We are building a business we are proud of, by supporting the fight against climate change and taking action to protect the natural environment.
Climate change, energy and resource efficiency
Waste, recycling and packaging
Nature
Climate change, energy and resource efficiency
We are committed to playing our part to achieve the UK’s 2050 net zero target, and also to help our colleagues and customers transition to a low-carbon economy in a fair and equitable way. See our Homes pillar for further details about how we are helping our customers on this journey.
Our commitment to net zero
We pledged our support to the British Retail Consortium (BRC)’s Climate Action Roadmap when it was first launched in 2021, and we are collaborating with other retailers to fully decarbonise the retail industry and achieve net zero by 2040.
We have set three near term science-based emissions reduction targets. These were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2022, confirming that we are in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5°C by 2100.
We calculate our greenhouse gas footprint in accordance with best practice and we publish our greenhouse gas accounting methodology on our website. Each year we report our greenhouse gas footprint and progress with meeting our targets in our annual Responsible Business Reports. We get independent assurance of the greenhouse gas emissions that we report, and these assurance statements are also available on our website.
As is common with other businesses in the retail sector, 98% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our value chain, also known as scope 3. This is due to the large volume and range of products we sell. We are working with our key suppliers to encourage them to set science based targets and reduce emissions from the manufacture and transport of the products we sell.
We sell a wide range of products which help our customers with energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Visit our Homes page for more information.
Energy efficiency
Many of our stores have already been fitted with low energy lighting, and we are rolling out other energy efficiency improvements. Since April 2023, we have purchased 100% renewable grid electricity to power all of our stores, distribution centres and offices. We are also working with our landlords to fit solar panels to the roofs of our stores where possible. We are reducing our absolute gas emissions through improved heating controls and management, and we are trialling new electric heating systems in our stores as an alternative to gas heating systems.
We transport and deliver a lot of products, not only to restock our stores, but also to deliver directly to customers. This means we cover a lot of miles in the process. Most of our distribution network currently relies on diesel powered HGVs (heavy goods vehicles). Alongside continually improving the efficiency of our distribution operations, we continue to monitor the development of alternative fuels, electric and hybrid technology to be able to make further reductions in emissions from our distribution activities, whilst meeting the needs of our business and expectations of our customers.
We are making significant progress with switching our company car fleet to either electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. We also now offer a green car salary sacrifice scheme to our colleagues who do not have a company car. To support the switch, we have increased the number of on site EV vehicle chargers at our head office and we have plans to increase this further across our sites.
Our direct use of water is limited to colleague catering and welfare, and cleaning our stores and fleet vehicles. We monitor our use to identify opportunities to improve water efficiency.
We talk about our overall performance in our annual Responsible Business Reports.
Waste, recycling and packaging
Waste and recycling
We produce a lot of waste from our business activities and managing this is a huge area of focus for us. The majority of the waste we manage is created from our kitchen and bathroom installation projects, with a smaller amount coming from our stores and distribution centres. Our goal is to reduce and reuse waste from our operations and increase our operational recycling rates.
We are reviewing our processes to develop a more robust methodology for monitoring success. We will set targets that align with UK Government and Devolved Nations policy.
Packaging
As a multichannel retailer, with thousands of products of all shapes and sizes, Wickes will always need to use packaging to protect our products. We have reduced, removed and replaced plastic packaging where we can on our own brand products. Any new packaging introduced is as minimal as possible. We know we have more to do and we have set ourselves some challenging targets:
- All our packaging on own brand products will be easy to recycle or reuse by 2025
- 50% of all packaging materials on our own brand products will come from recycled materials by 2025
To support these targets we have a new Packaging Materials Policy. This sets out our requirements that will enable us to meet our targets to improve the recycled content and recyclability of packaging used on Wickes own brand products. We also have a packaging management system which allows us to monitor and manage the packaging within our business and work with our suppliers and colleagues to understand and reduce its impact.
We talk about our overall performance in our annual Responsible Business Reports.