B&Q and Screwfix parent company Kingfisher said this week that almost half of its sales last year came from what it describes as sustainable home products.
Some £6.4 billion of revenue in the 2023-24 financial year – accounting for 49.4% of overall group sales and 60.1% of the group’s own exclusive brands (OEB) sales – were from sustainable home products, according to the group’s latest ‘responsible business report’.
Kingfisher noted this progress puts it on track for its target to attain 60% of group sales and 70% of OEB sales from sustainable home products by the end of 2025-26.
The group also reached 10.1% of group sales from products meeting the its standards for ‘saving energy at home’ or ‘saving water at home’. Its work in this space and definitions come from working with the Science Based Targets initiative.
Kingfisher has defined what sustainability-related terms mean in detail – you can read the definitions here. But fundamentally, the business is looking to sell more items that have been manufactured in more sustainable ways and sell more goods that have limited downstream carbon emissions when consumers use the products and later dispose of them.
The DIY group has also introduced its ‘green star’ product mark in recent months, which is designed to make it easier for its customers to identify and purchase products with a lower impact on the environment.
The organisation, which also runs Castorama, Brico Dépôt, TradePoint and KoçtaşScope in wider Europe, says its scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions have been reduced by 62% since 2016-17, exceeding its 2025-26 science-based target. Scope 3 emissions have been reduced by 41.6% per £1 million of turnover since 2017-18 – also exceeding its 2025-26 target.
Thierry Garnier, Kingfisher CEO, commented: “Leading our industry in responsible business and energy efficiency is an important part of our ‘Powered by Kingfisher’ strategy. While we still have a journey ahead, I’m pleased that over the last year we have made strong progress on many of our targets.
“This includes significant steps towards our ambition to reach net zero emissions in our operations by 2040, as well as further reductions in our scope 3 emissions. scope 3 is a critical challenge for all retailers, one which we are working to tackle through innovation and collaboration with vendors and the wider industry.”
Kingfisher has a goal of using 100% “responsibly sourced wood and paper” in its products by 2025/26, and it said it is on track to achieve that but not there yet. Currently, 96.6% of the wood and paper used in its products currently responsibly sourced.
Read more about DIY retail’s scope 3 carbon emission reduction targets on Green Retail World
[image credit: Green Retail World]
