Sears Holdings (SHLD) Publishes First Sustainability Report by Bill Hutchinson, SHC Speaks
For more than 100 years, Sears and Kmart have been integral members of the communities in which they operate. We are happy to issue our first Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report, which shares our efforts as an organization towards social and environmental stewardship.We recognize our responsibility to the communities we serve and believe that great value can be driven by the responsible management of our environmental, social and economic resources. While I am proud to present our accomplishments for 2014, we are also excited to look to the future and identify opportunities for success and value for our many stakeholders.
Our environmental and social responsibility initiatives are essential to minimizing the impact of our business on the environment, driving operational cost savings and delivering a best-in-class member experience. We maintain these priorities while meeting the needs of our various stakeholders across the communities in which we work and serve.
Highlights from the 2014 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report include:
- Sears Holdings was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award in both the Retail and Energy Management categories. This marked our fifth year of consecutive recognition in retail and our third straight year for energy management.
- During the 2014 holiday season, Kmart and our Shop Your Way® members and customers donated $17.5 million to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® Thanks and Giving® campaign, making it one of the largest single donations through a retailer fundraising campaign.
- The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index awarded Sears Holdings with a perfect score for the 10th year in a row. We are proud to be recognized for promoting workplace equality.
- In 2014, more than 5.3 million ENERGY STAR certified products were sold through Sears and Kmart. This resulted in more than 600 million kilowatt-hours of electricity saved and more than $100 million in electricity cost savings for our members.
To view the report in its entirety, including a message from our Chairman and CEO, Eddie Lampert, please click here.
Bill Hutchinson is the Senior Vice President & President of Supply Chain for Sears Holdings.
A Message from our Chairman & CEO
At Sears Holdings, we are in the midst of a transformation from a predominantly brick-and-mortar retailer focused on simply selling products into an integrated retailer that builds relationships with our members. Our goal is to continuously improve our understanding of what our members need, anticipate what they want and exceed their high expectations.
Building these relationships isn’t a one-way street. While we constantly want to understand our Shop Your Way® members better, what they think of us is extremely important.
What we do for our members is a large part of this equation. This past year, we continued to roll out more leading innovations through our Shop Your Way membership platform, mobile integration, ship-to-store, buy online/pickup in store, and digital kiosks, signs and check outs.
What we do for society and the environment is also part of the equation. It is, of course, our responsibility to deliver value to our investors, members and associates. We believe the steps we take towards social and environmental stewardship will help drive deeper and better relationships with our members, and help drive a more profitable business enterprise.
I am proud to present you with our first Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report, which illustrates our community involvement, our actions to reduce our impact on the environment, and our global efforts for social responsibility.
We are proud of the progress we have made and understand there remains much to do. In serving our members and other constituencies, the key is to be able to see beyond the way things have always been done.
Here are a few of our accomplishments in 2014:
- Sears Holdings was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award in both the Retail and Energy Management categories. This marked our fifth year of consecutive recognition in retail, and our third year of consecutive recognition for energy management.
- During the 2014 holiday season, Kmart Shop Your Way members and customers donated $17.5 million to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® Thanks and Giving® campaign, making it one of the largest single donations through a retailer fundraising campaign.
- The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index awarded Sears Holdings with a perfect score for the 10th year in a row. We are proud to be recognized for promoting workplace equality.
- In 2014, more than 5.3 million ENERGY STAR certified products were sold through Sears and Kmart. This resulted in more than 600 million kilowatt-hours of electricity saved and more than $100 million in electricity cost savings for our members.
I want to thank our valued associates who work every day to create products, services and experiences our members love. During this time of transformation our associates are the driving force behind our efforts to build a truly profitable company for all of our stakeholders and for generations to come.
Edward S. Lampert
Chairman & CEO
