Information in this report is for the financial year ended 30 June 2012. All wholly owned or operationally-managed businesses are included. Other part-owned businesses such as the Bengalla coalmine in New South Wales, Wespine softwood sawmill in Western Australia, and Queensland Nitrates Pty Ltd in Queensland are grouped in the Other businesses section page 66 of this report and we provide links to relevant websites for readers wishing to find out more about their activities.

We have included a structure of the Wesfarmers Group here. All of our business units operate autonomously, with a very limited number of shared services at a corporate level. The structure of this report reflects that divisional autonomy.

In this report we have also included the Data Bank, which covers a five year period.

External assurance and auditing

The data and statements in this report have been externally audited or assured as follows:

• the principal assurance of the report to the AccountAbility’s AA 1000 2008 Assurance Standard was conducted by Net Balance Management Group Pty Ltd (Net Balance). A copy of the independent assurance statement is available here.
• the Australian Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse emissions and energy use were audited by Ernst & Young to the requirements of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination 2008 (NGER Act) and we provided a copy of the audit report to the Australian Clean Energy Regulator. The other greenhouse and energy data were assured by Net Balance as described in their assurance statement. Emissions for other countries are calculated according to relevant government standards in those countries.
• the community contributions data were verified by either the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) on this page or Net Balance as specified here.

Net Balance relied upon the NGER Act audit and LBG processes for assurance or verification of those parts of this report.

The report has also been assessed against the provisions of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) by that organisation and assessed to be at the B+ level. The GRI statement is available on www.wesfarmers.com.au

Prior to these external assurance processes, an extensive verification check by representatives of our Group Insurance and Group Legal departments was conducted with the business units to ensure that the report is as accurate and complete as possible.

Safety data

As with the other data in this report, safety and workers’ compensation data are for the year ended 30 June 2012. However, the data reported for a particular year can change in subsequent reports as circumstances (such as the duration of time lost from work) can change over time. Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) includes contractors where possible and unless otherwise specified, whereas the total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) data includes only employees.

Completeness

We do not claim that this report provides 100 per cent coverage of our sustainability performance. Any gaps in our knowledge will be reduced as our systems continually improve. This document is a best-endeavours attempt to report openly and honestly based on our current state of knowledge. Our businesses include relevant additional information on their websites as it becomes available.

During the year, Wesfarmers sold two subsidiaries: Premier Coal in December 2011; and enGen in August 2011. Data covering the ownership period is included in the Data Bank.

Feedback

We welcome your feedback on this report, you can email info@wesfarmers.com.au. Last year, we received several formal comments, which we responded to individually.

Verification Statement from LBG Australia & New Zealand – 2012

The LBG model helps businesses improve the measurement, management and reporting of their corporate community investment programs. It covers the full range of contributions (cash, time and in‑kind donations) made to community causes.

As managers of LBG Australia & New Zealand, we can confirm that we have worked with Wesfarmers Ltd^* to verify its understanding and application of the LBG model with regard to the wide range of community programs supported.

Our aim has been to ensure that the evaluation principles have been correctly and consistently applied and we are satisfied that this has been achieved. It is important to note that our work has not extended to an independent audit of the data.

We can confirm that Wesfarmers Ltd* has invested $27,984,920 (exclusive of management costs) in the community in this 2012 reporting year as defined by the LBG methodology.

^*LBG verification did not include verification of data from Bunnings and Office Supplies


Verified by Simon J Robinson and Kate Robinson
On behalf of LBG Australia & New Zealand
September 2012