Environmental Sustainability

Climate change is fundamentally altering many aspects of our lives, including the food and products we buy. Faced with the reality of natural disasters accelerated by a changing climate, including the record-breaking wildfires on the U.S. West Coast and the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, people worldwide are rethinking their consumption habits and how…

A record number of cargo ships are backed up in U.S. ports. There aren’t enough dock workers or truck drivers to distribute every new shipment. The global supply chain is strapped. All of these issues combined are leading to a significant amount of out-of-stock inventory and frustrated customers. Retailers are scrambling to prepare for a…

Have you ever made a conscious effort to "go green" by changing up your daily routine or swapping out certain products on your shopping list for more sustainable ones? Perhaps you started biking to work instead of driving (if you're not working remotely) or invested in reusable household items like metal straws and glass jars.…

In a digital world with so many choices on where to exert your effort and budget, the question for direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) merchants is really where you should be spending your time and what channels — new or old — can deliver the desired results. Smaller brands cannot be everywhere all the time nor do they…

In episode 318 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Eric Bjorling, director of brand marketing and public relations at Trek Bikes, a heritage bicycle retailer and manufacturer based in Waterloo, Wisconsin. Bjorling discusses why Trek conducted its first-ever emissions audit in 2020, the learnings from Trek's first Sustainability report, and the steps the company…

Ikea is piloting a furniture buyback and resale program in the United States as it aims to make the service a permanent fixture at its stores nationwide. The pilot program will be available at its store in the Philadelphia suburb of Conshohocken from Monday through Sept. 19. It will eventually roll out to additional markets. Loyalty…

Urban Outfitters announced Tuesday it would launch a secondhand apparel and accessories marketplace for consumers to resell their clothes. The new online thrift store, called Nuuly Thrift, is launching in the fall in the form of an iPhone app. Users will be able to post their clothing and accessories from any brand and can choose…

Natural. Green. Eco-friendly. We’ve all heard these buzzy, sustainability-centered words, and many — in fact, most — of us want to lessen the impact of our spending habits on the planet. It’s hard, however, to take tangible action with so little information available about the products we buy and bring into our homes. To enable and empower…

Want to provide more value to customers? Retailers should consider, if they haven’t already, diversifying their supplier network, especially since today’s consumers increasingly purchase goods and services from ethically sourced local, small and minority-owned businesses. Working with a select group of familiar, reliable suppliers might be working well (why upset the apple cart?). However, expanding…

On Monday, Fabletics joined the growing list of fashion brands that are bringing resale in-house, reports Glossy. The program, launched in partnership with thredUP, allows Fabletics' customers to mail pre-owned clothing to the brand and receive store credit for any item deemed re-sellable. Customers can package Fabletics' clothes and non-Fabletics' clothes together, all of which will…