London > Kingfisher, Europe’s leading home improvement retail group, has recently published its Corporate Responsibility Report 2007/08, entitled ‘Steps for a sustainable future’. With the report the company sets up a sustainability strategy that prepares the business for the future. The ambitious objective is to ‘fully integrate sustainability into business-thinking and to be the customer choice for sustainable home improvement products and services’. The goal is therefore twofold: To promote sustainability within Kingfisher’s own operations and to enable customers to create sustainable homes.

In order to identify sustainability opportunities and challenges for the business over the next 10 years, Kingfisher has been working with the sustainable development charity Forum for the Future. A new set of sustainability goals have been developed, which are implemented through the company’s Steps to Responsible Growth environmental and social management programme. The programme sets out specific actions that Kingfisher’s operating companies must take on 12 key social and environmental issues. The company has also set five-year targets on energy, waste, chemical use and sustainable timber sourcing as well as social targets on issues such as working conditions, diversity, health and safety and community engagement.

Over the past year Kingfisher’s operating companies have run marketing campaigns to help customers to create more sustainable homes:

• B&Q UK is one of the first major businesses to commit to ‘One Planet Living’, an initiative launched by the environmental organizations World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and BioRegional, setting out 10 sustainability principles to ensure people live within the resources of this planet. The company is working to introduce a range of One Planet Home products that help consumers to reduce the environmental impact of their homes. One example is the innovative insulation product eco-wool, made from recycled plastic bottles.
• Castorama France also works together with the WWF to promote ‘Partners of the Planet’ products. Those eco-products currently make 8% of total sales.
• B&Q China’s Better Homes campaign also promotes sustainable products to customers. The Better Homes logo is shown on products, and the campaign includes in-store posters and leaflets.

Climate Change is recognized as one key challenge of the future, and has been a key focus in product development but also with regard to the company’s own operations: Kingfisher has sourced its own-brand range of energy efficient light bulbs, helping customers to reduce the impact on climate change. Further, B&Q UK’s ‘Energy Efficiency Made Easy’ campaign promotes energy efficient products. In addition, Kingfisher is aiming to reduce the group’s carbon footprint: During the past year, store energy efficiency has been improving by 7%.

Kingfisher aims to engage with the stakeholders on different levels: To encourage open dialogue this year’s Kingfisher’s CR-report has been reviewed by an independent stakeholder panel, including representatives of non-governmental organizations, investments funds, industry organizations and suppliers, as part of the assurance process.

Securing ethical investment is also a goal for Kingfisher: The company therefore continues to be included in the FTSE4Good and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) – two of the main socially responsible investment indices. The company’s score in the DJSI has significantly improved from 28% in 2002 to 70% in 2007.

Kingfisher has been ranked highly in a number of recent benchmarking studies: It achieved Platinum Status (the highest ranking) in the Business in the Community UK CR Index 2007 and number one in UK’s newspaper The Independent and its guide to the world’s greenest companies.

For the full report see www.kingfisher.com/CR07