The Co-operative Group's new Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2004 reveals that community investment stood at  £7.3m ($12.9m), or 3.2 per cent of pre-tax profit, up from 2.5 per cent in 2003 despite a 26 per cent fall in profits over the period.

The report, which is assured by KPMG using the AA1000 and ISAE 3000 assurance standards, covers the ethical performance of the Group's range of businesses - such as its Food Retail stores, Travelcare and Co-op Pharmacy - using the same set of core key performance indicators.

It also shows that the Group:

• has launched a diversity strategy with initiatives in place covering flexible working, access to goods and services, age discrimination and the development of a measurement framework
• has advanced its 'responsible retailing programme', which is guided by an
  external panel of experts and focuses on issues such as animal testing, food
  labelling and fair trade
• has developed a group-wide sustainable purchasing process, screening
  suppliers against social, ethical and environmental criteria
• buys 100 per cent of its centrally-procured energy from 'green' sources.