The DIY retailer won one of the Queen's Awards for Enterprise in recognition of its work as a sustainable business and its efforts improving the sustainability of people's homes.


The Sustainable Development Award, one of eight published on Saturday to mark the Queen's birthday, will be awarded to B&Q later this year. Other winners of the same award included Marks and Spencer and the Co-op.

B&Q said the award was largely down to its "20 year journey to becoming the first major UK retailer to only buy timber products from proven responsibly-managed sources."

The retailer's dedication towards sustainable timber was tested earlier this year, when it was forced to pull stock of what was revealed to be illegally-sourced timber from an endangered rainforest in Borneo off its shelves.

B&Q's director of corporate social responsibility Mark Sexton said: "This award is a huge honour and confirms B&Q as one of the UK's leaders in more sustainable retailing. Our sustainability journey started over twenty years ago when we were challenged about where the timber in our garden furniture came from.

"Today we monitor over 15,000 timber and paper lines specifying that they come only from proven responsible sources. This has meant making some hard commercial choices along the way but we believe it is the only way to operate."

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