It looks as though the number 1 position for Britain’s top Lean and Green company is taken by Kingfisher, the owner of B & Q, due to its ambitious targets for zero waste at stores and exceptional rates of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of timber. Since the 1980s Kingfisher has been transformed from a UK based multi-retail sector conglomerate into an international retailer concentrated on the highly attractive home improvement sector. Currently, Kingfisher has a turnover of over 11 Billion, serves 9 million customers and operates in 9 countries.
B&Q UK currently sources over 70 per cent of its timber from FSC sources. Europe’s largest home-improvement retailer works with WWF and the Tropical Forest Trust on timber sourcing issues. It also has a proactive stance on chemicals. All of Kingfisher’s operating companies are required to have an action plan in place by 2008 to identify products containing certain chemicals and work with vendors to investigate opportunities for removal or substitution.
Because of our work with B&Q, Ray Baker, Director of Group Corporate Responsibility at Kingfisher plc, attended one of our conferences a while ago and talked about lean and green in their orgisation, and how its improved their performance significantly.
Below is Ray Baker talking at one of our Lean and Green conferences in 2011.
