Paper Management
Since 2004, Lands' End has made huge improvements in paper reduction through precise catalog distribution and in-house recycling efforts. Catalogs, magazines and newspapers are collected within the buildings and placed in designated containers. In 2010, a program to reduce incoming unsolicited and unwanted mail was implemented: the mailing organizations are contacted and asked to remove the name from their mailing list. Additionally, the company has used 30% post-consumer waste copy paper at the corporate office for the past ten years.
Catalog Printing Partners
Lands' End believes in the responsible use of natural resources. Our preference is to work with suppliers that practice sustainable forestry. Lands' End continues to work within the supply chain to promote certification of forests and the use of chain of custody certification to track the certified fiber.
Catalog Paper Consumption
- Lands' End has implemented a multi-year initiative to reduce paper consumption by sending smaller catalogs to better-defined customer segments based on those customers' preferences.
- Between 2004 and 2008, Lands' End reduced its overall US catalog paper consumption by more than 50%. Lands' End is constantly improving its technology to achieve even greater gains in this area.
- In 2010, the tonnage of catalogs recycled increased significantly by 80% to 303 tons.
- Lands' End catalog cover paper now contains at least 10% post-consumer recycled content.
- Lands' End offers customers the option to select the number of catalogs they receive each year (once a year, quarterly or bi-monthly).
Printer/Fax
- Lands' End has changed default settings for printers to turn off cover sheets and to print on both sides of a sheet of paper.
- Lands' End Germany processes fax orders electronically versus printing them, resulting in a savings of 50,000 pieces of paper per year
- Lands' End Germany recently started emailing schedules to employees instead of printing them, resulting in a savings of 25,000 pieces of paper per year.
Preferred Paper Supplier Program
- Lands' End's preferred paper supplier program provides a positive incentive to suppliers who clearly demonstrate that they source sustainable managed forest products and demonstrate leadership in other environmental aspects of their operations. The preferred paper supplier program evaluates suppliers on the following criteria:
Fiber Sourcing
Chain-of-custody certification
Chain-of-custody certification is an accounting system audit that tracks certified forest fiber, recycled content and/or non-certified forest fiber. Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that have third-party independent chain of custody certification. The non-certified forest fiber must meet the controlled wood or non-controversial sources definitions of FSC, PEFC and/or SFI.
Procurement system certification
Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that have third-party independent certification of their procurement systems that also focus on improving forestry on uncertified lands through logger training, landowner outreach and best management practices.
Certification
Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that provide certification by a third-party that a forest is well managed, under a certification system requiring (a) transparency, stakeholder involvement and the administration of a standard for forest management that is broadly accepted, such as CSA, FSC, PEFC and SFI; (b) compatibility between the standard and globally applicable principles that balance economic, ecological and equity dimensions of forest management; and (c) an independent and credible mechanism for verifying the achievement.
Conservation values
Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that demonstrate that they are not sourcing fiber from forests that possess one or more of the following attributes, unless the forest is third-party certified to one of the standards that Sears Holdings recognizes:
- Forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant concentrations of biodiversity values (e.g., endemism, endangered species and refugia).
- Forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant large landscape level forests contained within, or containing, the management unit where viable populations of most if not all naturally occurring species exist in natural patterns of distribution and abundance.
- Forest areas that are in or contain rare, threatened, endangered, critically imperiled or imperiled species.
- Forest areas that provide essential ecosystems services to nearby human populations in critical sustainable situations.
- Forest areas critical to local communities' traditional cultural identity (areas of cultural, ecological, economic or religious significance).
Non-Sourcing Environmental Aspects
Mill performance
Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that report their mill environmental performance to us annually, based on comprehensive environmental criteria, using the Environmental Performance Assessment ToolŪ (EPAT) or an alternative assessment tool that allows equivalent comparisons among all the mills that supply Sears Holdings.
Greenhouse gas reduction
Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that have programs to account for and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Transparency
Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that achieve the highest levels of transparency by publicly reporting their environmental and forestry policies and performance on an annual basis. The reports may be published exclusively on the internet.
Corporate leadership
Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that demonstrate corporate leadership by participating in voluntary programs like the Carbon Disclosure Project and others.
Environmental management systems
Sears Holdings gives preference to suppliers that certify their environmental management systems to the ISO 14001, EMAS or other credible international environmental management standards
