B&Q's Head of Sustainability shares her top energy saving tips

B&Q have a strong heritage of sustainable business; from sourcing their wood and paper products from sustainable resources, to moving before the market to cut out environmentally damaging products and packaging such as patio heaters from their garden range and polystyrene from their bedding plants - which is why we jumped at the opportunity to partner with B&Q as part of their Energy Saving Service.

We caught up with B&Q's Head of Sustainability Sam Dyer, to discuss how one of the UK's largest homeware stores is working hard to empower homeowners to make sustainable choices.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities homeowners face when making sustainable improvements to their home?

There are some huge opportunities for homeowners to update their homes to be more sustainable, starting with small changes such as fitting draught excluders and water saving taps, all the way to taking on larger projects such as getting the right level of loft insulation or installing solar panels.

In the UK, we have some of the oldest and least efficient housing stock in Europe so most of us have the potential to save huge amounts of carbon and bring down our bills!

Please tell us about B&Q’s Energy Saving Service and how it works...

B&Q launched our Energy Saving Service back in 2022 to help our customers find the best solutions to cut their energy usage tailored to their own housing situation. We begin by carrying out a home energy assessment, using Energy Saving Trust data on their property’s age, construction, and EPC rating, as well as a phone interview to understand their current energy usage.

From these insights, we create a personalised action plan, including B&Q products, recommended partners and installation services, and provide advice on how to control and reduce energy use.

What are the benefits for homeowners and their carbon footprint?

The energy efficiency savings that could be made to your home could not only make a difference to your energy bills but they could also impact your EPC rating, making it more attractive to potential buyers in the future. Moving an average 3 bedroom home in the UK to an EPC rating of B from an EPC rating of D, has the potential to cut the carbon footprint of the property in half. Landlords also have to meet EPC regulations on the properties they rent out.

Our homes are estimated to contribute around 15% of the UK's carbon footprint, so making these changes can have a huge impact and it's an area we can all influence. Keeping our global temperature down to a maximum of a 1.5 degree trajectory means globally we still feel the impacts but this increases significantly if this target is missed.

How do you engage with your employees to foster a culture of sustainability at B&Q?

Our colleagues at B&Q are constantly showing sustainability is important to them, from the commitment they have to recycling our waste through to displaying some of the most sustainable products in the market.

We ask them for feedback on how we are doing in regular colleague surveys and have a strong score in terms of the impact they feel B&Q is having on the environment.

Sustainability is becoming integrated into all job roles and we have strong governance with Responsible Business being a key strategy pillar with board ownership.

This week we are organising a B&Q Sustainability event for our head office colleagues to come and hear first-hand from different departments around the business who have driven huge sustainability initiatives, such as investments in our logistics fleets and in our properties, and also from our key partners who can update them on the progress of current projects such as our investment in regenerating a valley in the Yorkshire Dales with The Woodland Trust.

We are really excited to share all these amazing pieces of work, updating our colleagues and also showing them how changes they can influence can really make a difference.

*15% carbon estimation from Lloyds Bank research

**B to D saving = Savills 'Operational carbon – a focus on energy efficiency'

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