career development
reviews
—64 – 71—
GRI 405: DIVERSITY AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
GRI 103:
Management
Approach
103–1: Explanation of the
material topic and its boundary
Our Journey,
Our Team
—
103–2: The management
approach and its components
Management
Approach table
5—
GRI 405–1: Diversity of governance bodies and
employees
—64 – 71—
TABLE 2: GRI TOPICS (CONTINUED):
80SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201881APPENDICES
MATERIAL TOPIC
IN ORDER OF PRIORITY
WHO IT APPLIES TO WHERE IT APPLIES
AND BOUNDARIES
LIMITATIONS
OUR SUPPLIERS
Freedom of association and
collective bargaining
Kathmandu factories and
suppliers
Our supply chain —
Child labour Kathmandu factories and
suppliers
Our supply chain —
Forced or compulsory labour Kathmandu factories and
suppliers
Our supply chain —
Supplier social assessmentsKathmandu factories and
suppliers
Our supply chain —
OUR PRODUCTS
Materials Suppliers, Kathmandu,
suppliers
Our operationsOur overall sustainable
materials percentage use
against conventional materials
is too complex to calculate to
meet topic requirements.
Products and servicesKathmandu, consumersOur operations—
Customer health and safety Kathmandu, consumersOur operations—
Product labelling Kathmandu, consumersOur operations—
WaterSuppliers, KathmanduOur operations—
Marketing Kathmandu, consumersOur operations—
Customer privacy Kathmandu, consumersOur operations—
OUR FOOTPRINT
Economic performance Kathmandu, investorsOur operations—
Energy Kathmandu Our operations and stores—
Emissions KathmanduOur operations and stores—
WasteKathmandu, customersOur operations and stores—
TransportKathmandu, supply chain Our operationsWe currently only have the
information to report on sea
and air freight port to port
scope 3 emissions.
OUT TEAM
Employment Kathmandu Our operations —
Occupational health and safety KathmanduOur operations —
Training Kathmandu Our operations —
Diversity and equal opportunity Kathmandu Our operations —
Compliance Kathmandu, consumers Our operations —
TABLE 4: OUR MATERIAL ISSUES
STAKEHOLDER GROUPENGAGEMENT MECHANISMFREQUENCY OF
ENGAGEMENT
KEY ISSUES RAISED
Customers— Social media
— Customer insights
— In our stores
— Our website
— Via our customer services team
— Summit Club member
communications
Ongoing— Animal welfare
— Waste management
— Community investment
opportunities and sponsorship
— Human rights in our supply chain
— Product care and repair
— Microfibres
Staff— Performance mechanisms
— Questionnaire and surveys
— Dream Team meetings
— Other engagement committees
Ongoing— Health and safety
— Waste management
— Training
— Sustainability leadership
Suppliers— Meetings
— Site visits
Ongoing— Fair and open procurement
practices
— Fair working conditions
— Environmental impacts
— Product quality and safety
Factories — Meetings
— Site visits
— Audits
Ongoing— Fair working conditions
Local communities— In our stores and offices
— Community events
— Social media
— Website
Ongoing— Our impact on communities
— Social investment and sponsorship
Government
and regulators
— Meetings
— Reports
— Site visits
Quarterly and as required— Economic performance
— Environmental impacts
— Community impacts
Shareholders— Our annual reports
— Annual General Meeting
— ASX and NZX announcements
— Website
— Investor roadshows, briefing
forums
Quarterly and as required— Economic performance
— All sustainability material issues
Industry associations— Meetings
— Reports
— Workshops
Annually — Environmental impacts
— Community impacts
— Human rights in our supply chain
Investment community — ASX announcements
— Website
— Investor briefings and forums
Quarterly and as required— ESG performance
Civil society
and community
organisations
— Social media
— Requests for information
Ongoing— Human rights in our supply chain
— Environmental impacts
— Fair working conditions
— Product materials stewardship
— Supplier management
TABLE 3: OUR STAKEHOLDERS
82SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201883APPENDICES
AUSTRALIANEW ZEALAND UKUSATOTAL
BY EMPLOYMENT TYPE
Full-time employees375319320717
Part-time employees59827550878
Casual3188310402
Total employees12916779201997
BY CONTRACT TYPE
Permanent8985376201461
Fixed-term full-time22160038
Fixed-term part-time53412096
Casual3188310402
Total workforce12916779201997
BY GENDER
Male561234715817
Female730443251180
BY AGE GROUP
<30801341431149
30–50407281412704
50+835515144
BY CATEGORY
Executive360211
Senior management19330355
Management29716935474
Non-management9724696101457
TABLE 6: INFORMATION ON EMPLOYEES AND OTHER WORKERS TABLE 5: MANAGEMENT APPROACH
TOPIC POLICIES AND
MANAGEMENT
ACTIVITIES EVALUATION ACCOUNTABLE
DEPARTMENT
Workers' rights:
freedom of association
and collective
bargaining, child
labour, forced or
compulsory labour,
human rights
assessment, supplier
social assessment
Supplier Code of Conduct We are members of the
Fair Labor Association.
Its 10 principles guide
our Corporate Social
Responsibility team’s
strategy working towards
accreditation in 2018. The
10 principles and strategy
corroborates GRI’s workers'
rights indicators, which we
respond to.
We assess our programme
against the 10 FLA
principles to ensure
our programme is
comprehensive for
accreditation. We recently
evolved our CSR strategy
based on the evaluation
process.
Quality and CSR
Materials, waterAzo Dyes Policy, Down
Feather Policy, Leather
Policy, Uzbek Cotton Policy,
Nano-Silver Technology
Statement of Intent,
Perflourinated Chemicals
Statement of Intent,
Sheep Mulesing Statement
of Intent, Man-Made
Cellulosics Policy, Restricted
Substances List
Our materials priority
list guides our materials
sustainability strategy.
We participate in the
Textile Exchange report
rankings. We use the Higg
Index as a key driver for
better materials.
Product
Customer health
and safety
We research and complete
all compliance requirements
before entering new
products into the market.
Our quality department
reviews products before
entering the market. Market
compliance research.
We review our research
and completion processes
to achieve continuous
improvement.
Quality
Customer privacy We have a stringent policy
and process to protect
the privacy of our Summit
Club members and online
account customers.
Our relevant customer
services team are briefed
on the details of the policy
to ensure no breaches are
made. Communication is
highly prioritised with the
customer following any
incidents.
Reviews are completed on
any incidents to achieve
continuous improvement.
Customer
Services
WasteWe issued a zero waste to
landfill by 2018 strategy
earlier this year. This strategy
is core to the management
approach.
We engage with all key
stakeholders internally and
externally in managing our
operational waste.
We review our strategy
goals and objectives twice
a year to evaluate how we
are managing waste.
Brand,
Finance, Retail
Operations
Carbon emissions We have a goal to reduce
our scope 2 emissions by
20% by 2020 from 2012
levels. We have issued
a carbon strategy that
aligns with the CEMARS
certification. We are also
using the Higg Index as a
guideline for understanding
our scope 3 emissions.
We report annually to the
Carbon Disclosure Project.
We annually offset our
business staff air travel
at a local offsetting and
conservation project in
Canterbury, New Zealand.
Using the Higg Index.
We evaluate main sources
of energy usage across
scope 2 and 3 areas.
Brand,
Finance, Retail
Operations
Team development:
new employee
hires and turnover,
benefits for full-time
employees, parental
leave, occupational
health and safety,
training and
education, diversity
and equal opportunity
As part of our People Plan
strategy, we integrate these
material topics as part of
our continuous improvement
management approach.
We engage with all key
stakeholders internally and
externally in managing our
strategy.
We conduct interviews and
surveys as a way to inform
our strategy approach.
Human
Resources
84SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201885APPENDICES
AUSTRALIANEW ZEALAND UKTOTAL
NUMBER OF INJURIES SUSTAINED
Permanent employees (male)218029
Permanent employees (female)4721068
Fixed-term or temporary (male)2305
Fixed-term or temporary (female)6006
Independent contractors (male)0000
Independent contractors (female)0000
Total76270108
NUMBER OF OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES SUSTAINED
Permanent employees (male)0000
Permanent employees (female)1001
Fixed-term or temporary (male)0000
Fixed-term or temporary (female)0000
Independent contractors (male)0000
Independent contractors (female)0000
Total0000
LOST DAYS – WORK RELATED INJURIES
Permanent employees (male)375.862.940378.80
Permanent employees (female)300.7110.670311.38
Fixed term or temporary (male)0000
Fixed term or temporary (female)0.34000.34
Independent contractors (male)0000
Independent contractors (female)013.6100
Total676.91830690.52
LOST DAYS – ABSENTEEISM (INCLUDING WORK RELATED INJURIES)
Permanent employees (male)181559202407
Permanent employees (female)2769117203941
Fixed-term or temporary (male)502052
Fixed-term or temporary (female)8118099
Independent contractors (male)0000
Independent contractors (female)0000
Total4715178406499
TABLE 9: RATES OF INJURY, OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES, LOST DAYS AND ABSENTEEISM AND NUMBER OF WORK-
RELATED FATALITIES FOR EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS
AUSNZUKUSA
NEW HIRES
PermanentTotal 31615025
IndefiniteTotal 27813640
BY GENDER
PermanentMale1235523
PermanentFemale1939502
IndefiniteMale1265220
IndefiniteFemale1528420
BY AGE GROUP
Permanent <3024410722
Permanent30–50603802
Permanent50+12501
Indefinite <3022611540
Indefinite30–50452000
Indefinite50+7100
MALEFEMALE
1Report the number of employees by gender who were entitled to parental leave.570808
2Report the number of employees by gender who took parental leave.548
3Report the number of employees who returned to work after parental leave
ended, by gender.
320
4Report the number of employees who returned to work after parental leave
ended who were still employed 12 months after their return to work, by gender.
429
5Report the return to work rate of employees who returned to work after leave
ended, by gender.
75%71%
6Report the retention rate of employees who returned to work after leave ended,
by gender.
57%83%
TABLE 7: HIRING AND TURNOVER (INCLUDES OBOZ)
TABLE 8: PARENTAL LEAVE
AUSNZUKUSA
TURNOVER
PermanentTotal 33321451
IndefiniteTotal 22211910
BY GENDER
PermanentMale1448911
PermanentFemale18912540
IndefiniteMale1005110
IndefiniteFemale1226800
BY AGE GROUP
Permanent <3021314430
Permanent30–501065920
Permanent50+141101
Indefinite <301639210
Indefinite30–50532700
Indefinite50+6000
86SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 201887APPENDICES
EXECUTIVESENIOR
MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENTNON-
MANAGEMENT
TOTAL
Number of employees receiving
performance reviews/appraisals
46910451575
Total number of employees46914471977
Percentage of employees receiving
performance reviews/appraisals
100%72.20%79.70%
GENDER DIVERSITY
BOARD
201742
201851
EXECUTIVE
201771
201881
SENIOR MANAGEMENT
20173121
MANAGEMENT
2017204275
NON-MANAGEMENT
2017576840
20183319
2018187282
2018574873
MALEFEMALE
AGE DIVERSITY
EXECUTIVE
20178
201881
SENIOR MANAGEMENT
20172446
MANAGEMENT
201717526539
NON-MANAGEMENT
201793040977
20181447
201817225740
201897338391
<3030–5050+
TABLE 10: PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYEES BY GENDER AND BY EMPLOYEE CATEGORY WHO RECEIVED A REGULAR
PERFORMANCE AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT REVIEW DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD
TABLE 11: DIVERSITY
88SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
90SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018
kathmanduholdings.com
Data sourced from publicly available filings. Our datasets may not be complete. Automated analysis can produce errors. If you believe any data on this page is incorrect, please contact us at hello@nzxplorer.co.nz. For informational purposes only. Not investment advice.