Electricals retail group Dixons Carphone has appointed a director of group sustainability and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG).
Moira Thomas has joined the Carphone Warehouse, Currys PC World, and Dixons Travel parent company from John Lewis Partnership (JLP), where she spent over 15 years in multiple corporate social responsibility, ESG, and sustainability management roles. Most recently, she was JLP’s group senior manager for corporate responsibility.
The director of group sustainability & ESG is a newly established role by Dixons Carphone. The company said Thomas will guide its existing greener retailing commitments, including its pledge to achieve ‘net zero’ by 2040, and its transition to electric vehicles across its delivery fleet.
Last month Dixons Carphone said it is committed to assessing the carbon emissions of its global supplier base, as it became the first UK company to use business sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis’s newly launched Carbon Action Module to collect and analyse suppliers’ critical emissions data.
The retail group said it will use the data to work with suppliers to benchmark, measure and develop plans to reduce carbon emissions.
Assad Malic, group director of strategy & corporate affairs at Dixons Carphone, said: “With her experience and expertise, Moira will play a critical role in elevating our ESG strategy.”
Thomas has extensive experience managing large scale ESG programmes, covering carbon, property, waste, packaging, recycling and communities.
She commented: “It’s an exciting time to be joining Dixons Carphone, which is balancing the need to meet unprecedented demand for vital technology, with doing right by the planet and communities.”
Roles such as positive business director, senior vice president for sustainability, and group sustainability director are set to become more commonplace within retail in the coming years, as governments and businesses work towards an increasing number of climate action goals.
Last year, Prince Charles called on organisations of all types to appoint chief sustainability officers and to align their commercial targets with environmental ones.
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[Image credit: Dixons Carphone]
