About this report
This Sustainability Report discloses Downer’s sustainability-related performance for the financial year ended 30 June 2020.
Sustainability performance information relating to Downer entities and joint ventures has been included in the relevant sections of the report.
Changes to the reporting boundaries or measurement methodologies applied with reference to our previous Sustainability Report are addressed in the relevant report sections.
This report discloses the sustainability-related performance of businesses within the Downer Group (Downer EDI Limited), including Spotless and Hawkins unless otherwise stated, for the financial year ended 30 June 2020. It is to be read in conjunction with Downer’s 2020 Annual Report for information pertaining to the company’s financial sustainability. As such, cross-references to Downer’s Annual Report appear throughout this document.
A word from the Chairman
and CEO
This report has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards: Core option, ensuring it presents a full and balanced picture of Downer’s material topics and related impacts, as well as how these impacts are managed.
Reporting in accordance with the GRI Standards provides investors the ability to benchmark with comparable information relating to environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.
Our approach is guided by the GRI’s principles for informing report content: materiality, completeness, sustainability context and stakeholder inclusiveness. A key focus of this report is to demonstrate how we deliver sustainable returns while managing risk and being responsible in how we operate.
We engage with our internal and external stakeholders to ensure we understand, and report on, our sustainability risks and opportunities. In FY19, we undertook a comprehensive independent materiality assessment to ensure our sustainability performance and reporting continues to align with the priorities of our stakeholders.
Downer has engaged KPMG to provide limited assurance over selected sustainability indicators to assess whether they have been prepared in accordance with Downer’s policies and procedures, as well as the GRI Standards for Defining Report Content and Quality.
These selected sustainability indicators are:
- Lost Time Injury Frequency Rates and Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rates
- Total direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions
- Total energy consumption and production
- Significant environmental incidents
- The total number and value of safety and environmental related fines or successful prosecutions
- Science-Based Target (SBT) Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions intensity (tonnes CO2-e/AUD$m)
- Indigenous Cultural Awareness Training, Te Ara Whanake and Te Ara Māramatanga training (hours delivered)
- Mental Health First Aid training (employees trained annually).
Downer is committed to reporting our sustainability performance annually, and consistently improving our data and information collection processes to ensure better quality data and insights.
performance
At Downer, sustainability means sustainable and profitable growth, providing value to our customers, delivering our services in a safe and environmentally responsible manner, helping our people to be better and advancing the communities in which we operate.
Our commitments to sustainability are outlined in our policies, which are available on the Downer website (www.downergroup.com).
A core element of Downer’s sustainability approach is to focus on our customers’ success – if our customers are successful, then we will be successful. Our core operating philosophy, ‘Relationships creating success’, encapsulates this theme.
Downer operates in sectors that are closely connected to the investment that is being driven by population growth and urbanisation. These sectors include roads, rail, light rail, other public transport, power, gas, water, telecommunications, health, education, defence and other government sectors.
These sectors are serviced by Downer’s Urban Services businesses – Transport, Utilities, Facilities and Asset Services. These businesses have demonstrated strength and resilience and hold leading market positions and attractive medium-term and long-term growth opportunities. They have a high proportion of government and government-related contracts and a capital light, services-based business model generating lower risk, and more predictable revenues and cash flows.
Downer’s Urban Services strategy delivers many environmental and social benefits including a move to lower capital intensive and lower carbon activities, which supports Downer’s decarbonisation pathway.
Downer is proud of the role we play in creating more sustainable cities and improving the quality of life in Australia and New Zealand. We are also heavily involved in providing services for social infrastructure such as schools, universities, hospitals, public housing and other areas of government such as defence.
Our customers trust us to deliver these services that will have a direct impact on their customers each day.
With our services impacting millions of lives every day, the sustainability of our operations is paramount – for our people, our partners, our shareholders, our customers and their customers.
We deliver these services while managing the impacts of our activities on the environment and communities in which we operate, and working collaboratively with our supply chain. We understand that our ability to do this is fundamental to Downer’s long-term success.
Our approach to Zero Harm
Downer recognises that a sustainable and embedded Zero Harm culture is fundamental to the company’s ongoing success, and to building trusted relationships with customers and business partners. Zero Harm at Downer means a work environment that supports the health and safety of our people, allows us to deliver our business activities in an environmentally sustainable manner, and advances the communities in which we operate.
Downer’s Zero Harm performance continues to be strong and industry leading. Many of the activities that Downer’s people perform every day present inherent risks. Our people are our greatest asset, and understanding and managing these risks is of paramount importance. Achieving Zero Harm is a key focus of Downer’s culture. The drive to lead, inspire, manage risk, rethink processes, apply lessons learned, adopt and adapt practices for continued improvement of systems and performance makes Downer a Zero Harm leader and provides a source of competitive advantage.
Downer’s Zero Harm Management System Framework sets the company’s Zero Harm and sustainability governance requirements. Downer has been certified (as a minimum) to the following standards: AS/NZS 4801 or OHSAS 18001 (for occupational health and safety management systems), ISO 14001:2015 environmental management systems, and IS0 9001 quality management systems.
The Downer Board’s Zero Harm Committee oversees the development and implementation of Downer’s Zero Harm management systems, and the process of Downer’s Zero Harm performance. The effectiveness of these systems is monitored through extensive internal and third-party audit programs, with oversight by both the Board Zero Harm and Board Audit and Risk Committees. Other aspects of Downer’s approach to sustainability are overseen by the Group Diversity Committee and other relevant corporate governance forums.
Further information about Downer’s approach to Zero Harm is available online at www.downergroup.com/health-and-safety
