John Lewis Partnership Annual Report and Accounts 2015

Annual Report and Accounts 2015

John Lewis Partnership plc

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Supporting cotton farmers in India

Another of our most successful John Lewis Foundation partnerships has been with Cotton Connect, with whom we are working on a three year project to help cotton farmers in Gujarat, western India. The initiative aims to help farmers improve their profits by reducing production costs, as well as adopting environmentally sound crop management. To date, more than 1,500 farmers have been trained and yields are currently up on average 8% and costs down 12%. Through this project John Lewis has gained a better understanding of traceability and sustainability issues in the cotton supply chain, and has established a sustainable source of cotton which is being used for bath mats, bags for life, and some fabric production.

For more on cotton sourcing: www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/sourcing

ENVIRONMENT REVIEW

Managing our operational footprint continues to be very important for us, particularly as the growth of our whole business has far exceeded our expectations. This means we have to look very carefully at how we can carry on growing, while minimising our environmental impacts.

As we continue to work towards our operational emissions target (see more on page 58), the efficiency of our new operations is incredibly important. John Lewis York was opened April 2014, and is the first department store in the world to receive the internationally recognised BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ certification. The store is predicted to achieve around 40% reduction in energy usage and CO2

e emissions,

through innovative solutions such as the use of sun pipes, air displacement ventilation, LED lighting and an automated energy management system. The roof mounted photovoltaic panels, which generate 4% of the shop’s electricity will help towards this.

We saved enough energy last year to heat the entire Oxford Street shop for one year.

In 2015 we will continue to roll out LED replacements across our existing estate. Research and development into newer technologies such as biofuel, combined heat and power, and energy from waste schemes will also be a focus for us. We will assess our new estate under the BREEAM scheme and deliver these against our Responsible Development Framework (see more on page 58).

We are currently on track to receive an ‘Excellent’ rating at our new Birmingham department store, due to open towards the end of 2015. We are aiming for the same high standard at our Basingstoke shop. To help us, we are embedding a new tool for developers, and will be trialling new technologies which have the potential to be integrated into our design standard.

For more on our environmental priorities: www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/ourenvironment

Protecting wildlife at award-winning shop

Since the early stages of development, the award-winning John Lewis York has been working with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Yorkshire Bee Keeping Association, York Natural Environment Trust and the York City Council landscape and ecology teams to support projects that will create and enhance the natural environment.

We have created a ‘wildlife wall’ so that bats and birds can roost and nest, and adjacent to the shopping park is an area that is going to be planted as a wildflower meadow. We have been working with the Yorkshire Bee Keeping Association to design and build a bee apiary on the site that will be run by the local bee keeping group, who will encourage the local community to get involved.

We’ve also contributed funding to the Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows and the York Natural Environment Trust to help them develop Cornfield Nature Reserve, part of Rawcliffe Meadows. To further support projects in the area, we are also pleased to be funding a Wildlife Trust trainee volunteer for a year.

Introduction

Partnership difference

Principles

Strategy

Performance

Governance

Financial statements

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