Positive Impact

City Beach is committed to treating all people the same no matter what their background, and we foster an inclusive environment for all. At the time of writing, City Beach had approximately 3000 employees, with approximately 300 people in management roles across our Head office, Distribution Centre, and Retail network. 70% of all employees were female, and 80% of the entire management team was female.

"The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests." (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

The 17 SDGs resonate with the beliefs and values of City Beach and the positive impact we aim to have on people and the planet. A few of the SDGs that we most closely align with include:

# 8 Decent work and Economic Growth:
We not only provide employment for thousands of people across Australia, but also indirectly for thousands of people around the world through our diverse supply chain. We feel particularly aligned with # 8.6 (Provide Youth Employment, Education & Training) given the employment opportunities we provide in our Retail stores, Distribution Centre, and Head office. Our annual Modern Slavery Statement addresses # 8.7 (End Modern Slavery and Child Labour) and the work we are doing to achieve continuous improvement in this area.

# 10 Reduce Inequalities:
At City Beach, we strongly believe in equality for all, and we hold nobody back from being the best that they can be, and bringing their whole self to our spaces, whether that be our customers, our team members, or our wider communities. We ensure we are addressing SDG's # 10.1 (Reduce Income Inequalities) and # 10.3 (Ensure Equal Opportunities and End Discrimination) in all our practices.

# 14 Life Below Water:
Our roots in the surf culture have given City Beach a long-lasting affinity with the ocean. Corporate partnerships and donations with organizations such as Ocean Crusaders and Surf Life Saving Foundation give us cause to believe that we are positively impacting SDG's # 14.1 (Reduce Marine Pollution), # 14.2 (Protect & Restore Ecosystems), and # 14.5 (Conserve Coastal and Marine areas)

City Beach looks to give back to our communities. We donate at least $10 000 each month to charities, with these partnerships selected to align with the beliefs and values of our team, customers, and our communities. Our goal is to contribute to our community in a way that aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals of reducing hunger, poverty, and inequality, providing education, and of course improving life below the water and on the land.

To demonstrate this commitment, City Beach has recently donated funds to the following charities:

OzHarvest: Rescues quality, excess food from commercial food businesses and delivers it free of charge to charities such as, emergency relief programs, community centers, family & domestic violence shelters and school breakfast programs.

Second Chance: All women have the right to safe housing that allows them to re-establish control over their life. Second Chance provides targeted funding to fill the gaps that other agencies cannot meet, to smooth the pathway for women to a stable and secure home.

Brisbane Youth Service: Working with homeless and vulnerable young people (ages 12 to 25 years) and young families in Brisbane and surrounding areas since 1977. BYS provides a range of free-of-charge, critical support and integrated services including emergency relief, housing, physical & mental health, drug and alcohol programs, parenting assistance, and domestic violence interventions.

Ocean Crusaders: Their mission is to create cleaner oceans for our marine wildlife. The Ocean Crusaders Foundation was founded in 2010 on a passion that came from seeing a large increase of deceased wildlife due to ocean pollution and debris.

Indigenous Literacy Foundation: Invests in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote communities to provide the tools and resources they request to shape the direction of their children’s literacy future. Since 2011 the Indigenous Literacy Foundation has worked with over 400 remote communities, gifted books, supplied playgroups with early literacy resources, and published books reflecting 26 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages!

The Board Meeting: This charity was started in 2005 by a group of surfers looking to help Sunshine Coast kids with disabilities through a variety of surf-related events. Run completely by a dedicated group of volunteers and supported by the local business and surfing communities, the charity raises much-needed funds for families who have fallen through the cracks of Government support, are doing it extremely tough financially and have children with needs, those of us with healthy kids could hardly fathom.

Beyond Blue: Beyond Blue provides support programs to address issues related to depression, suicide, anxiety disorders and other related mental illnesses. Beyond Blue aim to raise awareness around depression, anxiety, and suicide prevention, whilst reducing the stigma surrounding these issues and to encourage people to seek support when they need it.

Hands Across the Water: Commenced operations by building a home for the children left without parents as a result of the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand. Starting with 34 children and 1 location, Hands has now expanded its reach to operate in seven different locations across Thailand now supporting over 350 children.

The Smith Family: A national children’s education charity with a vision of a world where every child has the opportunity to change their future, no matter what their circumstances. Through their core Learning for Life program, they are helping children overcome their circumstances by providing long-term support for their education.

Surf Life Saving Foundation: Funds the vital training, rescue gear and equipment surf lifesavers need to make our beaches a safer place. Donations to SLSF also contribute to important water safety research and education programs to help Australians stay out of trouble in the water!

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation: JDRF's mission is to improve the lives of those affected by type 1 diabetes in three ways, research, advocacy, and community.

Electricity: Whilst much of our electricity usage is provided via landlord agreements, City Beach did take the initiative in 2020 to install solar panels on our Distribution Centre. In FY21-22 alone, this generated 85,122 kWH of solar energy, saving 74.9 tonne of carbon emissions.

Waste Management & Recycling: Each year, between 1000 – 1500 tonne of carbon emissions is saved through recycling of cardboard and timber pallets at our Distribution Centre, and approximately 2000 tonne of carbon emissions is saved per year in our stores by recycling cardboard. Almost one tonne of carbon emissions is saved in our Head office via paper recycling.

Digitization: A review of processes in 2020 led to over 40% reduction of paper usage and printing across our Head office and Distribution Centre. We have also eliminated most of the printing done in our stores by increased usage of technology, like use of mobile devices and electronic receipts.

Plastic: In 2023, City Beach is phasing out virgin plastic for our retail store customer carry bags and for our eCommerce customer orders. Our research has shown that the best option for the environment right now is to move to post-consumer recycled material options in a bid to reduce the amount of plastic circulating around the world. Note that in 2022, the Western Australian government mandated a move to paper customer carry bags, so this was introduced in place of plastic for our WA stores.

Our Partners: City Beach recognizes the hard work and efforts of many of our partners in their own Sustainability initiatives. Australia Post, Macquarie Telecom, Amazon Web Services, Meta, and many of our landlords have their own sustainability practices and future goals, which we acknowledge in turn has a positive impact on our own footprint.

What is next: At City Beach we know that we face some challenges on the road to improving sustainability. As we grow across Australia and around the world, we increasingly face complicated government legislation when it comes to sustainability guidelines. We also have a diverse supply chain, so the full product lifecycle of all our products is not in our control, and of course there is a lack of visibility of our consumer's post purchase behavior. But like everyone, we must do what we can and improve wherever possible. You cannot change what you cannot see, so we have kicked off by looking carefully at what is in our control. At City Beach, we take the approach of constant improvement, and when it comes to Sustainability, we are taking the same approach to ensure we are working towards a better future for all.