Global Supply Chain
What is supply chain? Simply put, it’s the journey of the shoe from prototype to customer. It includes the sourcing of materials, manufacturing, transportation and distribution. And it represents one area of the organization where thinking sustainably has a substantial impact to the environment and the bottom line.
We are committed to sustainability through our supply chain, with a focus on reducing waste and lowering our carbon footprint. And we know that leadership in sustainability requires disciplined processes, integrated systems and capital investments that will translate our values into performance day in and day out.
Transportation and Distribution
We are proud to say that Collective Brands has joined other leading organizations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the SmartWay™ Transport Partnership, which aims to make freight transport operations cleaner and more efficient. Through this partnership, we will help eliminate more than 30 million metric tons of cardon dioxide emission and 200,000 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions each year, saving more than 150 million barrels of fuel annually. This is equivalent to taking nearly 12 million cars off the road.
We have also taken steps to serve our customer more efficiently through a coastal distribution model that will save more than 1.2 million gallons of gas each year.
Packaging
An important component to manufacturing and selling shoes is the shoe box. And we are taking strides to make the packaging of our product more sustainable.
- Our packaging contains 72 percent post consumer content
- We use soy based inks
- All of our box vendors us latex rather than acrylic based adhesives
Paper and Printing
Accompanying our sustainable packaging approach is our dedication to be eco-conscious in our marketing efforts, including printed collateral. We only use paper sourced from well-managed forests that contains at least 10 percent post consumer fiber. The inks we use to print collateral contain nearly 28 percent renewable resources. And, we partner with printers who share our concern for the environment.