Ardene Social Responsibility: A Year in Review
As 2019 wraps up and we are embarking on the start of a new decade, let’s take a moment to look back at the year and all the good we’ve done through The Ardene Foundation and Ardene Collective.
- GHG Certified
After measuring our carbon emissions along the entire supply chain, we successfully obtained our Greenhouse Gas Mapping certification with Climate Smart. We continue to make innovations in sourcing eco-conscious fabrics, using recycled materials and reducing plastic packaging. We have also pledged to reduce our carbon emissions by more than 30% by the year 2025.
- Ardene Collective
Our largest Ardene Collective collection to date launched in November, and some of our new eco-conscious fabrics were introduced. Recycled polyester and certified REPREVE fiber, made from recycled plastic water bottles, are used in our Collective denim and sweaters, and bamboo rayon, a sustainable material made from one of the fastest growing plants in the world, is used in our eco-conscious footwear collection. More to come in 2020!
- Donation Boxes
We have partnered with the Salvation Army Thrift Store to offer donation boxes in many of our store locations and encourage customers to donate their gently used goods for those less fortunate. We take pride in the charitable work we do behind the scenes, but this was a concrete step to bring our initiatives to the storefront.
- ME to WE
We teamed up with ME to WE to promote WE well-being; a campaign in stores and online designed to promote and talk about mental health. We encouraged customers to share how they self-care on our social media channels, and a few lucky winners were chosen to accompany us to WE Day in Vancouver. For the duration of the campaign, from September 19th until World Mental Health Day on October 10th, Ardene donated $1 to WE Well-being for each post. Our ongoing ME to WE x Ardene Basic collection includes a ‘Track your Impact’ tag allowing customers to see exactly where their contributions go, and we’ve made 70,000 positive impacts in communities around the world. With each purchase helping to empower youth with tools to nurture their well-being, the movement truly does make doing good doable.
- Starlight
For more than five years, we’ve been proud supporters of the Starlight Children’s Foundation and continue to work with them through fundraising, volunteer hours and donations. Many employees volunteered their time on community day to pack Halloween candy for hospitalized children, $1 donations were collected online and in stores, and Ardene supported their WARD + ROBES program, offering personalized hospital gowns to sick children across Canada. To date, that brings our total charitable donations to well over 4 million dollars!
- Recognizing our Changemakers
What a year it has been! We’ve just wrapped up the holiday party, where we celebrated all our accomplishments as a team. Giving back is a key value at Ardene and this year for the first time we are recognizing team members through the Changemaker award. The winners were chosen for their dedication to giving back through various charities and volunteer efforts and are headed to Africa with WE org. Congratulations to them and everyone who made a difference this year.
Looking Ahead
Our journey doesn’t stop here. Along with continuing to reduce our carbon emissions and introducing more sustainable practices and fabrics, we look forward to continuing our work with the Ardene Foundation’s partners to uphold our pillars of empowerment, poverty, health and education. Together we can continue making a difference we are proud of.