Social Responsibility

Our Environmental & Social Responsibility

Lands’ End has a long tradition of doing the right things for the right reasons. Ever since our founder, Gary Comer, wrote his ’Principles Of Doing Business’ in 1963, we have sought to do business in the right way.

Doing business the right way means much more than just being fair with your customers and employees. It also means; being a good citizen, operating to high ethical standards and addressing the impact our business has on the environment.

These principles form the very fabric of what Lands’ End stands for; we call them our Environmental & Social Responsibilities (ESR) and we would like to share some of our initiatives with you

ETHICAL BUSINESS

To do business with integrity and treat people with respect

Right from the early days, Lands’ End has built its business on the principle of dealing honestly and fairly with our customers, our suppliers and each other. Our founder, Gary Comer, was once asked, if he were to sum up Lands’ End in one word, what would it be? Gary, without hesitation, replied ‘Integrity’.

Lands’ End commitment, as a retailer and as an employer is, first and foremost, to operate with good governance and to treat others with respect.

Human Rights & Supply Chain

Lands’ End uses suppliers from around the world; we look for partners who are able to give us the best combination of quality, price and service that will allow us to deliver honest value to our customers. In this global environment, we take an interest in the standards of all our business partners.

Compliance with Lands’ End Standards of Business Conduct is a condition for becoming and remaining a business partner of Lands’ End. We take special care in selecting partners who follow fair, decent and legal labour practices, agree to our Standards of Business Conduct, and are dedicated to producing a quality product.

Our business partners are required to provide full access to their facilities, employees and employment records in order that we can check their compliance with our Standards of Business Conduct, for example:

• No use of child or forced labour
• Fair wages and benefits
• Freedom of association
• No discrimination
• No unlawful inducements
• Healthy and safe working conditions
• Meeting legal requirements involved in conducting their business

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

To maintain a healthy environment for future generations

As a business, we use a range of raw materials to produce, market & distribute our goods. We understand the importance of using these materials sensitively and Lands’ End is committed to playing its part by operating responsibly. We do this through working closely with our employees, suppliers and communities to promote sustainability in ‘how we do business’.

Using recycled materials

Our practise is to support the recycling industry by using recycled content in our paper and plastic.

We are aware that some reports say the recycling process may be less efficient and clean than manufacturing from virgin materials. However, only by supporting recycling can the industry get the investment it needs to research and improve its efficiency. Therefore, our approach is to use ‘some’ recycled materials, more details are given in the sections below.

As technologies and understanding on this matter change so will our thinking, if you would like to share any useful information on this matter please feel free to email our Environmental & Social Responsibility team. Contact details are at the bottom of this page.

Plastics

As a material needed to protect our products in transit against dirt, damp and odours, plastic performs this job well. We use a clear plastic cover to protect our clothes from the time it is despatched from the manufacturer. The product bag is made from a very thin plastic to minimise on waste, as such it will not sustain the rigours of postal delivery. To address this, for small orders we place products into another more sturdy and non-transparent part-recycled plastic bag. For medium to larger orders we use a cardboard box for shipping.

All materials have drawbacks, plastic is not viewed as a ‘sustainable’ product and the type of plastic used for bags - Low Density Polyethylene, is currently only accepted by a small number of UK councils for curb-side recycling.

As such, we support the recycling industry and minimise the amount of virgin plastic used in our bags by adding recycled content. 25% of our product bags are part recycled and 100% of our shipping bags are part recycled. Our shipping bags are designed to be stored and reused as a ‘returns’ bag if needed.

Reducing single-use bags

In an attempt to help reduce single use plastic bags and change shopper’s habits towards re-usable bags, we launched the Rutland Carry-a-bag campaign in conjunction with Rutland County Council. We worked with both residents and retailers to start changing behaviours and we developed a Rutland ‘bag for life’. The bag not only promotes this beautiful county, it also raises funds for Rutland In Bloom. For more information please visit www.rutland.gov.uk/carryabag

Paper & Cardboard

As a direct mail business, we are particularly aware of the importance and impact of paper production. Wood is a versatile raw material and when managed effectively, is a renewable resource that both supports natural habitats and absorbs greenhouse gases.

All of the paper we source for our UK catalogues is certified either under the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) international forestry certification scheme. In order to qualify for one of these schemes, the paper mill has to manage their forest to a minimum standard of sustainable forestry.

We also ensure our catalogue paper has a ‘Chain Of Custody’ certification number. This is a process that traces the wood fibre back to the originating forest. From the forest to the printer, each supplier handling that paper needs to be certified under the same scheme. The printer is the ‘end of the chain’ before the catalogue is distributed to the customer. The printer has a Chain Of Custody number, which they usually insert by the PEFC or FSC logo. We often use two printers as our cover page is made from a more durable paper than the middle pages and the different paper types require different print equipment. This is why we often have two ‘Chain Of Custody’ numbers for each catalogue, one for the cover and one for the middle pages.

For more details about these schemes we have placed their web links below;
www.fsc-uk.co.uk
www.pefc.co.uk

In our UK offices and operations, all of our paper is either from recycled or sustainable sources. We use recycled for our headed paper and stationery where the quality of print is less of a concern. We track our office paper consumption and set targets for reduction. We have reduced our current consumption rate by at least 30% in comparison to the base figure set in May 2009.

As for cardboard, where strength permits we use 100% recycled material.

Sustainable Mail

To demonstrate our commitment to a more environmentally friendly way of sending mail to our customers, we were the first UK home shopping company to comply with the Royal Mail ‘Sustainable Mail’ standards. Amongst other things, these standards look to increase a companies accountability for the performance of a campaign in terms of waste generated, to minimise ‘junk’ or unwanted mail and to remove plastic wrappings.

More information is available at;
www.greendm.co.uk
www.royalmail.com

Transport

We believe Home Shopping is the most environmentally-friendly form of shopping. Our products are transported by sea and road to our sites in the UK & Germany, and then delivered across Europe via a courier network, to our customers. We are committed to achieving our transport needs as efficiently as possible and reducing our carbon footprint by working with our logistic business partners to maximise loads, sharing trailers/containers and consolidating shipments. Our contracts with logistic business partners have also been designed to ensure they share our strategic goals of environmental sustainability.

For the year 2008, our average delivery miles per parcel from the Distribution Centre in Rutland to our UK customers’ homes was just 1.05 miles per parcel. This shows the effectiveness of home shopping in comparison to taking your own car and travelling into a city or shopping centre.

Energy & Water

We have invested in high-tech systems to monitor our energy consumption. The new systems provide the tools to analyse peaks and troughs in our usage, enabling us to change processes to conserve energy and reduce our carbon footprint. Currently we have reduced our energy consumption by 28% for 2008. To further reduce our energy consumption, we have installed new T5 lighting system to our office areas along with motion detection. Solar panels are currently being evaluated along with secondary heat exchangers for our boilers, and wind turbines to provide power for our call centre. Our air conditioned office areas run on ozone friendly gases (R134A) to minimise environmental impact.

Waste & Recycling

Currently, we have a broad range of recycling and waste management initiatives at our UK Head Office to address paper products, aluminium cans, glass and plastic as well as the disposal of non-recyclables and water management. We also encourage our employees to bring in their domestic batteries and use our safe disposal service.

For 2008 Lands’ End UK recycled 18 tons of paper, 443 tons of cardboard and refurbished or recycled 57 units of unusable electronic equipment - whilst at the same time we reduced our output to landfill by 38%.

Repair Service

Disposable fashion, the idea that something is worn for a while, then thrown away, contributes to the 900 million items of clothing going to landfill every year.

We make clothes that last - which ultimately means a more sustainable way of living. Everything we sell comes with our lifetime guarantee, we also offer a repair service to further contribute to the lifespan of our clothing and minimise waste.

Read more www.defra.gov.uk

COMMUNITY & CHARITY

To make a positive contribution to society

Maintaining good community relationships and helping the communities we operate in to thrive, is a regular part of working for Lands End.

The employees and families of Lands’ End are core to our success. As an employer, we ask everyone to go that extra mile for our customers, and so in return it is only right we go that extra mile for our employees - this we do through our community initiatives.

Charity & Giving

Some of our activities have included:

Breakthrough Breast Cancer: We ran a number of activities to raise money for research into breast cancer. In 2008 we donated £20,000 funded by a number of product and promotional activities.

www.breakthrough.org.uk

Hope Foundation: In 2009 Lands’ End participated in a local Fashion Show and helped raise money in aid of the Hope Foundation for Cancer Research. The charity is committed to providing funding for cancer research projects in Leicestershire and Rutland.

www.hfcr.org

Red Nose Day: We support fund raising for Red Nose Day through many fun activities at our offices in Rutland.

www.rednoseday.com

Pound for Pound Healthy Living: we gave £1 to charity for every 1lb employees lost through an approved healthy eating and exercise plan. We partnered with Rosemary Conley to offer on-site exercise classes, food and dietary advice, and healthy eating options through our company restaurant. The money raised not only helped our chosen charities, but also promoted a healthier approach to eating and exercise for all our employees.

www.rosemaryconley.com

National Blood Donors: every 6 months we provide our site facilities to the National Blood Service and support them in promoting blood donation. These ‘blood drives’ are open to all employees and residents of Rutland.

www.blood.co.uk

Christmas Toy Appeal: employees have been gift wrapping shoe boxes packed with toys and treats since we started the UK business back in 1993. These boxes are distributed by social services and health visitors to children around Rutland. Last year, 82 children benefited from the scheme.

Volunteering

We recognise employees who make a positive contribution through our employee volunteer programme - Lands’ End Employee Volunteering Scheme (LEEVS). Employees who volunteer for a non-profit organisation or service provider are rewarded with a donation of £1 for every hour volunteered.

Through LEEVS we co-ordinate company volunteer efforts to support special events. One such partnership was with The Rutland Family Support Centre to provide ‘horse side walkers’ during holiday riding sessions for disabled children and young people in Rutland.

Contact Details For Environmental & Social Responsibility

If you have any observations or a suggestion about Lands’ End’s environmental and social responsibilities please feel free to contact;

Mark Harris
Employee Services & Social Responsibility Director
Lands End Way
Oakham
Rutland
LE15 6US

Telephone: 01572 722553
Email: mark.harris@landsend.co.uk