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rics.org
fit for
purpose
LUSh’S new briStOL StOre iS
the firSt tO be aSSeSSeD UnDer
the Ska retaiL envirOnMentaL
aSSeSSMent MethOD,
SayS andy pearson
Photography by ed reeve
L
ush is big on environmental policy. The
handmade cosmetics retailer sources
ingredients that aren’t tested on animals, its
products have little or no packaging, it has policies to
reduce waste and it recycles any rubbish it does produce.
It even supplies heat to its Poole factory using boilers
powered by woodchips sourced in the New Forest. Now,
with the opening of its Bristol store, the company has
completed its most environmentally friendly fit-out.
Lush has more than 600 outlets in 43 different
countries, but the Cribbs Causeway store in Bristol
is the first to be accredited using the new Ska Retail
environmental assessment method. This low-cost tool,
developed by RICS in collaboration with industry, has
been introduced to reduce the environmental impact
of shop, bank and restaurant fit-outs. It builds on
the success of Ska Offices, launched in 2009, and in
true green fashion successfully recycles some of the
environmental measures from its forerunner. Other
measures have been removed, however, such as the
need to deal with raised flooring, which is rarely used
in retail, while new retail-specific measures have been
added, including the selection of furniture and signage
for minimal environmental impact.
In total, Ska Retail details guidance on 115 good
practice measures, covering everything from energy,
water and transport to materials and wellbeing. Each is
detailed in a datasheet explaining the rationale behind
the measure, the criteria that need to be achieved and
guidance on how to achieve them. Ska Retail applies
only to those measures relevant to a specific project.
According to Tim Robinson, information products
group director at RICS,‘Typically 30 to 60 measures are
likely to apply to most projects.’ From a sustainability
perspective some are more important than others, so
they are ranked from one to 112 (one being the highest
and 112 the lowest). To ensure teams don’t simply target
the easiest measures, each Ska Retail project has to
achieve a number of the highest-ranked measures
within its scope of works. It can then be awarded bronze,
silver or gold accreditation based on the percentage of
measures achieved under the scope of works; 25% for
bronze, 50% for silver or 75% and above for a gold.
The main advantage of Ska Retail compared to
other environmental assessment systems is that it is
project specific. Unlike whole building assessment
systems such as BREEAM and LEED, Ska Retail does
not consider the base building, which the retailer
generally has no control over. ‘It’s about what you can
control and influence as a design team,’ says Robinson.
Lush’s environmental officer, Ruth Andrade, is
enthusiastic about the potential of the rating system. >>
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Ska Retail//
‘Lush has done a lot of work minimising its environmental
impact, in sourcing ingredients and in the way in which
we make and transport our products, so it made sense that
the next big step for us was to see how far we could go in
minimising the impact of fitting out our stores,’ she says.
In particular, she was impressed by the rigor demanded
by the tool.‘When we started to work with Ska I thought,
“I bet this is greenwash and there’s a way to cheat and get
points for things that are not really important without
having to do any of the major work.” But that is not true,
the measurements are really difficult to achieve.’
Lush worked with sustainability and carbon
consultancy Dalen Strategies to develop the fit-out for
the Cribbs Causeway store. Once the previous tenant
had vacated the unit, the retailer’s in-house team came
up with a design based on Lush’s standard specification.
‘Lush knew what it wanted in the store, what it had to
change and what materials it planned to use,’ explains
Nicola Ashurst, sustainability consultant at Dalen
Strategies. Armed with the design, Dalen Strategies
then assessed which Ska Retail measures applied to
this particular project. ‘We scoped everything that
was relevant to the fit-out,’ Ashurst says.
Lush is aiming for a gold accreditation with its Bristol
store. Dalen Strategies worked with the retailer to
prioritise the Ska measures it needed to aim for, and set
about helping source products and materials to meet
the criteria. The consultant was assisted in its mission
by Ska’s good practice datasheets, which were useful
when it came to interrogating potential suppliers. ‘As a
result of Ska, Lush changed the specification of their
wall lining from plywood to strawboard, they used
more environmentally friendly paint, more efficient
lights and installed sub-metering to give them more
information about energy use,’ says Ashurst.
Finding compliant solutions was not always
straightforward, however, particularly when it came to the
selection of plant.‘There is a lot of research involved and
the Ska measures don’t necessarily present solutions,
especially when the product comes from the energy
technology list,’ explains Andrade. Another challenge was
that some of the criteria were based on the BRE Green
Guide to Specification, which is not product specific.
As well as being Lush’s first Ska project, the store
was the first to be assessed using the new Ska Retail
scheme, so there were inevitably discussions over
what constituted the most sustainable solution. One
particular topic was the floorcovering in the shop area.
Lush’s standard specification is for VersaFlex flooring,
which is based on ceramic tiles laid into a rubberised
grid system. ‘It allows us to replace a cracked tile easily
without having to take up the floor,’ explains Andrade.
Some aspects of the flooring system scored well
environmentally, including the fact that it can be laid
over an existing floor, which minimises waste, and it
‘The strength of the tool is that it makes it easier
to get things approved, because the measures come
under a recognised scheme put together by experts’
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doesn’t require grout or adhesive, so no fumes are given
off. What’s more, if Lush decides to close or relocate a
store it can pick up the tiles and use them elsewhere.
‘Our tiles have a longer lifespan and don’t generate
waste, and the system has been designed for demolition,’
Andrade says. However, on the downside, ceramic tiles
have a relatively high embodied energy, partly because
they are fired in a kiln and partly because the majority
of tiles are now manufactured in China and have to be
transported to the UK. ‘I’ll be disappointed if we don’t
get the points because I think we are doing something
green,’ says Andrade.
Having researched all the sustainable options for its
Bristol store, she expects future fit-outs to be much
more straightforward. ‘It was a big learning curve for us,’
she says. ‘That’s not meant to be a criticism of Ska – it’s
because this was the first proper Ska scheme we’d done
and the first-ever Ska Retail assessment.’ Next year Lush
expects to incorporate the products selected for the
Cribbs Causeway scheme into its standard specification
to help future projects gain Ska Retail accreditation.
One of the advantages of having a bona fide
environmental assessment scheme is that it makes
it easier to communicate sustainability within the
organisation and externally. ‘The strength of the tool
is that it makes it easier for me to get things approved,
because the measures come under a recognised scheme
put together by experts,’ explains Andrade. In particular,
using Ska has made it easier to talk about the cost of the
fit-out. ‘It works well for sustainable elements that cost
slightly more and where there is not an immediate cost
benefit, because achieving accreditation itself can be a
strong enough reward.’
Ska Retail is not simply about fixtures and fittings; it
is also about ensuring the fit-out work is carried out in a
responsible manner. ‘Ska added requirements to our
tender documentation for our shop fitters to manage
site waste, monitor levels of volatile organic compounds
on site, and record electricity and water consumption
during fit-out,’ Andrade says. ‘We’ll be focusing on Ska
this year to ensure all of the stakeholders including
contractors understand what measures we need to
achieve and what we have to do to achieve them and
where we need to improve.’
Part of the Ska criteria is about how existing fixtures
and fittings are removed as part of a fit-out. For Lush, it
makes every project unique because the retailer has no
control over which business occupied the store before it
takes over a lease.‘Sometimes the landlords will only let
a store once it has been stripped of furniture, but in
other cases we’ve been able to reuse doors and shelving
and even the air-conditioning,’ Andrade explains. In
Bristol, the team were lucky in that they were able to
reuse the existing kitchen, cupboards, chairs and a table
and storage racking. ‘We always say, “Please leave stuff”
in case we want to reuse it,’ she adds.
The Cribbs Causeway store opened on 3 December.
As well as being Lush’s greenest store, the event was
also its 100th UK store opening, a statistic its manager
Sarah celebrated by cutting into a large rose-scented
Scentenary Soap ‘cake’ produced to mark the occasion.
Lush is still waiting for confirmation that it has
succeeded in achieving a gold accreditation for
the store. But anyone doubting the retailer’s
environmental commitment need look no
further than the mall outside the store on its
opening day, where Lush’s pedal-powered
smoothie-maker was being put through its
paces by an assistant dressed as a banana.
rics.org/ska
Featuring energyefficient, longlife LED lighting,
strawboard-lined
walls, shelves made
from sustainably
sourced timber
and fume-free
paint, Lush’s Cribbs
Causeway store
in Bristol is its
‘greenest ever’
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