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 lifecycle approach is the Product Journey.

In 2007 we won a major commendation in the Business Commitment to the Environment Awards, for our 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.

We have developed an approach that integrates sustainability into product development covering three key areas:

i) Embedding sustainable development into the product development process

As one of the few health and beauty retailers that also develops its own products, we're in a strong position to understand the factors that affect their sustainability through a unique understanding of what goes into our products, where the materials come from, how they are made and how our customers can use and dispose or recycle them.

Our experts have developed a new product sustainability assessment process, unique to Boots, that measures the sustainability of products across more than 20 different criteria. We're now starting to use this model to identify how we can improve our brands and products further, as well as ensuring that sustainability measures are built into all our new product development targets.

Product development and technical staff at both our Nottingham Support Office and our buying office in Hong Kong, have been trained to use the sustainability model.

We have used the process to assess the products of five of our toiletries and cosmetics brands. The insights gained are now being used to build sustainability objectives for the future development of these brands. Plans to roll out the product sustainability process to all Boots products in 2011 are at an advanced stage.

We are helping the WRAP Product Research Forum with its work on strategy for the development of the Courtaulds Commitment beyond 2013, using data from our product sustainability assessments.

ii) Innovation

Within the business, we have teams evaluating new technologies and ideas 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 within the supply chain.

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

iii) Research

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 commenced in 2004 and is now run annually.

Loughborough University and Boots UK participated in a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) funded research project investigating customer focused design techniques to create innovative product and packaging combinations that are more sustainable. The project has helped us identify innovative product and packaging styles which we are currently evaluating.

Boots UK is also supporting Nottingham Trent University with a PhD study into communicating sustainability to consumers.

In the area of policy development we've sponsored the Green Alliance "Closing the Loop" project to bring together retailers, manufacturers, Government and the waste management sector to ensure that efficient end to end processes are in place to recover, recycle and compost packaging waste. This work has now reached its second phase with the "Designing Out Waste" project, aimed at influencing waste resource and product policy to design waste out of the product supply chain.

Carbon footprinting

In 2006 we 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 of that year we became the first retailer to join the Carbon Trust Carbon Labelling Scheme. Boots Botanics and Ingredients range shampoos were introduced with a reduced carbon footprint of 20% achieved through the use of recycled packaging and more efficient distribution to stores. The knowledge gained from this project has been applied to other products and has helped us shape our holistic approach to product sustainability across our portfolio.