Sustainable Governance

We’re committed to conducting all our business honestly, ethically and sustainably.

That means acting professionally, fairly and with integrity in all our dealings and relationships. A clear governance framework is in place to monitor our performance in this area and ensure we identify and address sustainability issues effectively.

Our governance structure

The Responsible and Sustainable Business Committee (RSC) is a committee of the Board and meets at least three times a year to:

  • Review and assess our sustainability strategy and performance against it;

  • Review and approve policies related to our focus areas: Our People and Community, and Our Planet; and

  • Ensure we meet our governance obligations, achieving the required legal, compliance, regulatory, ethical and reporting standards across the Group.

The ESG Committee meets six times a year and reports to both the Group Leadership Team (GLT) and the RSC. Its responsibilities include updating the RSC on sustainability developments, as well as driving the overall strategy of the business.

Our Steering Committees and Colleague Networks ensure we unite like-minded people to champion issues and help us build on our inclusive culture. We invite everyone to join any of our networks as an ally, while the Steering Committees involve key people, including the CEO and department heads, who help shape our strategy and impact.

Materiality

Materiality assessments are used by organisations to identify, prioritise, and monitor their material sustainability topics. This ensures sustainability-related risks and opportunities, as well as stakeholder perspectives, are considered in strategic planning and decision-making.

In 2024, we refreshed our 2021 materiality assessment. Of note, there was a significant shift towards social priorities, such as fair wages and diversity and equality.

Our Materiality Disclosure

A - Customer satisfaction and quality

B - Health, safety and wellbeing

C - Data security and privacy

D - Fair wages

E - Equality and diversity

F - Material use, longevity and circularity

G - Labour conditions

H - Carbon emissions

I - Plastic packaging and waste

J - Energy consumption

K - Deforestation and biodiversity loss

L - Environment tax

M - Air pollution

N - Water quality and drought

Climate-related risks and opportunities

The Board recognises that addressing climate change is critical to the Group’s long-term success. Climate-related risk is monitored by the Audit and Risk Committee (ARC) and Board through regular meetings.

The ESG Committee is responsible for managing climate-related risks and opportunities. Senior management attends this committee’s meetings to ensure progress against climate change objectives is monitored and influenced.

Management is informed about climate-related matters:

  • Internally, through regular updates from the ESG Committee and Sustainability team. They ensure governance – including risk management, strategy and implementation – is raised, along with any financial implications;

  • Externally through input from expert advisors and groups, to ensure our sustainability strategy is relevant and aligns with continually changing reporting and regulatory requirements; and

  • Externally, through collaboration with industry bodies and non-profit organisations.

The ESG Committee’s updates to the RSC on sustainability matters include climate change. Given the importance of this topic, it remains a key area of discussion at both RSC and Board meetings.

Ethical supply chain

We take our responsibility to protect the rights of the people who make our products very seriously – wherever they are in the world.

We work closely with our tier one suppliers, conducting regular in-person audits with our Quality team, following the SMETA methodology. This evaluates ethical, social and environmental practices in the supply chain.

Additionally, as specified in our Code of Practice, all tier one suppliers should have a third-party audit to initially obtain a two-pillar SMETA certification, followed by an enhanced four-pillar certification.

In practice, our approach means:

  • Every tier one supplier will undergo at least one onsite audit by a member of the DFS Quality team, who are all trained in the SMETA certification;

  • All suppliers have signed our Supplier Code of Practice and obtained SMETA certification.

  • We are now underway with tier two and tier three supplier audits;

  • SMETA certification is required for all tier one suppliers and requested for tier two and three;

  • All DFS Group leaders and managers must complete mandatory modern slavery training; and

  • We provide a confidential reporting hotline for any stakeholder to raise ethical concerns.

We are committed to fairness and integrity in all our business dealings. We do not operate in any tax havens nor use any tax avoidance schemes. See further details in our Tax Strategy.

We won’t accept bribery or corruption, in any form or in any place, and we don’t offer, give or take a bribe or inappropriate payment, either directly or indirectly.

We implement effective systems to counter the risk of bribery and corruption, applying our policies across all our operations. We require all our suppliers to commit to the same or equivalent policies.

In practice our approach means:

  • Offering, giving, taking or promising things that may influence or affect an organisation or individual in order to gain business, or an advantage, isn’t allowed in any form;

  • Accepting or offering a bribe/kickback payment of any kind is prohibited. A bribe doesn’t have to be successful to be corrupt;

  • We’ll never use our charity or sponsorship activities to gain an unfair advantage; and

  • We expect all our colleagues, partners and suppliers to report any breaches, or suspected bribes or corrupt behaviour.

See more details in our Anti-Bribery Policy.

Giving or accepting a gift or hospitality should only be done if it’s of small and modest value. It should never influence the decisions we take.

In practice our approach means:

  • We don’t offer or accept gifts or hospitality as part of contract negotiations or sales transactions; and

  • Any gifts given or received are modest in value and recorded appropriately.

All our business records, information and transactions must be recorded accurately and honestly. We’re steadfast in our approach to preventing any kind of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering or other financial crime.

In practice our approach means:

  • We’ve got robust controls in place to prevent and detect any form of fraud or money laundering;

  • The records of our business dealings and finances are accurate and well maintained;

  • If we suspect any kind of irregularity in our finances, they’re reported straight away to the management team; and

  • Timesheets and expenses submitted for payment are accurate and timely.

The risk of cyber-attacks is ever increasing, and our operations depend on the continued availability and integrity of our IT systems, including the security of customer and other data.

We take all steps necessary to comply with the principles of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, and we have a formal Data Privacy Policy in place.

Read more about corporate Governance at DFS Group and see all our Policies and Procedures.

Policies

Policies and procedures

Scope 1&2 assurance

Responsibility and Sustainability report

Basis for reporting

Related pages

Our approach
Our people
Our environment