Energy and climate change

Energy

Within our Boots UK business we consume energy in a wide range of buildings. The majority of these are our Boots UK stores with floor areas ranging from less than 50 square metres right up to 7,000 square metres. In addition we have warehouses, a Nottingham Support Office site set in around 300 acres and a Feltham Support Office.

We actively manage the efficient use of energy in our buildings, and have done so for many years. Energy consumption in many of our larger Boots UK stores accounts for approximately 50% of the total energy across all stores and is controlled remotely and automatically by building management systems (BMS). Around 70% of the total energy used in our Boots UK stores is monitored every half hour using automated, remotely-read meters.

Between 2005/06 and 2008/09 we invested over £8 million on energy efficiency measures for our stores, producing ongoing cumulative savings equivalent to around 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. These investments included rolling out a major heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) project in 75 of our larger stores which improved overall performance and reduced energy consumption in many stores. We also installed variable speed drives and enhanced controls on air handling equipment in a number of other stores, delivering further general improvements in energy efficiency.

In addition we’ve reconfigured the control equipment in stores where we have recently extended our pharmacy offering until midnight for our customers. This project ensured that only the equipment needed for the pharmacy operations remains active until midnight, while everything else is switched off.

During 2008/09 the total energy consumption in our buildings was broadly flat, having increased slightly from 527 GWh to 529 GWh year on year (a 0.4% increase). The challenge of upward pressures on energy consumption remains as we continue to improve the offer to our customers by, for example, providing doctors surgeries and premium beauty, as well as by generally improving in-store conditions with air conditioning. New stores that opened in 2008/09 accounted for a 1.1% increase in electricity consumption for the year.

We continue to work closely with our people in stores and our service providers to provide energy consumption and benchmark data to highlight further opportunities for improvement. Our combined heat and power (CHP) energy centre on the Nottingham Support Office site generates lower carbon electricity than the national grid as well as heat for our manufacturing processes and buildings. In 2008 our CHP plant received its ISO 14001 re-accreditation, confirming our commitment to running a highly efficient power station and acknowledging that we are continually improving our environmental processes and efficiency over time.

Total energy consumption

Total energy consumption

The 2007/08 data reported last year has been restated to reflect more accurately the independent business operations located on our Nottingham Support Office site.

Climate change

We believe that addressing the impact of climate change is an issue of paramount importance, recognising that a healthy planet, healthy lifestyles and healthy business are all fundamentally linked to each other. We each have an important role to play to reduce the impact of global climate change, whether through our individual lifestyle choices, or through government or business decision making.

Our membership of The Prince of Wales’ May Day Network (in association with Business in the Community) since 2007 is part of our response to this issue and as part of our May Day Commitment we have pledged to reduce the carbon footprint of Boots legacy stores by 30% by 2020 compared to 2005. This commitment to long term, absolute carbon reductions has been endorsed by our Group Executive Committee and is an important step in developing the company’s long term carbon reduction strategy.

As part of our long term plans we are working with partners on the development of a low carbon Boots UK store to influence the design of all our stores going forward; not only further reducing the footprint of our new stores but influencing the refit projects of our existing stores.

Carbon dioxide for energy use in buildings

Carbon dioxide for energy use in buildings

The 2007/08 data reported last year has been restated to reflect more accurately the independent business operations located on our Nottingham Support Office site.