Alliance Boots

Our corporate social responsibility framework

Our unified corporate social responsibility programme has a set of shared priorities that accurately reflect our values. We also have an adaptable framework that allows different businesses within the Group to move forward at their own pace.

A world leader in measurable sustainability

One of the main challenges that we faced in 2007/08 was the need for a more consistent Group-wide approach to recording, measuring and reporting our corporate social responsibility performance. We have now successfully introduced our corporate social responsibility database in all businesses and provided the necessary training for the corporate social responsibility teams. For all businesses, corporate social responsibility data is captured and used to inform and assist in the development of their own corporate social responsibility programmes. In addition this database is used to gather and consolidate data for the Group.

In the summer of 2007, we began work on developing this database for use across Alliance Boots. The first step was to define the reporting criteria and develop a set of corporate social responsibility measures and performance indicators in line with Global Reporting Initiative reporting guidelines, that are applicable to all parts of the Group. To ensure a consistent approach to data collection, it was important to provide clear definitions.

A ground-breaking year

The implementation of the new Group-wide database started in December 2007 at our first Group international corporate social responsibility meeting. This seminar was attended by senior corporate social responsibility representatives from all our businesses.

A golden year for corporate social responsibility at Alliance Boots

We have continued to participate in the UK “Business in the Community” “Corporate Responsibility Index” (CRI), achieving “gold” performance standard in 2008. This means that we scored 90% or over in the assessment. We are proud of our record in the CRI, which is a pre-eminent public measure of corporate social responsibility and sustainability engagement in the UK.

We have also continued to work with a variety of agencies around the world from the “United Nations” to in country business organisations, such as the "Confederation of British Industry". We also engaged with others such as the “World Health Organisation” and various non-governmental agencies including the “World Wildlife Fund”. We are willing to share knowledge, experiences and data to help a wider audience have a better understanding of this agenda.