Brooks Sports, Inc. Corporate Responsibility Goals

As we build and evolve our Running Responsibly program, we recognize the importance of maintaining a forward-thinking mindset in order to embrace sustainability as a filter for every product and business decision we make. Therefore, we've developed a set of corporate responsibility goals to help guide our efforts in becoming a more sustainable business.

These 14 goals provide a holistic approach to managing our environmental and social impact, including performance improvement targets for sustainability issues related to our activities and those activities undertaken by our business partners. These goals provide focus for our efforts and a means to track our progress along the way.

We believe setting ambitious targets will help drive innovation and performance improvement. We will update and add goals as necessary as we continue to improve our understanding of our impact on humanity and the earth.

OPERATIONS
Achieve 90% U.S. employee donation participation and 50% U.S. employee volunteering participation in the Run B'cause program by 2017.
Roll out Run B'cause program to our global offices by 2014.
Reduce absolute energy consumption at our operational facilities1 25% by 2020 compared to 2009.
Reduce operational2 GHG emissions 25% by 2020 compared to 2009, relative to product production.
PRODUCTS
For each of our top 10 footwear styles (by volume), achieve a % increase (by weight), from previous style version4, in the amount of materials used in the shoe that are classified as an EPM5.
100% of all chemicals3 used in footwear assembly will be free of VOCs and other toxic chemicals by 2017.
For each Brooks and Moving Comfort core fabric, achieve an increase, year-on-year4, in the percentage (by weight) of the fabric that is an EPM5.
Reduce volume of footwear material waste generated during product assembly 25% per shoe by 2020 compared to 2010 baseline.
PACKAGING
Reduce total weight of materials used in footwear packaging 50% per shoebox by 2017 from 2009 baseline.
BUSINESS PARTNERS
75% of contract factories6 and 50% of Tier 27 facilities to have an environmental management system or certified standard (e.g., ISO 14001, bluesign®, etc) implemented by 2020.
Reduce contract factory energy and water consumption 25% by 2020 compared to 2011 baseline, relative to product production.
Zero discharge of hazardous chemicals related to our product creation from our supply chain by 2020.
90% of our contract and licensee factories8 to meet our "acceptable"9 audit rating or better by 2017.
Reduce inbound product transportation GHG emissions 25% by 2020 compared to 2009 baseline relative to product production.
View footnotes

Unless otherwise stated, all the above goals apply to the entire Brooks Sports, Inc. company. This includes Brooks and Moving Comfort brands’ products, corporate headquarters, international offices, outlet store, distribution center, and our supply chain.

  1. Operational facilities include our global offices, distribution center, and outlet store.
  2. Operational GHG emissions include those that result from business travel, employee commuting, fleet travel, energy use, water use, paper use, and generation of waste in our global offices, distribution center, and outlet store.
  3. e.g. solvent-based cleaners, primers, etc.
  4. New footwear or apparel styles entering our product line will achieve at least the same % of EPM materials as the current worst performing footwear or apparel item.
  5. We define Environmentally Preferred Materials (EPM) as those materials that comply with our Restricted Substance List (RSL) and with at least one of the following characteristics:

    • Comprised of recycled content (e.g., recycled polyester, recycled TPU)
    • Comprised of virgin certified organic content
    • Comprised of other source certified or verified chain of custody content (e.g., BCI)
    • Have no coating/laminate/chemical finish
    • Dyed/colored with a process or technology that reduces water use (e.g. waterless textile dyeing)
    • Is produced in a way that reduces the use of toxic substances compared to traditional version of same material (e.g., heavy metal-free polyester, organic cotton)
  6. Contract factories are those that Brooks Sports, Inc. has a contract with to manufacture and/or assemble our products.
  7. Tier 2 facilities are materials vendors used by our contract factories.
  8. Licensee factories produce specific product for independent companies who have a licensing agreement with Brooks Sports, Inc.
  9. An “Acceptable” audit rating is defined as a facility that is mostly compliant with our Code of Conduct, with only minor issues found and sufficient management systems and/or knowledge to address these issues.