Winc’s Social Agenda.

With the goal to be a company that has a positive impact on every worker, learner, carer, teacher across the country, every day, at Winc, we understand the importance of having an accountability to both people and planet. In taking care of everything a workplace needs to work, we have an underlying obligation to do the right thing by the communities in which we live and operate.

To guide our actions in this space, we have developed a Winc Social Agenda which details meaningful and measurable targets we are committed to delivering against as we work towards a more sustainable future.

Our Winc Social Agenda outlines the six focus areas where Winc can make the biggest impact – and the commitments we have made.

To view the initiatives we are undertaking to meet these commitments as well as our targets and the progress we are making, you can download a copy of the full document here.

We are holding ourselves accountable and are transparent about our progress with reports prepared and published here once every six months.

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If you’re interested in understanding how our six priority areas support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, we’ve outlined this information in the chart below.

Winc Social Agenda Pillar UN Sustainable Development Goal
Safe Work Practices GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Gender Equality GENDER EQUALITY
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
First Nations Peoples Support and Empowerment DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Ethical Sourcing REDUCED INEQUALITIES
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Responsible Packaging / Management of Waste RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Climate Action CLIMATE ACTION
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

First Nations Peoples Support & Empowerment.

Winc is committed to the First Nations reconciliation effort in Australia and believes that the economic advancement of First Nations Peoples is critical to creating positive social change and removing disadvantage. We look to achieve this by becoming an employer of choice for First Nations Peoples, supporting the growth and development of First Nations businesses, and making investments in First Nations mental health, employment and education activities.

We want to make Winc a great place to work for First Nations Australians. We will do this by achieving and maintaining a 3% First Nations representation in the Winc workforce in 2023. We are also committed to supporting career development through mentoring and coaching and fostering a culture of inclusion and respect through ongoing cultural competency training.

How we are helping First Nations controlled entities to succeed commercially.

Mandura, which translates as ‘trading place’ in the Jaithmathang Nation language, is a joint venture with Winc. Mandura is a unique First Nations workplace supplies company dedicated to supporting future generations.

As a completely separate self-determining organisation, Mandura is led by Jaithmathang Senior Elder Roderick McLeod (Chairman) and Scott Allen (CEO). Scott Allen is a descendant from the Awabakal Worimi Nations, and a non-executive board member of the NSW Indigenous Chamber of Commerce.

In early 2021, Roderick established the Not for Profit, Pauline E McLeod Foundation in honour of his late sister. Mandura donates no less than 20% of all profits to the Pauline E. McLeod Foundation to deliver measurable benefits for young First Nations Australians in the areas of mental health, education and employment.

With a ‘First Nations First’ employment strategy, every dollar spent with Mandura works even harder, creating a strong ripple effect in First Nations communities. Winc’s contribution to the joint venture is its procurement scale, supply chain logistics and sharing of industry expertise and mentoring.

About the Pauline E. McLeod Foundation.

Pauline E. McLeod was born in Delegate, Southern NSW. She was a member of the Stolen Generation and was removed from her natural family in 1962. In 1986 she returned home and became an author, master storyteller, cultural learning educator, director and performer.

Popularly known as `Pauline from Play School’, she was one of the first First Nations performers to appear regularly on a nation-wide television show in Australia. Throughout her lifetime Pauline presented her cultural stories at schools, working with children and youth from preschool to high school grades. She was also a guest lecturer in Aboriginal studies at TAFE colleges and universities throughout New South Wales and a storyteller at the Opera House, Australian Museum and the National Gallery in Canberra.

Roderick McLeod, Pauline’s brother, is the Founder of the Pauline E. McLeod Foundation. Under his leadership, the Foundation seeks to continue Pauline’s journey of building acceptance, understanding and healing with a focus on creating opportunities for the next generation.

Reconciliation.

We’re committed to a reconciled Australia, and to building an organisation that integrates awareness and knowledge of First Nations peoples and culture into our business practices.

Our fifth Reconciliation Action Plan, launched in 2022, reflects our dedication to supporting the growth of First Nations businesses to increase representation in our supply chain, and our strong commitment to education and employment opportunities.

This in turn helps our customers contribute to sustainable and meaningful change within the First Nations community that goes beyond financial donations and fulfils important Corporate Responsibility requirements and social change goals.

Winc is a founding member of Supply Nation. As one of Australia’s leading single source suppliers, we know the value of supplier diversity, both to the First Nations sector and the wider business community.

Supply Nation Member

Community.

Impact.

We go beyond charitable giving to make a social and economic impact in the communities in which our customers and people live and work. We provide support for important community initiatives linked to our purpose of inspiring better ways to work and learn, with a focus on diversity, education, and employment.

We provide our people with volunteering leave and other opportunities to make their own social contribution through our community partnerships, which include the Dress for Success, Cahoots, Berry Street, SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY, Bayside Women’s Shelter, Backpacks 4 SA Kids, Orange Sky, Foodbank and Good360.

Winc has been a partner of Good360 since 2015. In that time, we have redirected more than 733,000 surplus items worth over $5.2 million to the Australians who need them most. Close to 500 different not for profits and schools have been supported through this donation.

Winc also supports Foodbank. In 2022, Winc helped provide 67,000 meals and donated more than 15,430 kilos of non-food items to Foodbank.

Diversity.

Inclusive.

We’re committed to making diversity a priority, through our supply chain and our workforce. We seek a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities and customers we serve by embracing diversity in all its forms. We celebrate and promote a culture of inclusion at Winc and source products and services from a range of diverse suppliers.

Our Supplier Diversity Classification makes it easy to identify products from First Nations businesses, Australian Disability Enterprises, women owned businesses and social enterprises.

Environment.

Winc has made commitments under the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation membership, in four areas.

  1. Make our Winc Own Brand packaging more sustainable
  2. Reduce the waste generated by Winc and increasingly recycle so that less goes to landfill
  3. Make deliveries of our 45,000 Winc boxes every working day more efficient in the amount of cardboard used
  4. Assist our customers to eliminate their use of single use plastics ahead of legislative enforcement

A copy of our latest APCO annual report and action plan can be found here.

We are also taking steps to reduce our Scope 1 direct carbon emission by improving the efficiency of our distribution activities.

Activities include:

  • Optimising delivery routes and schedules to reduce the number of total kilometres travelled for every dollar of revenue.
  • Measuring the energy efficiency of our delivery vans and encourage conversion to more efficient vehicles as they are renewed.
  • Optimising the configuration of box size versus contents to limit the inefficiencies of shipping air.
  • Encouraging customers to consolidate orders to reduce the number of small orders shipped.
  • Installing solar panels at our largest Distribution Centre in Sydney’s Erskine Park as well as our Victorian site at Port Melbourne.

We also make it easier for businesses to make greener choices and reduce their environmental impact. We do this by offering a wide eco-conscious range for every part of the workplace,  look for products with the EarthSaver classification on our website.

APCO Member
earthsaver, eco-concious, recycled, carbon neutral

Helping our customers make informed choices.

One of the most important things for a workplace products supplier to demonstrate in the field of sustainability is best practice product stewardship. Our goal is to minimise our own environmental impact and help you to do the same.

Winc is committed to giving purchasing preference to suppliers that provide paper products from certified forests whenever feasible, therefore encouraging our suppliers to participate in national or international certification programs.

By promoting relevant certification trademarks on our website, in our catalogues and other marketing materials, we seek to help our customers make informed decisions about the products they purchase.

The Forest Stewardship Council® is an international nongovernmental organisation that promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Winc is proud to be an FSC® promotional license holder.

PEFC, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, is a leading global alliance of national forest certification systems. PEFC is dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management through independent third-party certification. Winc is proud to be a PEFC promotional license holder.

Every purchase of an FSC or PEFC-labelled product makes a difference for forests and forest communities across the world.

Ethics.

Integrity.

Winc is committed to doing the right thing. This includes minimising the risk of modern slavery in our supply chain. That’s why we have a strict Ethical Sourcing Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct. Our Ethical Sourcing Policy (which you can access here) is guided by the UN Human Rights Declaration, the ILO Convention on labour standards and the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code.

Modern Slavery is a big problem globally. Winc published our first Modern Slavery Statement in 2020. This document sets out how we assess and respond to the risks of modern slavery practices in our business. Our most recent statement was published in June 2023 for the reporting period of 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. You can access it here.

In 2021 Winc became a member of Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex). Sedex allows Winc to access shared audit data on the practices of their suppliers. During the latest reporting period we have:

  • Maintained and improved Winc’s Sedex-Based Monitoring by onboarding all Winc Own Brand suppliers to the platform.
  • Developed a risk framework based on product category and geography to assess the modern slavery risk of National Brand suppliers.
  • Collaborated with Own Brand and National Brand suppliers to ensure the appropriate management and closure of Non-Compliances.

In 2023, we will be further mitigating the risk of modern slavery in the following ways:

  • High and Medium risk sites will be required to conduct independent physical audits on an annual basis* and action any critical non-compliances identified within the required timeframe
  • Low risk sites will continue to complete annual Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQ) to verify their risk status
  • Our aim is to work collaborative with all suppliers to collectively achieve ethical sourcing goals. Any business with suppliers who fail to do so will be terminated

*Key metrics will be measured on a 12 month audit cycle. Short extensions may be accommodated in unique circumstances ( e.g. natural disasters, COVID outbreaks, workload of the independent auditors).

HSEQ.

At Winc we value the health and safety of all our employees, contractors, customers, the communities and the environment which we operate in. We are committed to a zero harm business philosophy and as such we will ensure our management practices safeguard against adverse health, safety, environmental or quality impacts arising from our activities or services. View the policy here.

Winc first achieved its ISO – 45001 (OHS Management Systems) accreditation in 2018. Together with ISO – 14001 (Environmental Management system) and ISO – 9001 (Quality Management system), these certifications demonstrate that Winc uses the best international standards and codes of practice for Health Safety Environment and Quality (HSEQ) to control risks.

Bureau Veritas Certification