Kingfisher plc, the international home improvement retailer, has made further progress against its responsible business priorities, including reducing its scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 52.6% since 2016/17, exceeding its 2025/26 science-based target. 

Kingfisher’s responsible business strategy focuses on four priorities where the company can use its scale and influence to bring about positive change: helping to tackle climate change and become Forest Positive; making greener and healthier homes affordable; becoming an inclusive company and working with charity partners to fix bad housing.

In its latest Responsible Business report, ’Better Homes for Everyone’, published today, the Group updates against these priorities.

Thierry Garnier, CEO of Kingfisher, said: “Leading the industry in responsible business and energy efficiency is a key part of our ‘Powered by Kingfisher’ strategy. Our purpose is to ‘make better homes accessible for everyone’ and we aim to do that in a way that serves the current and future needs of our communities, customers, colleagues and planet.

“Over the last year, we made strong progress across many of our targets. We have made a very good start towards our new ambition to reach net zero operational emissions by 2040, as well as further reducing our Scope 3 emissions, which are particularly challenging for retailers to address. Our colleagues are what make our business and we are proud that this year we delivered 2.6 million hours of skills for life learning to help our people reach their full potential.

“We have a great opportunity to help create more sustainable homes through our products and services, and to contribute to a more sustainable future through our business. We look forward to making further progress on our goals this year.”

Planet  

Kingfisher has exceeded its 2025/26 1.5°C-aligned science-based target to reduce the emissions from its operations (scope 1 and 2). In 2022/23, carbon emissions were 52.6% lower than its 2016/17 baseline. This has been largely driven by the ongoing transition to 100% renewable electricity, significant investment in energy efficiency measures and the trialling and roll-out of alternative fuels within its delivery fleets. The Group remains committed to becoming net zero across its operations by 2040/41.

Kingfisher has also reduced emissions from its supply chain and customer use of products (scope 3) by 34.1% per £million of turnover since 2017/18, remaining on track to achieve its target of 40% by 2025.

The Group continues to make progress towards its target to use 100% responsibly sourced wood and paper in its products and catalogues by 2025/26. This year, 94.5% of wood and paper in products were responsibly sourced as well as 100% of catalogue paper. 

As a founding member of the Rainforest Alliance Forest Allies initiative, which was established in 2021, Kingfisher is investing in projects in key forest geographics around the world, to protect and restore forests and support local communities in regions most at risk of deforestation. In addition, four local projects in the UK, France and Poland launched this year to support forest protection and restoration efforts.

Customers 

In the year, 46.8% (£6.2 billion) of total Group sales came from Sustainable Home Products (SHPs), more than doubling since the programme was established in 2011/12. Energy and water-saving products accounted for 10.6% of the Group’s sales.

SHPs aim to either help our customers reduce their environmental impact (e.g. solar panels, water-saving taps or loft insulation) or are intended to have a reduced impact on the environment because of their input materials or how they are manufactured (e.g. FSC timber, peat-free compost or recycled plastic).

Kingfisher has a target for 60% of its total sales to come from SHPs by the end of 2025. The target is 70% for its Own Exclusive Brands.

In the UK, all bagged compost is now peat-free. B&Q, Kingfisher’s biggest seller of peat in terms of sales volume, sold its final bag of peat-based compost in October 2022. Kingfisher is now working to remove peat from all OEB bagged compost Group-wide outside the UK.

Colleagues

Kingfisher continues to make progress on building an inclusive culture where every colleague can realise their potential. The Group is working towards achieving 35% women in senior leadership and 40% in management by 2025. This year, 25.8% of senior leaders and 38.9% of managers were women.

Kingfisher provided 2.6 million hours of skills for life learning for its colleagues and 6.6 million since 2019/20, surpassing the Group’s target of five million learning hours by 2025. Other progress this year included the roll-out of immersive diversity and inclusion training for senior teams, the creation of new development programmes for store-based colleagues and expansion of apprenticeship programmes across its retail banners.

Communities 

Kingfisher is also working to support local communities and fix bad housing. Since 2016/17, Kingfisher has reached 2.1 million people, surpassing its target of 2 million ahead of schedule. In 2022/23, a total of £8.2m was invested in community projects through fundraising, products and contributions.   

The Group continued to support those displaced by the Ukraine conflict through its banner Foundations. Fundraising efforts are being coordinated primarily through Kingfisher’s partnership with the Red Cross, with over £250,000 donated in total across the Group and its banners in 2022/23.