NEWS

Selfridges launches Project Earth a sustainability campaign to change the way people shop by 2025

Published on: 17th August 2020

Selfridges has launched its new sustainability initiative, Project Earth, a commitment from the retailer to change the way we all shop by 2025. It builds on the steps that Selfridges has taken over the last decade to put sustainability at the centre of its business.

Through Project Earth, the department store aims to help customers change the way they shop in three ways: by addressing the materials used in products, launching and exploring new retail models such as repair and resell, and engaging with teams, partners and customers to inspire a shift in mind-sets.

The company will work with over 300 brand partners and be supported by the Woodland Trust and WWF to kickstart an eight-week campaign of experiments, innovations, and conversations across all of its stores and online. Selfridges has underlined its dedication to reinventing retail.

Underpinning Project Earth is a broader commitment to Science Based Targets and to achieve Net-zero carbon by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. Project Earth will be supported by a programme of events and activities to engage with issues, amplify conversations and challenge mindsets by exploring the most exciting ideas in sustainability with some of the most influential thinkers in the space.

There will be a series of 13 talks, takeovers and screenings with 10 partners such as How To Academy and Intelligence Squared and more than 20 events engaging with stories, brands and services to engage customers with the future of shopping.

Alannah Weston, Selfridges group chairman, said: “For the last decade we have taken ground-breaking steps to put people and planet at the heart of our business, embedding sustainability alongside creativity. Project Earth is not only our bold, new commitment to stretching environmental targets, it is about imagining new ways to do business, within the next five years.

“Since Project Ocean in 2011, Selfridges has been focused on changing mindsets around sustainability both inside our industry and in conversation with our customer. Out of the global pandemic has come an understanding of how fragile and complex our systems are, but also how our planet and people can benefit if we act collectively with a shared purpose.

“Now more than ever we must double down on our efforts to reinvent retail with sustainability at its heart and a way of working which is regenerative for humans and nature. Achieving our ambitions won’t be easy, but we are in a unique position to be able to work with our team members, partners and customers to co-create change and explore possibilities for a sustainable future.”

Anne Pitcher, global managing director of Selfridges Group, added: “In a way we never could have predicted, the cycle of consumption has been broken by the pandemic marking a moment of change in our customers to a more considered mindset and requiring us to set new expectations for retail.

“We firmly believe evolving the way we do business and supporting change in the way people shop is essential to building a more sustainable business. Selfridges has the platform to change how shopping is done wrapped up in the destinations, experiences and inspiration customers want from us. And the tough, stretching targets we have set ourselves underpin our commitment to change our business and our ambition to imagine and create a sustainable future for our customers.”

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