Kingfisher plc, the international home improvement company, has today announced further progress against its responsible business commitments.
Kingfisher’s responsible business strategy focuses on four priorities where the company can use its scale and influence to bring about positive change: becoming a more inclusive company, helping to tackle climate change and moving towards becoming Forest Positive; helping to make greener and healthier homes more affordable; and striving for better homes for everyone in our communities.
In its latest Responsible Business report, ‘Better Homes. Better Lives. For Everyone’, published today, the Group updates against these priorities.
Thierry Garnier, Kingfisher CEO, said: “Leading our industry in responsible business and energy efficiency is an important part of our ‘Powered by Kingfisher’ strategy. While we still have a journey ahead, I’m pleased that over the last year we have made strong progress on many of our targets.
“This includes significant steps towards our ambition to reach net zero emissions in our operations by 2040, as well as further reductions in our Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 is a critical challenge for all retailers, one which we are working to tackle through innovation and collaboration with vendors and the wider industry.”
Planet
Kingfisher has continued to exceed its 2025/26 1.5°C-aligned science-based target to reduce the emissions from its operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 37.8% from a 2016/17 baseline, already achieving a 62% reduction.
Kingfisher has also reduced its Scope 3 emissions from the supply chain and customer use of products by 41.6% per £m of turnover since 2017/18, exceeding its 2025/26 target of 40%. Earlier this month, Kingfisher announced it is setting new common targets with its vendors towards decarbonisation. The Group is also currently finalising a Scope 3 net zero target and supporting KPIs.
Kingfisher continues to make strong progress towards its target to use 100% responsibly sourced wood and paper in its products by 2025/26. As of 2023/24, 96.6% of the wood and paper used in Kingfisher’s products is responsibly sourced. As a founding member of the Rainforest Alliance’s Forest Allies initiative, the Group has also invested $750,000 to date to support six forest projects which cover ~190,000 hectares of community-managed forests.
Customers
Recognising the importance of sustainability for its customers, Kingfisher is committed to helping millions to have a greener, healthier home.
Sustainable Home Products (SHPs) represented £6.4 billion of sales for Kingfisher in 2023/24, now accounting for 49.4% of overall Group sales and 60.1% of Own Exclusive Brand (OEB) sales. This progress puts the Group on track with its target to attain 60% of Group sales and 70% of OEB sales from its SHPs by the end of 2025/26.
The Group also reached 10.1% of Group sales from products meeting the SHP standards for ‘Saving Energy at Home’ or ‘Saving Water at Home’.
In the year, Kingfisher introduced its green star product mark, designed to make it easier for customers to identify and purchase products with a lower impact on the environment.
Colleagues
Kingfisher continues to make progress on its ambition to be a more inclusive company, breaking down barriers to employment and progression.
In 2023/24, the Group continued its journey towards gender representation targets of 35% women in senior leadership and 40% in management roles by 2025/26. 28.6% of senior leaders and 39.6% of managers are women, up from 25.8% and 38.9% in the previous year respectively.
The Group exceeded its target of providing colleagues with 5 million hours of skills for life learning by 2025/26 ahead of schedule, with 8.3 million training hours having now been delivered since 2019/20.
In February 2024 the Group announced a new target to support more than 20,000 colleagues to complete an apprenticeship, traineeship, or formal qualification by 2030/31. This reflects an even greater focus on helping colleagues to grow their careers through high-quality learning programmes with a deep individual impact. Kingfisher supported 5,107 colleagues in this way during the year.
Communities
Communities are at the heart of Kingfisher’s Responsible Business strategy as it strives for better homes for everyone in its communities.
Kingfisher set a target to help more than 2 million people whose housing needs were greatest by 2025/26, by donating products, expertise and time. This was exceeded ahead of schedule, thanks to strong delivery from its banner Foundations.
The business reached over 1.2 million people this year through community projects, bringing the Group’s total to 3.2m people helped since 2016/17. Kingfisher invested £6.1m2 in its communities in 2023/24, a £700,000 increase from 2022/23.
To support global disaster relief, the Group also donated £305,000 and products to Turkey, Syria, Morocco and Libya through charities such as the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC), the Red Cross and the Fondation de France.
