Operating our business in a way that cares for the environment has never been more important than it is today. Boots has a rich legacy of operating responsibly simply because it’s the right thing to do. Finding ways to make our Bootprint as light as possible is fundamental to keeping our business and communities thriving.

Increasingly, communities around the world are feeling the effects of unsustainable growth and the growing pressures placed on the natural world. Almost every action has some element of an environmental impact, so we’re committing to reducing emissions, minimising waste and making sure our stores and sites are future fit. With 2300 stores, offices in Nottingham and London, and multinational supply and distribution operations, we believe we can make a huge impact in the health and beauty industry the way we always have.

Energy management

This is not a new practice for us, and we’ve been generating our own energy since 1915 when our first Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Plant was constructed at our Island Street site in Nottingham. Today, we generate most of the energy our Nottingham site uses through our highly efficient CHP technology.

Committing to energy reduction isn’t about simply investing in the latest technology; it’s about having great information and using it to invest wisely in real solutions that will work for our stores. Ways we are doing this include:

• Devices to lower the voltage of the electricity supply to the building, which reduces energy waste
• Improving efficiency in our heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems
• Using automated building management systems (BMS) to increase control of energy consumption in our stores
• Replacing inefficient lighting with LED technology
• Installing doors on refrigerated cabinets in our stores
• This is all underpinned by engagement, training and investigating high users to bring our team members on this journey with us and to get to the root cause of any issues

Transport emissions

We work with a third-party provider to deliver our retail products from our warehouses to your local Boots store, and we are continually working with them to reduce our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Reducing our emissions isn’t a new practice for us and for a number of years, we’ve been:

• Using double-deck trailers. This allows us to fill vehicles with as many products as possible, reducing the number of trucks on the roads
• Backloading: using returning, empty delivery vehicles to collect more products for our warehouse from our suppliers en-route, reducing the distance travelled and emissions produced

And going forward we are:

• Working with our team members in stores to plan the most efficient delivery routes and schedules without reducing the stock availability of the products you love

Introducing off-peak deliveries, improving fuel efficiency by avoiding heavy traffic

Waste reduction

Separating out our rubbish, being conscious of recycling, reducing our food waste – these are now an everyday part of all of our lives. And as such, we are constantly looking for opportunities for collaboration to help us do better and lessen our impact. Joining the Wrap Food Waste Roadmap is just one example of this.

Point of sale materials

Partnering with POPPAI (Point-of-Purchase Advertising International) association Boots has been working to onboard all suppliers of temporary show material into the POPAI’s foot printing tool called Sustain. This tool measures the impact and indicates which materials will result in a worse score. We’ve been working with POPPAI and we’re  the first retailer to request suppliers use this tool before material can be used in our stores.

Our ambitions:

We know we need to continue to be innovative and ambitious as we aim to reduce our Bootprint and are working collaboratively with our partners to reduce emissions and food waste.  This includes being  a supporter of the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) Retail Climate Action Roadmap with targets to be net zero by 2040 across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 (Scope 1 by 2035 and Scope 2 by 2030).

We are also one of the development funders of BRC’s work to drive lower emissions in shops, distribution centres and logistics operations, cutting emissions in supply chains and guiding customers toward dramatically lowering their own carbon footprints. And are playing a key part in the total WBA group commitments to lower emissions

Additionally, we committed to empowering and educating all our team members to encourage us and challenge us to do better wherever we can. We already have an active Business Resource Group that all team members can join. The group works collaboratively across the business to advocate for sustainable practices across Boots and helps identify opportunities for improvements.