Macy's reports new initiatives to enhance sustainability

24 Jul '14

5 min read

Planning and developing 20 additional solar power arrays to be installed on the roofs of stores and distribution centers in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and other states in 2014 and 2015. At year-end 2013, solar energy was being generated on 55 active installations at Macy's and Bloomingdale's facilities.

Macy's Private Brands - the company's product development organization - has joined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a trade organization working to reduce the environmental and social impacts of apparel and footwear products around the world. SAC is comprised of brands, retailers, manufacturers, government, and non-governmental organizations and academic experts, representing more than a third of the global apparel and footwear market.

Reducing waste in the merchandise supply chain by standardizing the size of packing cartons, incorporating recycled polyester fibers in many woven garment labels, minimizing packaging materials and adopting paper hangtags made from FSC-certified paper. Work on packaging reduction is being researched and piloted in Macy's Private Brands, with plans to collaborate with market merchandise vendors in the months ahead.

Setting new and higher goals to increase customer adoption of electronic (paperless) billing statements and electronic bill payment. In 2013 alone, nearly 18 percent of Macy's and Bloomingdale's customers opted for paperless statements, saving about 745,000 pounds of paper.

Driving adoption of digital receipts, which are available in all Macy's stores nationwide. When making a purchase, customers can choose to have a copy of their receipt emailed to them, thus eliminating the unnecessary use of paper receipts. Digital receipts are a convenience for many customers and support the company's sustainability objective of reducing the use of paper in its business operations. In 2013, about 6 percent of all store transactions were paperless.

This spring, Macy's raised awareness and more than $700,000 for community parks, recreation and conservation across America in collaboration with the National Recreation and Park Association through a program called Macy's Heart Your Park. Macy's stores nationwide each selected a local park or green space in their community to support, with more than 550 local parks benefiting from the program. Macy's contributed $250,000 in matching to customer donations made at Macy's stores.

Macy's, Inc., with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation's premier retailers, with fiscal 2013 sales of $27.931 billion. The company operates about 840 stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the names of Macy's and Bloomingdale's, as well as the macys.com and bloomingdales.com websites. The company also operates 13 Bloomingdale's Outlet stores. Bloomingdale's in Dubai is operated by Al Tayer Group LLC under a license agreement.

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