Plan-ItGreen - Holland And Barrett
Plan-it-Green

Here at Holland & Barrett we don't just want to be 'good for you', but 'good for our planet' as well.

Being the UK's leading health food store, we have been 'green' for years, well before it became fashionable.

Here at Holland & Barrett we don't just want to be 'good for you', but 'good for our planet' as well. Being the UK's leading health food store, we have been 'green' for years, well before it became fashionable.

Summarised below are some of our policies, what we have done and what we are working towards.

Throughout our history we have supported the manufacture and supply of the products we sell in ways which help to protect the world's natural resources and habitats.

  • We encourage all our suppliers to adopt an ethical policy when sourcing raw materials and in the treatment of their workforce. This is supported by a preferred supplier programme, which recognises those suppliers who have embraced our views.
  • We have a dedicated team of auditors who regularly monitor the care, quality and responsibility exercised by our suppliers. Their aim is to maintain and improve the standards at each audit.
  • We ensure that all our advertising materials used in stores, our catalogues and our magazines are printed on renewable materials.
  • We strive to source organic equivalents of our food products wherever these are available. Our aim is to increase the number of organic products we sell year on year.
  • We will only use environmentally friendly cleaning products at our premises.
  • We insist that all of our products are free from genetically modified organisms.
Chemicals

Holland & Barrett is the UK's 1st retailer to have no SLS and paraben free chemicals in their toiletry products. Synthetic chemicals are everywhere and many of them are bad for our skin and for our environment. We are committed to sell our customers chemical free products with ranges such as Dr Organic and Dead sea magic.

Waste

Plan-it Green addresses waste management in terms of the waste we produce directly, through the activities of our businesses.

We will ensure that over 90% of the packaging for our own label products is recyclable.

  • We have invested in our own recycling centre based at our main distribution depot in Burton on Trent. This processes 95% of all our recyclable waste.
  • By 2012, we aim to make all consumer packaging on our products recyclable
  • We have introduced an electronic communication system with all of our stores. This will convert 90% of our internal communications from paper to electronic form, resulting in a massive saving in paper usage.
  • All of the packaging we use for transportation purposes is re-used or recycled. In addition, we will continue to remove all unnecessary packaging from our products.
  • On 1st January 2010 we commit to having NO PLASTIC BAGS policy in our stores and ensure that all bag for life products, including cotton and Jute will be cost neautral to ensure they are affordable to our customers.
Good News!

In Quarter 4 we released our figures on own label packaging waste for 2007/2008, reporting that we met target for landfill waste by 50% in the second half of their financial year. This figure exceeded expectations and almost meets landfill targets set for 2012 with recycling rates continuing to increase.

Steps being taken in our stores and offices:

  • Set computers, printers, etc. to go to "sleep" after a few minutes.
  • Print and copy double-sided to reduce paper use.
  • Use recycled paper products.
  • Purchase furniture that is made of recycled products, and recycle or donate once it's no longer needed.
  • Turn off computers and lights at night.
  • Encourage recycling by having bins accessible around the office.
  • Have re-useable ceramic mugs for coffee or water, rather than disposable ones.
  • Invested in the 'save a cup scheme' where disposable cups are necessary in our warehouse.
Climate Change

Our aim is to be carbon neutral; reducing our carbon emissions and, if they cannot be eliminated, investing in carbon offsetting programmes.

  • If any of our products have to be imported, we use sea freight - air freight is only used as a last resort.
  • We deploy our own distribution fleet in ways which avoid the vehicles making journeys whilst empty. We use the fleet to return store waste to our own recycling centre and, where possible, collect goods from our suppliers.
  • We pride ourselves on our knowledge, advice and service. We aim to extend the advice we give our customers to include climate change issues.
  • We are introducing a company-wide scheme which invites employees to contribute their own ideas for energy saving. The best ideas will be selected and implemented.
  • We will work closely with the Carbon Trust to measure and reduce our carbon emissions. We will also give financial support to organisations which provide carbon offsetting measures, such as local tree planting programmes.
  • We intend to roll out smart meters in all stores to evaluate all energy we consume and take steps to lower our carbon footprint.