This ethos is built into our organizational culture, and is a cornerstone in our workplace policies and decision making processes. As one of Australia’s largest pharmacy-led network, we have extensive reach across Australia, putting us in a fairly unique position, and providing scope and opportunity for Sigma to support the broader community.

Employee Programs supporting the Community

Sigma team members play an important role supporting our customers and the community. As a result, Sigma has allocated a set amount of funding that can be distributed to support our team members, and support the charities chosen by our team members.

In recognition of team member excellence, the winner and runner up of the Sigma team member of the year awards “Shine Awards” are allocated a set amount of funding to nominate the charity of their choice, to which Sigma will donate. The Sigma Shine Award winners are announced each December, with the funds allocated by 31 January, and is at the sole discretion of Sigma Shine Award winners.

Other Discretionary Programs

Sigma does retain some capacity to support other charities. These will be reviewed and assessed by Sigma at the sole discretion of management, using the following criteria:

• Does the charity align to Sigma’s vision;
• Does the charity have a national presence;
• Does the charity have local community engagement;
• How will the charity engage with our pharmacy network;
• How can the charity be embraced by our Sigma team members; and
• How can the charity benefit from, and contribute to, Sigma’s network.

Whilst we do endeavour to support the community wherever possible, there are limits to what and who we can support. Local causes that do not satisfy the above criteria are able to approach their community pharmacy for support at a local level. Any such support is at the sole discretion of the pharmacy business owner.

Caring for Our Environment

Sigma is committed to maintaining a sustainable business that continuously strives to minimise our impact on the environment.

In 2020/21 we set a ‘Plan to 2030’ with key goals under each of our sustainability focus areas. We acknowledge the challenges that climate change is posing to the world and the potential risks and opportunities arising for Sigma. As such, we have set ourselves a phased approach to implementing the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) across its pillars of governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets.

Goals

Environment – Reduce our impact on the environment

• Increase the environmental efficiency of our distribution centres
• Reduce our operational waste and meet the requirements of the Australian Packaging Covenant
• Investigate opportunities to divert solid waste generated at facilities (warehouses, offices and retail stores)
• Respond to the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and quantify our exposure to climate change

Social – Invest in the health and wellbeing of our team and the communities we serve

• Launch a diversity and inclusion strategy that ensures our workforce reflects the communities we serve and provides an inclusive environment for our people
• Develop a strategy to support the inclusion of First Nations Australians across our value chain
• Launch community programs that are meaningful to our customers
• Invest in the health and wellbeing of our people
• Support equitable access to available medicines for all Australian communities
• Operate a responsible and ethical supply chain that mitigates the risk of modern slavery

Governance – Operate our business in an ethical way and transparently report on our operations and decision-making processes

• Ensure we are a responsible steward of stakeholder data and privacy
• Report transparently to the market on financial and non-financial performance
• Engage with the industry and government to ensure a transition to a sustainable future

In FY23, Sigma established an ‘ESG Steering Committee’ which now drives and provides oversight on our ESG focus areas, and reports ESG progress to the Board on a periodic basis.

For more information about Sigma’s material environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics and the progress we have made in managing our operational impacts, refer to our Sustainability Reports.