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Success Stories - Retailers
Success Stories
Organization Type
- Utilities
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Organization Size
Bass Pro Shops – Springfield, Missouri
Bass Pro Shops implemented numerous innovative waste prevention activities at all its retail facilities. The company uses architectural salvage from building demolition products and trees reclaimed after forest fires in store offices and fixture construction. It also salvaged nearly 170 tons of transport packaging materials through a shipping and receiving waste prevention program, saving more than $28,000 in 1999. This program involved the reuse and sale of used wooden pallets. Its cardboard recycling program saves Bass Pro more than $94,000 and generates more than $14,000 in donations for a local nonprofit.
Limited Brands, Inc.
Limited Brands has its priorities straight with its clear commitment to reducing waste. The company quickly became active in WasteWise and is being recognized for its efforts as a new Partner. One of Limited Brands’ most successful waste reduction activities is its packaging reduction program. In 2004, Limited Brands established new design standards for cardboard boxes used for apparel merchandise, allowing multiple uses from a single box. This effort prevented 87 tons of cardboard from being discarded as waste and saved the company approximately $215,000 in avoided purchasing costs. In another effort, Limited Brands changed the material used in product return kits from stores and prevented the need for 20,000 pounds of virgin material.
Target Corporation – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Target Stores operates an ambitious and innovative waste reduction program. For example, Target donates leftover food from its corporate cafeteria and the restaurant in a nearby store to a local hog farm. Other donation efforts include a program to give used desktop computers to churches, hospitals, and community centers. Target also works to reduce plastic hanger waste by conducting a closed-loop hanger reuse program within its retail stores and recycling damaged hangers. Even more impressively, Target works with its suppliers to ensure that 99 percent of all clothing and 95 percent of all shoes arrive at the store with no excess packaging. Additionally, the company expanded its paperless operating environment by sharing sales and inventory reports, in-stock data, purchase orders, invoices, accounts payable information, and newsletters electronically. The company collected more than 2.5 million tons of material, chiefly corrugated packaging, for recycling. Target also purchased recycled-content products, including anti-fatigue floor mats for cashiers made from recycled tires, 30 percent postconsumer fiber paper for printing brochures and training manuals, overhead store signs made from recycled paper and corrugated material, and shoe boxes made from 80 to 100 percent recycled-content paper.
In 1997, Target implemented a new paperless system of making price changes and researching out-of-stock products. This project eliminated 200 tons of paper. Target also reused more than 200 million hangers, thereby eliminating 6,000 tons from the waste stream.