Kingfisher is among a group of leading UK PLCs and multinationals working with NGOs to encourage businesses to make commitments to become "Net Positive".
B&Q and Screwfix's parent company is working with BT, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Swedish bearings, seals and lubrication systems supplier SKF, IT services company Capgemini and The Crown Estate alongside non-governmental (not-for-profit) organisations Forum for the Future, The Climate Group and WWF-UK. Their aim is to create a step-change in how businesses approach sustainability by promoting a "Net Positive" plan that promotes transformation.

The group aims to grow the number of businesses that are going "Net Positive" by outlining the commercial, social and environmental benefits this approach has through a communications campaign in 2014. Its first task will be to develop a set of principles that characterise a "Net Positive" commitment and explain what makes this different from other initiatives.

The member companies/organisations of the group have already made, or are working towards, a public commitment that will ultimately mean that they have a positive impact on the communities and natural environments they operate in. The group will meet a number of times this year and will launch its findings with a communications campaign in early in the summer next year.

Group sustainability director at Kingfisher Net Positive, Richard Gillies, said: "People want businesses to be about more than profit. Net Positive provides a framework to help the business community become a force for good - positive for people, planet and profit. Indeed we believe it's the only formula for securing a sustainable business over the long term.

"We don't have all the answers and we can't do it alone so we are delighted to be a part of this unique collaboration of partners, aspiring to accelerate the transition towards a wider Net Positive movement."

This move by Kingfisher follows its own work in the sustainability field; in October 2012 the company designed its own Net Positive programme with priorities in timber, energy, innovation and communities.