LETTER FROM OUR CEO
Like Grow Talent, Champion Inclusion is another one of our Cultural Beliefs, and in 2021, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) continued to be essential parts of our ownership culture. This past year, we created many initiatives to ensure we Champion Inclusion in all we do, and I believe we are leading the industry in this critical area. In addition to expanding the size and scope of our Office of DEI, we leveraged data to increase accountability, fostered inclusion through numerous cultural celebrations, delivered DEI awareness training and reimagined our seven team member networks to make them more accessible to team members at all levels and in all geographies. Importantly, we also established our first CEO inclusion council charged with oversight of the company’s DEI strategy. This diverse group of company leaders will help ensure we continue to deliver meaningful progress in this area and provide everyone at Advance the opportunity to thrive, belong and succeed. Throughout 2021, we also refined our field and distribution center (DC) training programs to pave the way for easier onboarding and swifter advancement. For added safety, we identified Safety Champions in many of our stores and DCs, which has contributed to our lowest incident rate ever. In addition, we introduced new health and wellness benefits and made progress on how we operate in a hybrid and remote environment post-pandemic. Collectively, we believe this work is helping us continue to position Advance as an employer of choice. Our sustainability agenda also extends to the way we care for our planet. From an environmental standpoint, we reduced both energy consumption and carbon emissions and continued to work to improve recycling and re-use opportunities. From a community standpoint, we set out a few years ago to become more focused on where we could have an impact. From a corporate giving standpoint, in 2021, we concentrated our efforts in two primary areas: improving community health and supporting military veterans. We were once again counted among the top corporate fundraisers for the American Heart Association thanks to the generosity of our team members and customers. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S. and affects our Advance team members in a similar fashion. Over the past four years, we raised more than $4.7 million to support the American Heart Association’s mission of building healthier lives,
free of cardiovascular disease. From a military veteran perspective, Advance is proud to be the home of thousands of veteran team members. With the help of our supplier partners, we raised approximately $1.5 million in 2021 to support Building Homes for Heroes, a nonprofit organization that gifts mortgage-free homes to military heroes. Beyond these company-wide initiatives, giving back also happened at the local level. Through the newly reinvigorated Advance Auto Parts Foundation, we gifted tens of thousands of dollars to nonprofits recommended by our team members – from food pantries to Big Brothers Big Sisters chapters to programs aimed at veteran suicide prevention and support for cancer patients. At the end of the day, we know that when we care for our team members and provide them a stake in our success, they will in turn take care of our customers and help us continue to achieve strong business results. Throughout this report, you’ll read many examples of ways our team members contributed to building an even better – and stronger – Advance. Importantly, our work in corporate sustainability continues to evolve. I’m excited to share that we recently completed our first ESG Materiality Assessment, which used input from our stakeholders to help us prioritize our sustainability agenda. At the conclusion of this report, you can read more about the results of this assessment and the five areas of ESG that we determined have high relevance to our stakeholders and the most potential to contribute value to our business and support our long-term success. Despite the uncertainty that still exists in today’s dynamic environment, there is one thing I am certain about: at Advance, our team members ARE our best part and together, we will continue to achieve great things. As the basketball legend Michael Jordan once said, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” I think the same can be said in our business. I hope you enjoy reading about our many accomplishments, and I look forward to hearing your feedback.
Regards,
ABOUT
PEOPLE
PLANET
COMMUNITY
GOVERNANCE
2021 ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL REPORT | 5
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online