Selfridges doubles down on sustainability commitments

The luxury department store Selfridges has published its first annual ‘Project Earth’ report detailing a number of ambitious targets that it hopes will ‘reinvent retail.’

Back in 2020, Selfridges committed to its sustainability strategy with ‘Project Earth,’ an impressive outline with the overarching goal of steering its business towards a net-zero future.

Two years later, and – in the words of UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres – ‘our fragile planet is hanging by a thread.’

Taking note of this and acknowledging that such critical times demand bold action, Selfridges has upped the ante.

Determined to reinvent retail and encourage other companies to follow suit, the luxury department store has moved into a new phase of ‘embedding and accelerating.’

In short, 45 per cent of transactions are expected to come from circular products by 2030 in a bid to tackle textile waste.

Titled ‘Reselfridges,’ this facet of its sustainability push will incorporate second-hand purchases, clothing repair, rentals, and refills (for example of cosmetics).

Going forward, the hope is that this will become the ‘backbone of the company’ and, ultimately, change the way people consume.

In addition to setting this ambitious target, Selfridges has re-evaluated its initial mission of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Instead, the objective has been set a decade ahead of schedule (hence, acceleration).

‘We recognise that we need to challenge ourselves to accelerate change and our ambitious circular and materials targets do just that,’ said managing director, Andrew Keith, in a press release.

‘We don’t have all the answers, but we are committed to finding solutions, through a continued imaginative approach to retail innovation. The scale of our ambitions cannot be underestimated but we are inspired by what lies ahead.’