John Lewis Partnership plc annual report and accounts 2013

Business review Resources and relationships (continued)

Looking ahead

We will continue to pursue own brand product innovation and development and increase the availability of sustainable products. Waitrose will continue to work towards its targets for 100% certified sustainable soya and fish. John Lewis will continue to improve the sustainability of own-brand clothing, textiles, electrical appliances, and paper and wooden products.

We will also look to provide more environmental product information to make it easier for customers to make sustainable choices. John Lewis, for example, aims to increase the number of products that carry the Sustainable Product Identifier and the Made in UK identifier. We will actively encourage our Buying teams to increase the number of products with a sustainability story and we will work with our suppliers to measure and reduce their impact on the environment.

During the year we began to understand the ways in which we could measure the impact of our community investment activities. We intend to develop this understanding and trial methods for assessing impact.

Continuing to drive improvements through our carbon reduction programme will remain a key focus and challenge. We will also broaden our response to climate change by giving greater consideration to the possible impacts of the changing climate on our business.

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