Environment
Our Approach
Next recognises it has a responsibility and an obligation to work to reduce the direct impact of its business operations on the environment both now and in the future. Our priority is to work to minimise our environmental impacts by reducing both the carbon intensity of our activities and the natural resources we use, through the development and operation of good business practices.
Our priorities are to:
- improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use
- minimise waste produced and increase the quantity recycled
- increase the efficiency of our delivery fleet
We recognise these key operational activities are environmentally significant for Next and during the year we have continued to develop and implement operational changes that have helped to deliver both environmental benefits, as well as cost saving opportunities for the business.
Climate Change
Climate change is now recognised as one of the greatest global environmental challenges society faces, and we take our responsibilities in this area very seriously. Our aim is to make our operations more efficient, and in order to help us understand the impact of our direct business we have measured our global carbon footprint produced from the operational activities of Next Plc where we have direct control.
Our global direct carbon footprint includes emissions from:
- Properties - stores and warehouses in the UK and Ireland, our global offices, call centres and manufacturing facilities
- Distribution - our distribution of Next products to Retail stores or customers' homes in the UK and Ireland
- Waste disposal - from our stores, warehouses and Head Office in the UK and Ireland
PROGRESS ON OPPORTUNITIES FROM 2009 REPORT
KEY
=
Achieved
=
Ongoing/on track
= Not
commenced
| Opportunities identified in 2009 | Status | How we have progressed |
| Investigate the opportunity to purchase renewable energy for our stores in Ireland and Northern Ireland | |
Achieved, we started to purchase electricity from on shore wind farms during 2009 |
| Investigate and develop improved monitoring and reporting systems through our building management system to facilitate visibility and analysis of separate store functions e.g. air conditioning, lighting etc | |
Individual metering of air conditioning and lighting is now in place via the building management system and fitted as standard in all new stores |
| Investigate new lighting technologies for our stores | |
We have increased the use of LED lighting in store. However lighting continues to be a key area for ongoing improvement. |
| Prepare for the forthcoming EU Regulations concerning the phasing out of ozone depleting substances used in air conditioning equipment and refrigeration across the business | |
This is underway and will remain an ongoing objective for the business to ensure we are compliant with the forthcoming Regulations |
| Analyse the remaining waste materials contained in general waste to identify opportunities to segregate and divert waste away from landfill in line with available recycling technologies to establish a time-line to achieve our long term aim of sending no operational waste to landfill | |
The business has undertaken waste audits at our stores and warehouses to understand the waste materials within our general waste. We are now trialling the collection of additional waste streams at 65 stores, which will help establish a no operational waste to landfill time-line. For more information, see page 28 |
To view the full section on Environment click here