For nearly 70 years, REI has supplied gear and apparel to outdoor enthusiasts of various abilities and recreation interests. Our cooperative's long-term success depends on shared and wild places.
The decisions we make in our business operations can have large impacts on the natural world. Through our choices and the influence we can have on our industry, our supply chain and our customers we hope to minimize negative impacts and maximize benefits. It is not practical for us to attempt to address all impacts at the same time.
As a result, we have established priorities based on inputs from stakeholders, internal and external. This does not mean we ignore other issues, but it does mean we have attempted to measure the impacts, establish goals and focus our efforts in four main areas:
- Taking action on reducing our carbon footprint by thoughtful energy use, given the enormous environmental risks posed by climate change.
- Adopting green building design and construction standards for REI stores and facilities in the future.
- Ensuring our paper purchases come from known sources and well-managed forests, and that we use paper efficiently.
- Reducing the amount of waste we generate through recycling efforts and reuse of materials.
- Designing and manufacturing our products and packaging with a sustainability mindset by increasing the use of sustainable materials, eliminating harmful components and minimizing product life cycle impacts.
We have chosen to report on the areas of our business where we believe we can have the greatest potential for improvement. In each chapter, we report our short-term solutions and articulate our long-term aspirations.
We welcome your feedback and invite you to take our survey. You may also email us directly at stewardship@rei.com.
