Guardian Environment, Social and Governance

OUR ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) STRATEGY

Sustainability has always been at the heart of what we do, it is a core component of the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards.

Our purpose is to ensure children are supported to be brave, curious and imaginative in their learning, to give them the best possible start to life. This purpose is entirely focused on producing positive outcomes for society by focusing on its youngest members during the most important years of their lives in terms of brain development, as well as benefiting their families and the communities within which we operate.

These intrinsic elements of our approach have now been formalised into an ESG Strategy. This strategy guides our approach and has four pillars:

  • People at Guardian
  • Environment at Guardian
  • Quality of Service at Guardian
  • Governance at Guardian

PEOPLE AT GUARDIAN

Ensuring our team members are productively employed, feel valued, are actively supported and able to develop personally and professionally is important to us. That is why we invest in our people in multiple ways.

100% of our team members are paid above the relevant Award rate and we offer a wide range of professional development programs as well as educational opportunities and scholarships through our partnerships with VET providers and Universities. We also have an active traineeship program for those just starting out on their career journey. We care and support our team members in need through the provision of an Employee Assistance Program as well as our Guardian One Team Fund for those suffering financial hardship. We also actively run programs to ensure the health and safety of our team members and we respect diversity and inclusion. Our employee satisfaction score has increased almost 50% since 2021.

 

ENVIRONMENT AT GUARDIAN

Our curriculum and daily centre practices instill a positive attitude towards the environment and an understanding of the importance of sustainability in our society’s youngest members. Recycling, energy minimisation, composting are all parts of the daily life of our Centres with almost all Centres running specific Sustainability Programs. We have also produced a Sustainability Guide for children to take home so their family can be more aware of how to be more sustainable in their daily lives outside the centre.

At a corporate level, we are taking steps to reduce our environmental impact, including tracking our energy consumption and working to provide more comprehensive reporting on emissions. This was benchmarked as recently as last year. We have taken several initiatives to reduce our environmental impact, including investing in solar and energy efficient lighting in existing Centres, increasing our focus on sustainable sourcing practices, reducing waste creation across our network, and recycling.

 

QUALITY OF SERVICE AT GUARDIAN

Service quality is at the heart of our business.

Our pedagogical approach is play-based and child-led. We are a leader amongst our peers in providing high quality programs with 33% of our Centres rated Exceeding and 94% assessed as meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standards as at the end of 2022. By the end of 2023, we aim to reach 95% of Centres with this rating.

 

GOVERNANCE AT GUARDIAN

At Guardian, we believe in promoting good corporate governance practices and uphold the highest standards when it comes to managing risks and ensuring compliance with regulations.

We have strict policies in place to ensure compliance with all relevant regulations.

Our Board of Directors, that includes a majority of Independent Directors, is responsible for guiding and monitoring the business on behalf of our stakeholders, and we have a Risk Management Policy in place that outlines our approach to the oversight and management of risk.

Our commitment to strong corporate governance and compliance with industry regulations and standards is reflected in our performance against the National Quality Standard. We are a leader in the sector with the highest proportion of centres rated Exceeding of any larger provider.