Transport

The issue

The movement of goods from manufacturer to warehousing to retail shops generates carbon dioxide, a direct contributor to climate change. National and local governments, communities and individuals are all beginning to address the challenge of climate change by altering the way they do things to reduce their "Carbon Footprint". Business also has a role to play, including the retail sector, and Boots has been taking an active part in reducing its impacts within supply chain distribution systems. More detail can be found in the downloadable policies section on the right.

What we're doing

We're committed to reducing the amount of carbon dioxide produced from transport operations and, for many years, we've been planning the deliveries to our shops to reduce the kilometres travelled, to reduce the fuel used and to increase the amount of product we carry per load. More detail can be found in the downloadable position statements section on the right.

Current initiatives

During 2007/08 we've further reduced our carbon dioxide emissions and the total kilometres travelled by road through a series of intitiatives, including the continued use of new vehicle types for our store delivery and trunking fleet. Examples include:

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions in Scotland

Boots is spearheading an innovative pilot project in the north of Scotland aimed at cutting carbon emissions and reducing delivery costs. In May 2007 we started a unique collaboration with JBT, a leading local road haulage services company based in the north of Scotland. JBT will utilise empty space on their vehicles returning to their base in Inverness, and will make onward deliveries to our shops.  It will cut 6,000 miles a week, resulting in an annual fuel saving of almost 150,000 litres and reducing our transport carbon emissions in Scotland by 12%.

Double-deck trailer fleet

We have continued to use our fleet of 41 double deck trailers. These trailers enable us to make two journeys rather than the three we would have made using our standard trailers. During 2008 we are expanding this fleet further.

Wagon and drag fleet

In February 2006 we replaced some of our standard store delivery vehicles with 12 "Wagon and Drag" vehicles, made up of a rigid vehicle and a box trailer. This allows us to move more products per journey than when using a standard store delivery vehicle, while also enabling us to deliver to our shops with limited delivery access.

Backloading

We are also continuing our policy of 'backloading' - using vehicles to deliver products to shops, and then collecting bulk products destined for our warehouse from our suppliers on the return journey. We still manage directly the scheduling of our backloading operations, with our efforts now saving the equivalent of around 2.6 million kilometres of travel on UK roads (around 2,000 tonnes of carbon) each year. More detail can be found in the downloadable performance section on the right.

Importing products from the Far East

For the last few years we have been reviewing the carbon impact associated with importing goods from the Far East, and looking for ways to reduce that impact. Since 2004 we have reduced the number of smaller shipments, increased the volume of goods in each container and reduced the amount of goods imported by air. On a like for like basis these combined changes have reduced the carbon dioxide emissions per cubic metre of goods transported by around 29%.