Managing corporate responsibility & sustainable development across the group

So what does this mean for the Virgin companies?

We have interpreted this definition of sustainable development into four main challenges which we believe businesses need to meet in the 21st century:

• emit minimal carbon and other greenhouse gases • learn to use the planet’s finite resources responsibly

• strive towards poverty alleviation and the fair treatment of all individuals

• offer products and services that enhance emotional and physical wellbeing.

We believe that we have a part to play in making this a reality and so our vision for sustainability within the Virgin Group is to: “make a credible contribution towards sustainable lifestyles whilst meeting or exceeding the expectations of our staff, customers and stakeholders”.

Our path towards sustainability is based on development by means of enlightened capitalism. We have to change the way we run our businesses by; channelling the entrepreneurial spirit of our people, pioneering new technologies, funding Research and Development (R&D) and thereby reducing the resources we use. Then we have to encourage our competitors to do the same. So it’s not only about profits – it’s about adapting and developing the products we sell and services we provide, to ensure we look after people and the planet, now and in the future.

Some of our companies have relatively small environmental footprints, but more significant social impacts which need to be addressed. For example; Virgin Games’ main responsibility is helping to prevent gambling addiction, Virgin Wines ensures its wine producers get a fair price and

also has a role to play in encouraging responsible drinking, and Virgin Money’s predominant social issue is advocating responsible lending.

Because of this wide variation in the challenges our different companies face, we decided that highly focused group-wide targets and KPIs would be inappropriate and fail to tackle the sector specific impacts sufficiently . Instead we developed the Product Story approach (explained in more detail on the next page) and asked each company to review its own individual sustainable development story, enabling them to examine on a case-by-case basis how they are meeting the four challenges outlined above and where they need to make improvements.

Whilst we have already come a long way, the road stretches indefinitely in front of us. Sustainable living is not the latest vogue or a fad that will die out. We are making a long-term commitment; we aspire to become greener and more responsible every year. Although Virgin is big, we can achieve relatively little in the grand scheme of things just by reducing our own impacts. However, by continuously trying to lead the debate, raising the bar, challenging our competitors and lobbying governments, we can make sustainable businesses a reality as well as being economically beneficial.

Since Virgin companies span so many sectors, it wouldn’t be relevant for us to outline just one set of targets and one area of focus. Instead we decided the best approach was to explain what issues face the sectors that our companies operate in and explain what the Virgin companies are doing both to maximise their positive impacts and minimise their negative impacts. You can read all of these in the later chapters.

The Virgin brand values have remained unchanged for 40 years. They aren’

t just an image but a reflection

of our very essence and the way we do business. Virgin has always stood for value for money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense of competitive challenge. But now our brand values have gone three dimensional; we no longer have a list of brand values but a brand cube to which we have added the

Wellbeing & Happiness of People and

Sustainability of the Planet. This report

represents that fundamental evolution to our brand and what we at Virgin stand for.

We pride ourselves on the delivery of a high quality products and services through the empowerment of our employees and innovative use of customer feedback to continually improve the customer’

s experience but can

no longer do this without considering the impact our products and services have on people’ the planet’

s wellbeing and s sustainability; they are intrinsically linked.

Virgin companies employ over 43,000 people in over 20 countries worldwide. Plus we have a further 10,000 staff employed by partner organisations who deliver a service on Virgin’

To learn more about our People see page 68.

The Brand Cube

Value for money Good quality Brilliant customer service Innovative Completely challenging Fun

Wellbeing & happiness of people

All stakeholders staff, customers, suppliers, society

s behalf to our customers.

Sustainability of the planet Finite resources Low carbon

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