A founding member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), for the past four years Kingfisher has been rethinking its business model to make it more circular.
The company has integrated the solo yachtswoman's vision for a circular economy into core business strategy. Its 2050 Net Positive strategy includes a target for 1,000 of its products to exhibit circular, no-waste credentials by 2020, and 300 by 2015.
Also known as closed-loop, such products are made from recycled or renewable materials and use only renewable energy in their manufacture and use. If they become obsolete, materials and components can be harvested to make new ones.
Kingfisher is "closing the loop" because, it says, today's system is broken: the use of resources worldwide is outstripping supply and it already takes three planets' worth of materials to maintain patterns of consumption in the western world.
The company is pursuing two goals: making innovative products with closed-loop credentials, accelerating the transition to a circular economy by establishing the business case for MacArthur's vision – and in that way, inspiring others to follow.
In 2013, Kingfisher published a paper on what it has learned so far, explaining the economic and sustainable business opportunities to its peers, government and NGOs. It also asked experts to develop metrics that can help others towards "cradle to cradle" certification.
As the name suggests, cradle to cradle is different to the "cradle to grave" business approach, which pays scant regard to the use of finite resources. It was on her round-the-world voyage that MacArthur says she first came to truly understand the implications of the word "finite".
Kingfisher has appointed a manager who, with the company's head of innovation, has introduced B&Q's closed-loop policy. Products made in this way can be reused, remade or repaired repeatedly. The average power drill is used for less than 30 minutes in its lifetime and 35m paint brushes are discarded each year in the UK.
For Kingfisher, closed-loop means products people can pay to use rather than own; using store waste to create new products; enabling the return of waste products and linking their re-use to the supply chain; and designing products for easy disassembly so that more parts can be recycled.
In 2013, the company appointed a board of 16 to 18-year-olds which meets annually and holds the company to account. One of its first recommendations was that the EMF partnership should have a greater role in guiding the company's strategy.
The third in a series of reports from the EMF and business analysts McKinsey proved the rationale for the World Economic Forum's Project Breakthrough, begun in 2014, which aims to stimulate cross-sector collaboration for a global circular economy.
At its introduction in Davos, Kingfisher's CEO, Sir Ian Cheshire, said: "It's an opportunity industry cannot afford to miss. It can drive the next generation of innovation and growth, cushion us from price volatility, provide competitive advantage and help us build relationships with customers and suppliers."
Meanwhile, Kingfisher wants to create the conditions for a wider restorative business movement. It has developed a "closed loop" calculator providing a simple way to measure the 10 important credentials of circular products: can they be rented or repaired, and are they capable of disassembly into component parts, for example? In addition, the company has helped establish the CE100 – a group of likeminded businesses committed to turning MacArthur's vision into reality.
Within its own business, Kingfisher is making steady progress. It has developed:
• Infinite kitchen work tops from 100% waste sourced from stores and end-of-life DIY products
• Carryapac, a reusable packaging system for kitchen products that is reducing damage five-fold, saving £1m and 2,500 tonnes of packaging
• Metisse Insulation – a "take back" scheme for customers' textile waste that turns it into insulation products.
Kingfisher is also harvesting components from damaged power tools to provide new revenue streams, while working in local communities to encourage a mindset of "make, mend and share".
Meanwhile, the company is heading towards its zero waste-to-landfill target and has increased the waste it recycles by 30% in five years.
The Guardian judges said Kingfisher was making closed-loop thinking mainstream.
Lynn Beavis is part of the wordworks network
The Guardian Sustainable Business Sustainability Case Studies contain articles on all the initiatives that met the criteria for the GSB Awards.
