Awhile back, I was at Target and saw a bunch of t-shirts in the Juniors section with environmental messages on them. Yet, when I looked at the tags, none of the t-shirts were made from organic cotton nor did the purchase of them benefit anything except Target's bottom line.
Well, I was back there last week and fell upon this t-shirt. Feeling myself getting a wee bit annoyed again (especially since I had written to Customer Service way back when about the other t-shirts and had never heard back), I checked the tag. Organic cotton! What's more, the tag, printed on recycled paper, says:
Going green and loving nature is a part of every day life, from camping under the stars to planting flowers in a window box. Your favorite clothing is now another way to care for and respect the earth. Grown and harvested to support and nourish the environment, organic cotton is a soft, comfortable and natural alternative. Go green and show your love of nature.
The t-shirt costs about 10 bucks, and this message gets in the hands of teenage girls. This is a good thing.
So I was intrigued, but trying to find the Chief of Sustainability at Target has so far eluded me. I did find its sustainability report, however. If you are interested in corporate triple-bottom-line responsibility (people, planet, profits), then you will love these sustainability reports. More and more companies are preparing them and posting them on their websites. They are good reading, usually punctuated by me proclaiming, "Wow!" about twenty times.
So the Target sustainability report talks about its efforts at water conservation, low impact development, waste reduction, recycling, carbon footprint reduction, and more. Things like reusing garment hangers and keeping 385 million hangers from landfills. Refurbishing 17,600 broken shopping carts. Recycling 1.4 million pounds of electronics. Using light-emitting diodes (LED) instead of neon for exterior signage. Harnessing solar energy. Restoring wetlands. Eliminating PVC in products for sale, and offering more earth-friendly products in every department. Switching from styrofoam to paper cups at its food service area, with 100% recycled-content coffee sleeves. Implementing sustainable design parameters for new stores. The list goes on and on.
And then, as coincidence would have it, Sprig.com featured a story this week about the launch of a line of affordable organic women's clothing as part of the GO International label at Target, designed by perennially-green CFDA-winning designer Rogan Gregory. Should be hitting stores near those of you in the United States May 18th.
There's a saying that what gets measured gets done. In this day and age, with the competitive marketplace the way it is, if a major corporation does not have a sustainability report on its website, I'm not interested in doing business with it. It's that simple.
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3 comments:
I thought I would wait until morning to write a comment and not hijack this space...the silence, however, is deafening! I buy Target's organic undies, for what that little piece of info is worth. I don't care about what a company has or has not written in their reports etc because anyone can write stuff. I am only interested in what I see happening and I see a little token gesture here and there which is a start. Cynical-I know I am but my grandmother always said "don't believe anything you hear or read and only half of what you see". She was my kind of lady!
It is bad that I really want that tee shirt. I am a teenager girl but for some reason it really speak to me. This is my first comment on your blog but I have been reading it for some time now. I love it!
Kate: The great news is that we vote with our dollar as consumers, and the more we buy organic options, the more get offered. So, every undie helps!
Zoey: Welcome! Thanks for leaving a comment, and for reading FoodShed Planet. Please let us know your point of view more often--your youthful opinion is very powerful in today's changing world!
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