Richard has spent the past 25 years working for a range of Companies on all aspects of the CSR agenda. He has held CSR related positions at HSBC, TSB, British Aerospace and ran his own CSR consultancy for five years. In 2003 he joined Boots and following the merger between Boots and Alliance UniChem and the subsequent Private Equity buy out, he was appointed into his current role.

Mel Poluck spoke to Richard Ellis.

How can all staff at Alliance Boots be involved in the low carbon agenda?

"We're trying to embed sustainability into everybody's work routine. We don't underestimate the impact everybody can have, even if you work in the store and you just switch the lights off at the end of the day. Everybody has their part to play. Of course, people who look after transport and energy have a bigger part to play - the person who deals with company cars for example, who might liaise with the local authority about operating buses to site and operating car shares.

"I'm working towards how to galvanise 100,000 people so we are all responsible for sustainability. I can't be a parrot who sits on everyone's shoulders saying 'remember CSR.' It doesn't work like that."

What works particularly well?

"It's been a 'drip, drip' style campaign. It's been lots of little things. We've tried to give people a sound, solid reason why this is important. Last year we reduced CO2 emissions by 5% in terms of road transport. You can clearly see benefits: less lorries on the road, less CO2 and the commercial benefits, in terms of saving money. Finance sees it as a way of saving money. Carbon equates to costs. If we find a way to reduce CO2 emissions, we reduce cost."

What is key to pitching a successful campaign to the company?

"Lots of companies have 'tree huggers' who deal with the [sustainability] side. They describe things in 'tree hugger' language - not necessarily understood by people in the business. If I say 'we've saved 306 tonnes of CO2, unless you're an environmentalist, you wouldn't know if that was good, bad or brilliant. If I say we've saved £3.6 million, then they know."

What changes have taken place for office-based staff?

"We've taken everybody's wastepaper bins away. It's going to make a difference, but it's not going to be the tipping point. These 2,700 staff now understand this is an important agenda item for the business. They have to go to recycling hubs around the building. Some people already recycle at home, but not at work. So when they're doing their day job, they think 'how can I build this philosophy into a day-to-day basis? We're trying to get people to bring those behaviours into the office."

What steps to reduce carbon have you taken in terms of the tonnes of furniture and fittings you use in stores?

"We're trying new freestanding display units for special offers. In days gone by, these stands were made of plastic, string, glue and card and they weren't recyclable. Now people have designed those so they're made from fully recycled materials and consequently they're recyclable themselves. We're putting in new counters all made from recycled materials and boards and posters supporting advertising campaigns are now made from fully recyclable materials - all little steps aimed at reducing our carbon footprint bit by bit by bit."

Give us an example of ways you are reducing energy in stores

"As you build up to Christmas you start earlier, it's darker, colder, stores open for longer, then there are the Sales. People stay later to clear up the debris, so the heating is on later. You come to May and people are saying 'gosh it's hot in here!' So we're building remote monitoring into stores, so we'll have an energy profile of each building, monitored half hourly. This can be accommodated easily when we're updating stores - we can do it on a rolling basis. We're trying to be realistic about the CO2 reduction process. We're working towards getting all stores on the system, in around two years' time."

Does Alliance Boots participate in any offsetting schemes?

"We don't believe in offsetting. All it does is assuade your conscience. We've got to change the way people behave in the company."

Does the company generate its own microrenewable energy?

"We've got a combined heat and power (CHP) plant on site [at the Nottingham headquarters], which is 350 acres and has 8,500 employees. We produce 91% of our energy through the plant. We're 91% efficient, in terms of 'energy in' and 'energy out.' If you think about how a power station works, there are bi-products that come out that aren't used, meaning it's only approximately 35% efficient. It might be difficult to justify that investment for lots of companies - it's our responsibility to make sure it's as efficient as it can be.

"It's much more important to reduce carbon for good and then start looking at wind turbines. There's no point installing wind turbines if the conditions mean it only powers two fluorescent light tubes."

How about green electricity - does the company buy it?

"If every business in the country is saying we'll purchase green electricity, what's the price going to be? We're happy to pay for green electricity but not at a price that's inflated. We'd rather take the price differential and use it to reduce carbon emissions."

How do you ensure suppliers are up to speed with your agenda?

"We can work with them. We don't see it like we have the competitive edge. We're prepared to share this knowledge with others. There has to be more collaboration. We're working with Next and WH Smiths on a pilot for trunking goods, so rather than three lorries trundling up to Inverness, we can reduce the number and reduce the fuel."

What would you advise someone taking on your role?

"You have to get the support of all board members and senior people. The way we did that was to demonstrate the benefits of the triple bottom line. We had to show a social, commercial and environmental reason for doing things. There was a lot of scepticism, but the landscape has changed in the last year and this agenda has become a challenge as opposed to a threat. A year to 18 months ago, a lot of people needed convincing. Now, I feel I'm pushing at an open door."

What challenges does your role present you with?

"One of the issues has been to persuade the technically-minded people to use language colleagues in stores understand. Also, in the past 18 months we've has the Boots Alliance merger, for example, but still kept CSR on track. Sometimes, CSR takes second place. You have to be realistic - not every day will people have this at the top of their agenda. We have to have stories as good as everybody else's stories."

What are your overall aims for reducing carbon, in a nutshell?

"The aim is to reduce carbon by 30% by 2020. Rather than being 'no carbon' we plan to become a 'low carbon' company - it's more realistic. We're always looking to reduce our carbon footprint. It's a never-ending journey."

Best Practice Tips

Please visit the Forum here and share a tip that you have for organisations to reduce their carbon emissions. Often the very simplest ideas can have the greatest effect:

• "Don't think too hard about quite how difficult it will be to [implement a carbon reducing initiative] or you'll never do it! And if you do do it, be prepared to listen and learn and change based on what's working and what isn't."
  (Andy Hobsbawm, Co-Founder, Do The Green Thing)