REI Challenges Outdoor Industry To #OptOutside
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REI Challenges Outdoor Industry To #OptOutside
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through REI CO-OP's website.
SEATTLE, Wash. – As it has for the past four Black Fridays, REI Co-op will close all its stores on the day after Thanksgiving, process no online payments and pay its 13,000 employees to #OptOutside, but this year, is taking a further step: asking its 18 million members to “opt to act” by joining in a nationwide clean-up to save our planet at 11 events taking place throughout November. In addition, REI’s new CEO Eric Artz is challenging the company’s suppliers to eliminate the polybags used to protect apparel, saying they contribute more than 7 tons of thin-film plastic waste per week accounting for 20 percent of REI’s current waste stream. United By Blue, a sustainable outdoor apparel and accessories brand, has already taken the #QuitSingleUse plastics pledge and will participate in this year’s #OptOutside clean-ups.
“My job is to steward the co-op, and the outdoors, on your behalf — and on behalf of the generations who follow us. Today, that future is at risk,” REI CEO Eric Artz wrote in a letter to co-op members. “We are in the throes of an environmental crisis that threatens not only the next 81 years of the co-op, but the incredible outdoor places that we love.” Under Artz’s leadership, the REI Co-op has set a goal of operating as zero-waste (diverting 90% of waste from landfill) across its total operations by the end of 2020. In addition, REI is expanding its rentals and used gear businesses, and introducing a gear buy-back program, offering members REI gift cards when they trade in gently used outdoor items for resale.