Minneapolis – Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) on July 15 announced the release of its fiscal 2011 sustainability report, ‘Our World, Connected’, an interactive, online experience at sustainability.bby.com. Best Buy also hosted a live web chat on Thursday, July 21, on its website to discuss the report and take questions from online participants.
“As the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer, finding solutions to sustainability challenges is central to our future success – that’s why our sustainability strategy is embedded in our business model,” said Brian J. Dunn, CEO, Best Buy. “At the heart of our strategy are our 180,000 employees worldwide, who make sure our customers have access to easy, sustainable technology solutions that enrich their lives and communities and, ultimately, have a positive impact on our connected world.”
‘Our World, Connected’ is Best Buy’s sixth corporate responsibility report, and takes a different approach than prior reports did reviewing the company’s sustainability efforts.
“This past year, we asked ourselves some important questions about our approach to sustainability, including ‘how do we bring sustainability to life for our customers in ways that matter and how do we continue to embed sustainability in our business every day?'” said Mary Capozzi, Senior Director, Corporate Responsibility, Best Buy. “These questions helped us narrow our focus to four key areas that proved meaningful to our customers and where we believe we can make a genuine, positive impact through our business.”
The company’s four key areas of focus for sustainability are highlighted in ‘Our World, Connected’:
- Product Stewardship: Best Buy will provide leadership in our industry across the lifecycle of technology products, from product design to end-of-use solutions.
- Sustainable Solutions: Best Buy will provide products and services that help our customers live more sustainable lives.
- Access through Connections: Best Buy will build business models that enable people without access to gain all the benefits of the connected world.
- Inspired Workplace: Best Buy will provide a workplace of opportunity and be a preferred place of employment.
The report outlines ambitious goals in the focus areas including recycling one billion pounds of consumer goods and reducing the company’s carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2020 regardless of how much Best Buy grows. In addition, Best Buy shares performance highlights for fiscal year 2011 across its global operations including:
- Collected 83 million pounds of consumer electronics and 73 million pounds of old appliances for recycling, or approximately 387 pounds of e-waste each minute in U.S. Best Buy stores.
- Saved 11,000 tons of carbon emissions by combining the use of truck and train (versus truck alone) for freight coming from vendors in U.S. operations.
- Helped customers purchase more than 23 million ENERGY STAR-qualified products, which reduced the amount of carbon dioxide by approximately 1.6 billion pounds.
- Engaged 2,700 “junior agents”, as well as 1,100 Blue Shirts and Geek Squad agents, in Geek Squad Academies across the U.S.
- The Carphone Warehouse Foundation donated $ 175,000 (USD) to Get Connected, which helped to serve 20,000 troubled teens in the United Kingdom.
- Employees spent more than 1 million hours in the Learning Lounge, Best Buy’s award-winning training website, completing more than 406,000 required certifications and almost 4.3 million courses.
- More than 6,400 employees received a total of nearly $ 10 million in tuition reimbursement.
The report itself reflects Best Buy’s focus on “Access through Connections”. Visitors to sustainability.bby.com will experience the story of sustainability at Best Buy in an interactive format, with rich visuals and substantive information. The content also will evolve over time as progress in the four areas of focus is made.
‘Our World, Connected’ was created using stakeholder feedback and the disclosure requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). GRI provides the world’s most comprehensive framework and guidelines for producing sustainability reports. The report can be downloaded by section or in its entirety at sustainability.bby.com. A summary of the report is printed in limited quantities with soy ink on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper and is available upon request.
Best Buy also hosted a live web chat July 21, 2011, at 11:30 a.m. CT, at www.bby.com to discuss highlights from ‘Our World, Connected’ and how the company sustainability priorities support the growth of the business. Aman Singh, Corporate Responsibility Editor at Vault.com and Former Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, moderated the chat, exploring Best Buy’s challenges and successes on the sustainability front, and took questions from online participants. The chat was public facing; consumers, employees, media and other interested stakeholders were invited to participate.
Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is a leading multi-channel global retailer and developer of technology products and services. For more information, visit www.bby.com.
Source: Best Buy Co., Inc.
