Health and wellness retailer Holland & Barrett has today (22 April) published its first sustainability and impact report – with its director of sustainability Jess Long telling Green Retail World it’s about being “transparent on where we are at”.
As a privately-owned business, the retailer is not mandated to publish such a document but Long says the ambition is to document progress annually to ensure stakeholders, customers, and the public at large can monitor progress being made by the company in terms of planetary and social impact.
“We firmly believe as a purpose-led organisation that accountability shouldn’t be dependent on regulation alone,” she explains to this publication.
“Accountability and transparency will allow for customer trust and it’s at the very core of our strategy.”
Reiterating comments she made in an interview earlier this year, Long says: “As a health and wellness company we’re trying to challenge what health and wellness should be focusing on – it is our fundamental view you can’t be well on a sick planet.
“Therefore there’s an integral link between wider purpose and looking after the systems that support health – be that planetary or people’s health.”
The 55-page report highlights how Holland & Barrett is on a journey in relation to sustainability strategy, but it has been purposely crafted not to be heavy download of data as ESG reports can often be. The aim is to inform and inspire, and it goes into detail on some of the work Holland & Barrett has been focused on.
It shows, for example, how the retailer removed around 3% of the circa 60,000 sustainability and responsibility-related claims from its product marketing and descriptions as part of an internal “green claims cleanse” conducted alongside tech company Provenance.
“We’ll evolve as regulation evolves, but it’s important for retailers to realise it’s OK to not be perfect – it’s OK to be on this journey publicly,” says Long, adding how green claims more widely have become highly scrutinised for potential greenwashing.
“We went through to make sure everything we’re saying is at the utmost level of accuracy. We wanted to be on top of it as expectations evolve.”
The report also shows how scope 3 carbon emission have increased each year since 2023, but this is attributed to proactive supplier engagement and newfound access to data as the business works to build more transparency through its supply chain. The retailer has re-baselined the last three years to what it says is a more accurate reflection of emissions levels based on this new information.
Scope 1 and 2 emissions fell by 9% year on year while revenue increased, though – which is something Long is particularly particularly proud about.
“You can grow without being at odds with sustainability commitments,” she notes, adding retailers should not have to choose between sustainability and growth.
The report underlines how sustainability is “not just a side programme” but is, instead, “baked in to the commercial heart of the business”, according to Long, who joined the retailer from research house Ipsos one year ago.
“Sustainability can also be a cost reduction tool – from energy efficiency to better packaging and reducing EPR costs,” she adds.
Long acknowledges Holland & Barrett is “not perfect” but “no-retailer is”, adding she hopes publishing the report will encourage other retailers to be transparent about their operations and realise doing so can be a business driver.
Referencing the nature-positive-related decision earlier this year to stop selling products containing krill, Long says sometimes retailers must step away from revenue opportunities “for the sake of longer term customer trust”. Holland & Barrett said sales of Omega-3 alternatives have increased since krill-based products were discontinued.
The sustainability leader admits to being influenced by Patagonia, albeit the business is set up very differently to Holland & Barrett. The fashion retailer launched its own, very transparent and honest, sustainability report in November 2025.
“Similar to us, they weren’t obligated to report but did it anyway and led with honesty transparency, and accountability,” Long explains.
“Even though they are leading in a number of facets. They are honest about what doesn’t work rather than just shouting about a few amazing case studies.”
She adds: “We are very proud of what work we’ve done so far but know there’s lot to do and we hope the document serves a testament to the commitments we’ve made.”
[image credit: Holland & Barrett]
