Product sustainability

Improving the environmental and social performance of the products we sell is a natural way of making a positive contribution to sustainable development. It is also a stimulus for innovation, developing new product ideas that enhance customer convenience and confidence, and reinforcing trust in the Boots Brand.

Our aim is to take an holistic approach to product sustainability embracing the whole product lifecycle, from concept and design, through to customer use and final disposal of packaging and waste product. This life-cycle approach is the Product Journey.

In 2007 Boots won a major commendation in the Business Commitment to the Environment Awards, for the Product Journey.  We were also selected to represent the UK in the European Business and Environment Awards 2008.

The issue

It is increasingly recognised that the development and use of consumer products can have a major impact on environmental, social and ethical performance. The most efficient and cost effective way of managing these impacts is at the design and development stage. The UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy (2005) recognises this:

“We need a major shift to deliver new products and services with lower environmental impact across their life cycle, whilst at the same time boosting competitiveness. And we need to build on people’s growing awareness of social, environmental concerns, and the importance of their roles as citizens and consumers.”

What we're doing

Building sustainability into the products we sell is a key initiative in our CSR strategy and links with many of our other CSR aims. It also provides us with a route to engage with our customers on sustainable development issues.

We have developed an approach to integrating sustainability into product development covering two key areas.

i) Embedding sustainable development into the product development process

Sustainable development considerations have been included in the processes we use to develop new products. From the initial risk assessment through to a specific tool to assess the sustainability profile of any particular product, we aim to build a complete picture of what the impacts are, how we can manage these, and at the same time enhance the positive sustainability features inherent in the product.

Our intention here is to harness creativity and direct it within the business to create new and more sustainable product opportunities.

Within the company we have set up a new team to harness new technologies and ideas:

Product Bank is a way of working in the Global Product Development department (GPD) encompassing both packaging and formulation.

The objective of the approach is to manage the current inventories of raw materials and packaging and to optimise them for their impact on the supply chain.

In addition the approach sets out to develop new product ideas up to 3 years in advance. This entails spotting potential marketplace, legislation and technology trends and developing them to a lower risk, usable format ready for full development by the GPD teams.

In this future-focused work the team is working on the areas of sustainability and inclusive design and how to integrate the thinking into mainstream product development.

ii) Research and innovation

We also recognise that the best way to tackle emerging sustainable development issues is by working with other experts in this field. Our partnership with Loughborough University is an example of this approach. The partnership started with an eco-redesign project involving second year degree students. The students dismantle existing Boots products for assessment and suggest proposals for improvement. Interestingly the proposals we have assessed went beyond traditional waste reduction initiatives prompting new and more sustainable ways of delivering the product or service to the customer. This successful project is now in its fifth year.

Loughborough University and Boots have participated in a DEFRA funded research project investigating customer focused design techniques to create innovative product and packaging combinations that are more sustainable.

Boots are also working with Sheffield Hallam University on a PhD study into communicating sustainability to consumers.

In the area of policy development Boots sponsored the Green Alliance "Closing the Loop" project to bring together retailers, manufacturers, government and the waste management sector to ensure efficient end to end processes are in place to recover, recycle and compost packaging waste. We are now participating in the new Designing Out Waste project.

Carbon footprinting

In 2006 Boots joined forces with the Carbon Trust to measure the carbon footprint of a typical Boots product; in this case: Shampoo. The results were published in January 2007 and in April we became the first retailer to join the Carbon Trust Carbon Labelling Scheme. Boots Botanics and Ingredients range shampoos are now in store with a reduced carbon footprint of 20%.