Corporate Responsibility
Environment
We recognise that we have responsibilities for managing the impact of our business on the environment. This is not only good for the environment but makes business sense too – the less fuel, electricity, water and raw materials we use the lower our costs will be.
We also have responsibility for the environmental impacts of the products we sell. Some of these issues are discussed under Marketplace.
Environmental Champions
This year we trialled a scheme in our Devon and Cornwall stores aimed at increasing awareness of environmental best practice and delivering reductions in energy consumption and waste. An Environmental Champion was appointed in each store and tasked with encouraging colleagues to make small changes in their behaviour which would improve our environmental performance.
The pilot demonstrated that there are opportunities to improve our environmental performance by encouraging store staff to make small changes to their behaviour. We concluded that it is not appropriate to appoint an Environmental Champion in each store. Instead, next year, we are planning an environmental awareness raising campaign targeting all staff in High Street and Travel stores and for our head office staff to teach them about best practice.
Energy
We have continued to reduce energy consumption across the Group in line with our targets. Since September 2004, we have delivered a 4.3% reduction in consumption. 50 per cent of the electricity we purchased came from renewable sources.
Raising staff awareness of energy efficiency remains a focus. This year we have created an ‘Energy and Environment’ section on our intranet to provide staff with the information on how they can help us save energy. Resources include a ‘Virtual Shop’, a fun tool for store teams to explore and see if they can find all of energy saving opportunities in typical store.
Transport
Last year we set a target to reduce diesel use by 15% compared to levels in 2004. This year we achieved a 4.4% saving which, combined with our improvement last year, resulted in an overall reduction of 16.2% from 2004 levels. During the same two year period we have also managed to reduce distance travelled by 16.7%.
This year, reductions have been achieved through the introduction of double deck trailers on trunk routes and a restructuring of our distribution network.
Waste
For us there are two main areas of waste to consider: waste from our stores and distribution centres, for example, cardboard boxes, plastic shrink wrap and damaged stock, and general waste from our offices, such as office paper, food and toner cartridges.
We have been working hard to increase the store recycling rate. We have a centralised waste management contract covering 370 of our High Street stores and during the year we have extended our cardboard recycling scheme to cover 153 of these sites. This has resulted in the recycling of 1,100 tonnes of cardboard – we plan to extend the scheme to further stores this year.
Packaging
With increasing pressure on both businesses and consumers to reduce waste, we are keen to find opportunities to reduce product packaging at source and to make our packaging easier to dispose of. As well as placing a burden on the environment, excessive packaging also increases costs for our business, with an over-packaged product costing more to transport and taking longer to unpack.
Transit packaging
This year we have continued our work with key Far East suppliers of own-brand products to eliminate unnecessary transit packaging. We trained merchandisers and product technologists in our Far East sourcing office on what best practice looks like in terms of product packaging. This was then followed by training for 25 suppliers where we explained the simple steps they can take to reduce packaging and also reduce cost.
All of the 25 suppliers trained have changed their processes in some way. The cumulative effect of many small changes is that at least 105 tonnes of cardboard has been taken out of our supply chain.
Carrier bags
A recent redesign of our carrier bags will deliver a significant saving in the amount of plastic used each year. The new carrier bag designs have the same strength as before but use around 30% less plastic. Not only will the new bags save plastic, but the lighter design will also reduce costs.
Biodegradable sandwich packaging
The Foo Go sandwich range offered in our Travel stores features innovative packaging which is helping to reduce the waste from convenience food. The sandwich packaging is completely biodegradable.
Encouraging our customers to help the environment
Christmas Card Recycling
2006 saw our continued involvement in Woodland Trust’s Christmas Card Recycling campaign – now in its 9th year. Throughout January customers were able to recycle cards in WHSmith throughout England, Wales and Scotland. A staggering 82 million cards were recycled by the scheme, an increase on the previous year of more than 40%.
Toner Cartridge Recycling
We continue to ‘complete the loop’ with our own brand toner cartridges. Customers buying a new printer cartridge can send off their old one to be recycled. This cartridge is then refurbished. In addition, Tommy’s, the baby charity, receives donations based on the number of units recycled.
