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BioRegional announced today that
it will partner with B&Q for the next three years to help the
company become a world leading One Planet Living® business.
The partnership will enable B&Q to reduce its impact on the
world’s resources and make it easy for B&Q customers to
have sustainable homes and gardens.
One Planet Living
Environmental accounting tool - Ecological Footprinting - shows
us that if everyone in the world lived like we do in the UK we would
need three planets to support us.
Through their initiatives such as south London’s BedZED eco-village
BioRegional has already shown that we can reduce our impact to the
“one planet level” while maintaining a high standard
of living.
B&Q is the first retailer
to join BioRegional’s One Planet Living Programme.
Through this Programme BioRegional are already working with other
partners in the UK and internationally on new eco-cities, villages
and existing towns. These initiatives will show the world what a
truly sustainable future can look like and how to achieve it.
One Planet Living is
a global initiative based on ten principles of sustainability developed
by BioRegional and WWF. The ten principles are: zero carbon; zero
waste; sustainable transport; local and sustainable materials; local
and sustainable food; sustainable water; natural habitats and wildlife;
culture and heritage; equity and fair trade; and health and happiness.
BioRegional set targets against each of the ten principles using
Ecological and Carbon Footprinting to allow for truly sustainable
and equitable use of resources for everyone around the world. B&Q
will be the first retailer to attempt to meet these demanding targets.
The B&Q partnership
BioRegional will work with B&Q to develop two sustainability
action plans (SAPs). The first SAP will look at improving B&Q’s
own operations against the ten principles of One Planet Living.
The second SAP will help B&Q’s customers achieve One
Planet Living in their homes and gardens through products which
are consistent with the ten One Planet Living principles.
BioRegional will work with B&Q to extend its current range of
eco-products and develop new lines to result in a substantial One
Planet Living product range.
B&Q announced today, that
as part of their drive towards One Planet Living, it will;
Phase out Patio Heaters. BioRegional’s research
shows that the smallest 4.5kW table top patio heater emits as much
CO2 in two hours as the average individual electricity consumption
for a whole day. B&Q - the largest seller of patio heaters in
the UK – said today that once its seasonal stock of patio
heaters runs out in 2008 it will not restock them. It is the largest
home improvement retailer to make this radical commitment.
Use only FSC certified
wood to make B&Q kitchens
A founder member of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), B&Q
also revealed that its entire kitchen range is now 100% certified
by the FSC. This means that all wood used to make B&Q’s
kitchens comes from well-managed sources. As the UK’s largest
seller of kitchens, this is great news for the environment and for
consumers.
Give free growing kits
and seeds to 5,000 schools
Food forms 21% of our Ecological Footprint in the UK and is a key
area to tackle as part of One Planet Living. One in five children
has never picked and eaten their own fruit and one in five 8 –
13 year olds has never visited the countryside. In a bid to bring
the countryside closer to them B&Q has teamed up with Year of
Food & Farming and will send free growing kits and seeds to
5,000 schools throughout the UK.
Sue Riddlestone, Executive Director
of BioRegional said “Achieving one planet living is the challenge
of our times. Most people know that we have to take action but don’t
like the idea of having to cut back or go without.
“What we have found through
our real-life sustainable communities and products is that it’s
more about being efficient and developing new ways of doing things.
People are happier living a ‘one planet’ life. A sustainable
future is nothing to be afraid of, but something we can all look
forward to. We are delighted that B&Q has stepped up to the
mark and said, ‘we will do it and we will help our customers
to do it too’.”
Ian Cheshire, CEO of B&Q said:
“We have announced a number of groundbreaking moves today
relating to our business processes and products. Each of these decisions
was taken with our customers firmly in mind, in order to provide
them with home improvement solutions for the 21st century whilst
minimising our business impact on the environment.
He continued: A quarter of the
UK’s total carbon emissions come from the home and as the
largest home improvement retailer in the country we are uniquely
placed to help customers make a real difference. We are all too
aware of the impact our lives have on the environment and our initiatives
will provide real and simple solutions to help people live more
sustainable lives.
We are very proud to have signed
up to BioRegional’s One Planet Living initiative
and look forward to working with them over the coming years to become
a One Planet Living business”.
Find out
more about BioRegional's One Planet Living programme
About B&Q
B&Q is the largest home improvement and garden centre retailer
in the UK and Europe employing 40,500 people nation-wide, 24% of
whom are over 50 years of age. Across the UK, B&Q has 325 stores,
including 116 B&Q Warehouses. B&Q is part of Kingfisher
plc, the world’s third largest home improvement retailer with
760 stores in 10 markets in Europe and Asia. These include 60 B&Q
stores in China, including B&Q Beijing, which is now the largest
B&Q store in the world.
B&Q has a long heritage of
social responsibility and environmental awareness. Its environmental
achievements include developing a timber policy in 1991 and being
a founding FSC member in 1993, and developing a policy to reduce
and eliminate the use of peat by 2015, which has already been reduced
by 50%. B&Q was also the first retailer to introduce a VOC labelling
system on all paint in 1995 – now an industry standard, and
the first to offer affordable, energy-efficient products to the
domestic market in 2006 including wind turbines and solar panels.
For more information about B&Q
please go to www.diy.com/aboutus.
For more information about B&Q’s social responsibility
Key Performance Indicators, please see www.kingfisher.com,
B&Q’s parent company.
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