Exampleofamovetowards sustainability: Bootspharmacies
Figure5ABootspharmacy
Boots is primarilyalarge pharmacychain, founded in Nottingham in 1849 (Figure5). In 2014it experienced adrop in profits of 17%,primarily attributed to more competition from supermarkets offeringmore pharmaceuticalproducts, and it stated that it wouldcut around 500 jobs to helpoffsetthe losses. Thecompany has also faced criticismfor employing staffonzero-hour contracts.Zero-hour contracts mean that workersdonot receive the samebenefits as other staff(paidleaveand so on) because they arenot employed even as temporary workers. They areusually toldatshort notice whether and when they willberequired to work.Ingeneral Boots has been criticised for displaying more of an emphasisonprofit-maximisation since thecompany was bought by aprivate equity firm in 2007.
In more recentyearsBoots has extended itsrange of ‘naturally sourced’ products.Primarily witnessed in itsBotanics brand, the selling point of such products (such as moisturisers,shampoos and soaps) is that the number of artificialchemicalsusedare minimised, with ingredients primarilysourced from nature. Of course derivingproducts fromnatureis itselfproblematic. Forexample,palmoil is anaturally derived oilthat serves arange of functions in production because of itsversatilityand it is widelyusedin cosmeticproducts.Nevertheless, significant concerns have been raised becauseover-consumption of palmoil has ledtothe erosionofwildlifeand animalspecies, particularly in parts of central and west Africa,south-east Asia and Central America.
Boots recentlywon the Guardian newspaper awardfor sustainableuse of natural capital (Earley, 2014).The company was praised by theaward judges for moving from asystem of measuring carbon footprinttoa‘holistic’ approach that encapsulates impact measurement of business activityon biodiversity and sourcing of raw materialsaswell. TheBotanics range referencedabove encompasses around 180 lines and Boots has taken it upon itself to analysethe broader impact of itsproducts at every step of the production process.Products arejudged sustainableornot accordingto24 separate criteria. Thecompany can alsonow trace the sourceof100% of its natural raw materials andbelievesithas cut the environmental impact of its productions by 32%.
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Reading48: Theenvironment,sustainabilityand business
Perhaps themost interesting aspect of Boots’ sustainability driveisits partnershipwiththe Royal BotanicGardens (Kew Gardensinthe UK). Workingwiththe gardens has enabled Boots to identify more sustainable producers of itsnatural materials.For example, it now uses aFairtrade and organichibiscusextract from acooperative in BurkinaFaso. Thecompany also states that it now uses 100% ‘sustainable’ palmoil derivatives (although thenotion of sustainabilityinrelation to palmoil remains acontested issue (Fitzherbertetal.,2008)).
Exercise2 Spendapproximately 15 minutes on thisexercise.
Having readthe exampleabove, think about the threedimensions of sustainability discussed earlier:environmental,economic and social. Make some notesonthe following questions:
. Howwelldoyou think Bootsisdoing according to these threecriteria?
. Do youthink thereare anycontradictions between the three criteriafor sustainability for Boots or can they be mutually supportive?
. Wouldyou be happy to callBoots agood exampleofasustainable business?
