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Every year, we issue an Accountability Report that captures how we did against our sustainable business targets, which address every area of our business: product design, sourcing and manufacturing, operations, employees, members, financials, and governance.
In the past, we issued one report and tried to make it do a lot of things – fulfill our reporting requirements under global reporting standards while at the same time, presenting some pretty nuanced information in a way that’s appealing to a variety of audiences (staff, members, the organizations we support through our community programs, the outdoor industry and well, anyone else keen to read our report). This has proven challenging. For something that underlies the work we do on a daily basis, we knew that we could do a better job at connecting people to what all of these numbers mean. So we tried a new approach.
This year’s Accountability Report, in its graphic, bite-sized, plainly spoken way, creates a more accessible glimpse of business sustainability at MEC. And we hope this opens the door to making sustainability more relevant to more people.
2013 Achievements: Highlights of our year in sustainability
- Increased the amount of MEC-brand apparel and sleeping bag materials that are bluesign® approved to 71%, getting us closer to our target of 100% bluesign-approved materials by 2017.
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- Carried 658 product styles in 2013 that were made with environmentally preferable materials (which means that at one or more of the following applies: at least 50% organic cotton, recycled or bluesign- approved content, repurposed materials or PVC-free). This is our fifth consecutive increase in this area and marks the highest number of products made with environmentally preferable materials we’ve ever offered to members.
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- Made our factory standards more stringent in light of the tragedies that have happened around the world. We focused on fire risk and risks to building structure. As a result, some of our factories got ranked lower and we missed our target of 50% of factories meeting or exceeding MEC’s minimum standards.
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- Achieving Fair Labor Association (FLA) accreditation for our Social Compliance program. We’re now one of only 20 organizations —out of the FLA’s 104 members— that’s achieved accreditation – a very significant milestone.
Sustainability at MEC: Looking ahead
As a retailer whose purpose is to enable Canadians to be active outdoors, approaching our environmental and social impacts as we do our financial viability —with measurable targets, forecasts, reporting, and mindfulness— is not just the right thing to do, it also makes perfect business sense. That’s why we continue to integrate sustainability into our business and everyone’s job.
- We’re continuing to work on our 100% bluesign target for MEC-brand, and are engaging in conversations with other brands we carry about our preference for products made with less environmental impact.
- We’re collaborating with others in the industry on reducing environmental impacts and increasing worker well-being in the apparel and hard goods supply chain.
- We’re deepening our focus on climate change and working to reduce the carbon footprint associated with product transport.
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- We’re continuing to green our operations by investing in energy efficiency and alternative energy, and working to find creative solutions for reducing waste and diverting it from landfill.
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- We’re rolling out a responsible purchasing program for products we use in our day-to-day operations.
- As a member of 1% for the Planet (1% FTP), we’re continuing to contribute one percent of annual sales to Canadian environmental organizations and projects
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- And finally, we’ll continue to marry the rigour that global standards bring to our reporting systems and processes with the desire to tell our sustainability story in a way that’s engaging, connective, and relevant so that it means something to you.
Thank you for making MEC the environmentally responsible, socially conscious, financially viable organization it is. To find out more about how your Co-op showed up in 2013, check out mec.ca/accountability. If you have feedback on the report’s new format or our performance, we’d love to hear it: accountability@mec.ca.