In August 2018 Ethical Consumer sent a questionnaire to Waterstones, which included a question about the company's environmental policy. No response was received. The company's website was searched. No policy could be found.
An environmental policy was deemed necessary to report on its environmental performance and set targets for the future. A strong policy would include two future, quantified targets, demonstrate that the company had a reasonable understanding of its main impacts, be dated within the previous two years and be independently verified.
Waterstones had none of these, therefore it received Ethical Consumer's worst rating for Environmental Reporting.
Reference:
https://www.waterstones.com/ (2 August 2018)