Sir Peter Parker Award

 Sir Peter Parker Award sponsored by Brunswick

Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 8 June 2010 by Sir Anthony Cleaver, President, BCE Environmental Leadership Awards

Kingfisher plc

Spearheading sustainable timber sourcing practices in retail

Kingfisher plc is Europe’s leading home improvement retail group and the third largest in the world, with over 830 stores in eight countries in Europe and Asia. Its main retail brands are B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt and Screwfix. Sales in the year ended 30 January 2010 were over £10.5 billion, over half of which was generated outside the UK, with adjusted pre-tax profit up almost 50% to £547 million. 

From functional and environmental points of view, wood is an excellent material provided it comes from responsibly managed forests. Rainforest deforestation, and illegal harvesting and trading of timber cause devastating environmental consequences (including producing significant CO2 emissions and threatening biodiversity), undermine the user rights of indigenous people and create unfair competition on the global and European market. As a retailer sourcing and selling a high volume of timber and products made from, or containing, wood, Kingfisher is committed to ensuring that its products come from well-managed sources. 

The company has pioneered retailer initiatives on sustainable timber since the 1990s when B&Q was a founding partner of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In 2008, it was the first retailer of its size, scopeand product range to receive full chain-of-custody
certification for all products that carry the FSC and therogramme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification(PEFC) logos. In 2008/09, the company sold timber products coming from an estimated certified forest area of over 3 million hectares that have managed to
avoid the pressures of deforestation and thereby act as a carbon sink to help reduce the effects of climate change. The process to achieve this has been through a combination of corporate commitment, policies and management systems to drive improvements,
underpinned by nearly 20 years of initiatives to make the market for timber more sustainable.

On wider environmental issues, the company launched its ‘Future Homes Strategy’ in 2008. This sets out its ambitious aim ‘to fully integrate sustainability into business thinking and be the customer choice for sustainable home improvement products and services’. This is delivered through seven goals that set a long-term vision, a set of policy standards on 14 issues within the goals, together with a set of annually reviewed targets. A robust and award-winning management system tracks progress and includes key performance indicators to ensure that all of Kingfisher’s businesses – from Europe to China and Russia – achieve a defined level of environmental performance within specific timeframes.

To see the Kingfisher video click here. 

To find out more about this project, please contact:
caroline.mccarthy-stout@kingfisher.com
www.kingfisher.com

Back to the 2010 winners