Sustainability

Here at BB&B we believe that sustainability should be the core of every business. We demonstrate our commitment to this sentiment by focusing on three key areas:

We are continuing to consolidate and build strong relationships with our suppliers and manufactures. We also enforce our ethical trading policy.

We are passionate about actively reducing our operational emissions and working with our freight, waste and manufacturers to ensure they are doing the same.

We've been focused on our waste this year. We are working to improve our packaging and ensure as much of our waste is being diverted away from landfill as we can.

Our Waste Story

At BBB we are starting our sustainability journey off with a bang but doing everything we can to reduce waste. All our Auckland stores are now “waste free” (more than 90% of our operational waste is diverted from landfill).

We are currently using our Auckland stores as a model to ensure proper waste management and reduction strategies are created, so we can implement them across the country in the near future.

Here at BB&B we know that reducing waste is key to being more sustainable. That is why we ensure all our products are made to last and with the utmost care. We are also working with our brilliant manufacturers to start reducing our packaging, so customers can take less plastic home.

As our drivers deliver stock to our Auckland stores, they also pick up our carefully separated packaging waste. These drivers then transport the separated bubble wrap, pallet wrap, soft plastics, paper, cardboard, polystyrenes, and general waste back to our distribution center in Auckland for recycling, reuse, and disposal.

At the Distribution center, we bail our cardboard, pallet wrap, and soft plastics so they can be sent to Oji Fibre and Future post for recycling. The cardboard we don’t bail gets shredded and used as a bubble wrap. We also use this substitute for our webstore products. Our polystyrene is delivered to Expol to be turned into 100% green beans.

When customers order products online they can feel assured that we are using 100% compostable courier bags and many other recyclable/ re-used protective materials, to ensure their items arrive safely without increasing our waste footprint by much.

We are very proud of what we’ve achieved at BBB, but we know our journey has just begun. Our next steps are to bring these systems to all our other stores to ensure BB&B is as green as can be.

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Important to us

Reducing our emissions:

At BB&B we recognize and take responsibility for our impact on the environment and are doing our part to support the fight against climate change. We are doing this by actively exploring ways to reduce our operational carbon emissions as well as reducing emissions through our supply chain.

Reducing emissions also means looking at our energy consumption, water conservation, waste production.

We are still in the infancy of our carbon emissions reduction journey. However, by working with manufacturers, suppliers, transport companies and looking internally, we look to reduce our emissions significantly over time.

Supply and procurement

At BBB we are all working hard to educate ourselves on sustainable procurement. We source our products from manufacturers who do not participate in modern slavery practices and ensure proper working conditions and the safety of their employees. We do this by maintaining regular contact with suppliers, asking for certifications and proper documentation about the facility before purchase and most importantly we ensure that our buyers visit the manufacturing facility whenever possible. By maintaining this strong relationship with our suppliers BBB will continue to work hard to allow our customers to purchase goods with confidence.

Closing the loop

We take advantage of being a kiwi operated business by working with local charities and Kindergartens to donate some of our materials when possible. These include hangers, stock, and some of our packaging material that can be used for arts and crafts.

BBB is also doing its bit to reduce waste by repairing broken stock that is returned by customers (When possible). We ensure that the products we buy are of good quality and made to last so that our customers get value for years to come.

Responsible packaging

By working with our buyers, suppliers and manufacturers we hope to eliminate unrecyclable / non-compostable packaging and reduce our overall packaging.

Who we work with

We are proud to share that our soft plastics packaging from all Auckland stores are carefully handed and delivered to Future post where they are converted into high-quality Fence Posts. These incredible fence posts are stronger, more durable, and longer-lasting than traditional wooden fence posts that often leech chemicals into the ground.

To ensure our cardboard and pallet wrap is properly recycled we bale and hand over our old packaging to Oji solutions. The Oji team then takes our old cardboard and transforms this back into new boxes and our pallet wrap is taken overseas to be processed and converted back into pallet wrap once again.

We work with Expol to recycle all the polystyrene from our Auckland stores. This polystyrene is delivered to Expol to be transformed into “Green beans”. These beans contain no virgin material, help prevent waste needlessly going to landfill and (best of all!) can be recycled again and again.

Our Responsibility

Bed Bath and Beyond are committed to conducting its business in a manner that reflects its values and social responsibility. We believe everybody in our supply chain should be treated respectfully and with dignity. We recognize the responsibility we share with our suppliers to source products in an ethical manner and we are committed to building resilient supply chains that provide fair, open, and transparent information. This cannot be 100% guaranteed when working with overseas manufacturers, but we work hard to monitor our suppliers and maintain a strong relationship.