Defining Stewardship
REI's core purpose is to inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship. At the co-op, being good stewards is reflected in how we care for the world in which we play, work and live, and how we connect people to nature. Specifically, our efforts are designed to:
- Facilitate the active conservation of nature
- Inspire the responsible use and enjoyment of the outdoors
- Enhance the natural world and our communities through responsible business practices
- Foster opportunities to increase participation levels in outdoor recreation, with a focus on young people
- Maintain REI as an employer of choice, where employees are highly engaged in the vision of the company and are reflective of the diversity of our communities where we have a presence
Why We Report
REI publishes an online stewardship report to be transparent in our social and environmental efforts and hold ourselves accountable to our members, customers, communities and employees.
REI's fifth stewardship report covers the co-op's activities and performance related to these areas during the 2010 calendar year. The performance metrics and data contained within this online report include our operations and facilities (headquarters, distribution centers, retail locations and some aspects of supply chain manufacturing).
The 2010 report provides an update on our progress toward our stated goals, milestones achieved and a discussion of our stewardship priorities.
This report is an important part of our continual work to implement our initiatives and programs, apply our learnings, measure against our goals, and share our progress and challenges with REI's stakeholders.
Report Structure
REI's 2010 stewardship report is organized into the three content sections – Community – philanthropic efforts and nonprofit partnerships centered on conservation, outdoor recreation, and advocacy; Sustainable Operations – initiatives and efforts to reduce our overall impact on the planet; and Workplace – the co-op's workplace and fair labor compliance with vendor factory partners. For additional details on the content of each section, visit the report's table of contents.
Materiality
To determine the most relevant subjects to include in REI's 2010 stewardship report, we built on the foundation we established in our first four reports. The scope of our reporting is for calendar year 2010, and was informed by internal and external stakeholders: employees, leadership, REI's board of directors, members and customers, local community constituents, nonprofit partners and advocacy groups. REI's board of directors provides broad input into our overall stewardship goals, metrics and measurement.
REI's business objectives and long-term strategic plans also served as a basis for determining relevancy, as did co-op policies, programs and initiatives. While the process for determining relevancy was primarily a cross-functional internal effort, we consulted with external experts to help establish REI's priorities for reporting on our corporate responsibility and stewardship.
All past REI stewardship reports are archived and maintained with open access for future reference, and complement additional information presented on REI.com/stewardship.
Comments
We welcome your thoughts on our 2010 stewardship report through the provided survey or via email at stewardship@rei.com. Your feedback supports our ongoing goal of providing relevant information that is important to our members, customers, partners, employees and others.