Our marketplace target highlights

Highlights of progress against the targets we set and published during 2010/11 are as follows:

Target: To promote the understanding of approved corporate governance directives, policies and Code of Conduct and Business Ethics, and ensure that the directors and employees of Alliance Boots continue to act in accordance with these.

Achievements: During the year, in accordance with our own corporate policy, all CSR related policies were reviewed, updated as required and approved by the social responsibilities committee. The internal process by which each business manages their own CSR agenda was reviewed and approved by the local director responsible for CSR.

Target: To act with complete integrity in the development of new products and services
and maintain existing standards of stewardship for those that already exist.

Achievements: Boots UK’s Product Sustainability Assessment Process has been designed to evaluate the sustainability of their products against over 20 criteria. The process highlights the areas where actions can lead to the greatest improvements, as well as ensuring that Boots brand and exclusive products and ranges continue to become more sustainable over time.

Target: To raise over £1 million for charity partners across our business partners.

Achievements: In the UK nearly £2.5 million was raised during the year for Macmillan Cancer Support and over £615,000 for the BBC Children In Need Appeal. In addition to raising proceeds, we continued to focus our efforts on raising awareness of those charities we support. For example, in Russia, our people each provided a Christmas present for a child in care, while Boots Opticians in the UK recovered glasses for use in the developing world.

Target: To extend the scope of our supplier verifi cation programme beyond the existing supplier framework to include the manufacturing sites of other suppliers of own label goods to Alliance Boots and report outcomes in our annual corporate social responsibility report.

Achievements: Boots continued to develop its award winning supplier verifi cation programme in partnership with Business in the Community, following their independent review of Boots existing processes as reported last year. Their updated assessment process now includes additional sustainability criteria and our programme of unannounced audits has been further extended in the UK and across Western Europe. In addition Boots supplier verifi cation process has been introduced to other Alliance Boots businesses.

Target: To support public agencies and our healthcare suppliers along the supply chain in ensuring quality and in associated areas of education and public information.

Achievements: We continue to support the public agenda by producing literature and running campaigns to increase public awareness of a number of health issues. Bootslearningstore.com is a website designed primarily for UK schools promoting healthy lifestyle messages to children and young people aged four to 16. It provides specifi c age-targeted information on a variety of topics to inspire young people and offers free resources that help teachers to deliver the school curriculum.

Target: To provide transparent and relevant corporate social responsibility information
to our customers and stakeholders in line with GRI guidelines.Achievements: A separate Alliance Boots 2010/11 corporate social responsibility report will be published on our website on 30 September 2011. This will give a comprehensive overview of the Group’s corporate social responsibility activities and will again be written following Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. Our 2009/10 report was produced for the fi rst time using data captured through our fi nance system which has increased the accuracy of the data. In the 2010/11 report, we plan to include an independent assurance report issued by KPMG and reviewed by Tomorrow’s Company. In addition, Boots UK continues to publish specifi c corporate social responsibility information relevant to its retail customers and UK stakeholders on its own website, www.boots-uk.com.