The challenge: Expanding Kingfisher’s range of sustainable products
Kingfisher asked Bioregional to create a rigorous approach to identifying what constitutes a sustainable product for the home after our work with its subsidiary company B&Q.
How we helped: creating the Sustainable Home Guidelines
We created a set of guidelines for sustainable products with clear criteria, updated annually, including:
- saving energy and water
- sustainable materials and the circular economy
- greener gardens and healthier homes.
Bioregional has set standards for each of these categories, covering products that help a person to reduce their environmental impacts (such as loft insulation) and products that have a lower environmental impact compared to standard products (such as minimal VOC paints).
We have also produced guidance documents and action plans setting out opportunities to expand specific eco-product categories ranging from surfaces and décor to outdoor and seasonal products such as Christmas decorations.
Kingfisher Group now provide a six-monthly report on the products identified as meeting the criteria, which we check and verify.
We have trained teams in Kingfisher, including people in commercial and quality assurance roles, to help them improve and expand their Sustainable Home Product ranges. We have also created roadmaps and actions to help drive innovation, aiming to reduce the impacts of products along the supply chain and into customers’ homes.
The impact: An award-winning sustainable product range
The Sustainable Home Product range represented 32% of the group’s annual sales in 2017/18 (£3.8bn). In 2011, Kingfisher won the Ethical Corporation’s Sustainability Commercialised Award for its work with us on Sustainable Home Products.
About Kingfisher
Kingfisher is Europe’s largest home improvement retailer with over 1,200 stores in ten countries across Europe, Russia and Turkey. It employs 77,000 people, has annual sales of over £11 billion.