Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSI) has released the company’s Annual Impact Report, offering insights into key initiatives while also detailing its goals to further differentiate WSI as the industry leader of sustainable home furnishings.
The report chronicles Willams-Sonoma’s progress and achievements across what it says are three sustainability pillars: People, Planet and Purpose. It also throws a spotlight on a new goal of having 75% of all WSI products representative of one or more of the company’s social and environmental initiatives by 2030, up from 40% today. Williams-Sonoma pointed out that the achievement of that goal would translate into $1 billion in annual sales.
The report also includes a scorecard of the company’s progress towards previously-announced goals, with the company noting that several of those have been met or exceeded including:
Planet. Reached 65% of assortment made using responsibly sourced wood by 2021 exceeding the 50% goal; pacing the Pottery Barn goal of planting three million trees by 2023 with 1 million trees in the ground to date.
People. Achieved the goal of educating and empowering 100K workers within the WSI supply chain by 2020 and more than doubling the goal of paying $3 million in Fair Trade Premiums by 2020 while becoming the first Fair Trade Certified home retailer.
Purpose. Exceeded 2019 WSI corporate giving donations, doubled annual giving numbers and donated almost $45M in corporate, customer and associate donations to various causes
WSI also announced that it would set a science-based target for emissions reduction across its value chain by 2030, including the company’s own goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2025.
“Williams-Sonoma, Inc.’s decades-long foundation in values leadership and commitment to creating a company that is ‘Good By Design’ set a foundation for the resilience and agility that this past year required,” said Laura Alber, president and CEO of Williams-Sonoma. “Our company outperformed the industry in 2020, and we met and exceeded many of our sustainability goals, demonstrating that a strategic approach to ESG can deliver business, social, and environmental impact.”
