Global Commitment 2021 Signatory Report

Superdry is a global fashion brand with retail, ecommerce & wholesale operations placing our products in more than 160 countries. Plastic packaging is predominantly used in our polybags (garment protection in transit). A very small proportion of plastic primary product packaging remains.

Africa: Northern Africa, Southern Africa, Western Africa

America: Caribbean, Central America, Northern America, South America

Asia: Eastern Asia, Central Asia, South-eastern Asia, Southern Asia, Western Asia

Europe: Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Western Europe

Oceania: Australia and New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia

We will achieve our target through our commitments to eliminate unnecessary & problematic plastics, and support circular (closed loop) economies with increasing use of recycled content.

We've already eliminated much plastic from our packaging since 2018 through:

1. Reduction e.g. light-weighted old ecommerce parcel bag by 17%.

2. Substitution e.g. swapping our old plastic ecommerce parcel bag for FSC paper.

3. Removal e.g. removing the plastic window on our underwear boxes.

In addition, we've made significant strides to use recycled plastic in packaging:

1. Using 100% recycled polystyrene for our women's swimwear hangers (an interim solution before we eliminate them by 2022).

2. Our biggest use of plastic, our polybag (essential to protect the garment during transport & storage) is now a fully circular polybag whereby we collect post-consumer polybags and recycle through our supplier who turns them new bags. In 2020 we introduced a polybag made from 30% closed loop recycled plastic.

Our biggest use of plastic is polybags and ecommerce bags which we have continued to focus on to elimate and reduce their impact. This year (Sep-20) we introduced a new FSC paper ecommerce parcel bag to replace our old LDPE version. Our old ecom bags accounted for ~150 tonnes plastic each year, but this change has reduced our plastic use by ~50 tonnes this year and will decrease to 0 over the next 2 years whilst all our old ecom bags are phased out of stock. Despite only having small volumes of customer facing primary product packaging, we identified these as materially high due to their exposure with the public and ability to engage people in the plastics and environmental discussion. Our reduction in plastics used in our primary packaging (e.g. underwear boxes, flip-flop, belt and sock hangers) which we introduced across 2019-20 has helped reduce our plastic use by ~30 tonnes this year.

This year (Sep-20) we introduced a new FSC paper ecommerce parcel bag to replace our old LDPE version. Our old ecom bags accounted for ~150 tonnes plastic each year, but this change has reduced our plastic use by ~50 tonnes this year and will decrease to 0 by 2022 whilst all our old ecom bags are phased out of stock. Our polybags provide a vital service to the quality and safety of our products, which without would result in greater environmental impact from the damage and therefore necessary repair or destruction of our garments. We are however working to identify ways of using bigger polybags for bulk delivery of certain products aiming to reduce our use of them by up to 20% by 2025. We have a very small proportion of plastic single use hangers remaining on our Womens Swimwear. These are currently made from 100% recycled plastic however we have found a cardboard alternative that will come into use from 2022.

The vast majority of our garments are sold with little consumer facing packaging other than labels and some box-based packaging for certain items in our accessories range. This means opportunities for packaging re use by customers is limited and we have therefore not identified or implemented any reuse models to date. We believe with our use of plastics it is better to focus on eliminating and increasing the use of recycled content. Our overall use of plastics will be very small once our elimination plan has been implemented. We have thought about reuse in non-plastic materials such as our retail carrier bags, which are 100% FSC certified recycled paper. This bag (although not plastic) is sturdy enough to be re used.

None reported

Our biggest remaining use of plastic after our elimination plans are implemented, will be our secondary garment poly bags. Our polybags are resealable so the same bag can be reused (rather than using a new one) if a product is selected for compliance or AQL (Acceptable Quality Limit; where it is removed, checked, and returned to a polybag). We will continue to identify new and innovative opportunities for reuse models in case they become a possibility in the future.

Our plastic packaging improvements mostly relate to elimination of unrecyclable plastics through substitution with paper.This year we reduced our plastic use by 11%. Where we still use plastic packaging, we focus on ensuring its 100% recyclable as the most material impact for our packaging; due to very limited reuse opportunities, and our support of closed loop recycling over compostable options (due to lack of research & concerns about environmental impact if compostable conditions don’t exist). Due to Covid-19 we increased our ecom sales (B2C). This has increased the volume of polybags that aren't recyclable (according to EMF GC) hence why we've seen a reduction in % recyclable plastic packaging this year, but we're exploring solutions.

Our biggest use of plastic is our polybags. To support increased recyclability of these we have partnered with a closed loop polybag manufacturer who has helped us increase the recyclability of our garment polybags by offering a closed loop recycling service. To increase recyclability we often look at changes in process instead of design. This includes removing polybags at DC (before shipping garments to stores), then baling & returning to supplier where they are recycled (in their new, bespoke, closed loop recycling facility) and turned into new polybags for us. Doing this allows us to know the polybags on our retail orders are practically recycled, and that our wholesale partners are able to do the same if they wish.

Yes

68.2 % (see endnotes for more information on the packaging considered as designed for recycling)

Please note: This optional metric is not the same as the percentage of recyclable plastic packaging contributing towards the 100% target. More information on the Global Commitment recyclability definition can be found in the 2021 Progress Report.

100% reusable, recyclable or compostable

We removing our garment polybags at our distribution centres for our retail orders. We are exploring how we can cost effectively remove polybags from our ecommerce orders too (with an aim to introduce this by 2022). This will increase the number of polybags collected (and sent B2B rather than B2C) and therefore recycled. Where we must continue to use plastic for our primary product packaging, we will look at ways to ensure they use the most widely recyclable plastic; LDPE.

We will commence conversations with our wholesale partners to engage them in the potential to have poly bags removed at our DCs before shipping to them. However as this is a B2B sale the garment is still in transit/storage and therefore will, for the majority, require the polybag to continue providing protection and reducing the overall environmental impact from preventing damaged products. Conversations instead will more likely be around encouraging wholesale partners to remove the polybag in their own DCs before they send the garment to their own retail or ecommerce customers. They can then collect polybags in bulk and send for recycling with ease.

Most of our plastic packaging improvements relate to elimination of unrecyclable plastics through substitution with paper.This year we reduced our total plastic use by 11% by substituting our plastic ecommerce bag for a paper alternative. Our old plastic ecommerce bag contained 50% recycled plastic (the highest of all plastic packaging) and therefore our recycled content has reduced slightly this year as we used less plastic ecom bags and more paper ones. In January 2020 we partnered with a new polybag manufacturer who offer a closed loop manufacturing process whereby they collect polybags (that we remove from our garments at DC before shipping to our stores) and recycle them in their own facility before using that recycled plastic in the production of new polybags. This means we have switched from 100% virgin LDPE to 30% recycled content in our poly bags (certified by Recycled Content Standard [RCS]), removing ~73 tonnes virgin plastic this year.

We will use a minimum of 70% recycled content in all remaining plastic packaging, by 2025, after our priority for elimination. Our main approach is our polybags, focussing on improving our closed loop process in order to increase availability of recycled content. By working with our partner, we've made positive steps to increase recycled content to 30% in 2020 & 70% from 2021, four years ahead of our target (to be reported in next year’s data). We'll support this improvement by increasing proportion of closed loop recycled content by collecting more polybags at our own DCs by introducing the removal of polybags from ecom orders at our DCs (by 2022). We'll also continue to encourage other brands to follow our lead, sharing information on collection & recycling by our polybag supplier, increasing the amount of good quality plastic available for collection & recycling. In part through our BRC membership, but we're keen to explore other opportunities too e.g. Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Where we are increasing our levels of recycled content, we are collaborating with partners to ensure no net cost increases often through innovations in light-weighting etc. Historically recycled plastics have been cheaper than virgin, although we are seeing a move to price parity recently.

Some of our data relates to primary product packaging which we obtain through work with our Producer Responsibility compliance partner. This data is therefore verified by them before submission to the relevant packaging compliance schemes globally. All other data is directly from supplier reports.

This year (Sep-20) we introduced a new FSC paper ecom bag replacing our old LDPE version. Our old ecom bags accounted for ~150 tonnes plastic each year, but this change has reduced our plastic use by ~50 tonnes this year & will decrease to 0 over the next 2 years whilst all our old ecom bags are phased out of stock. Our reduction in plastics used in our primary packaging has reduced use by ~30 tonnes. Due to Covid-19 we saw an increase in our use of rework polybags from increased recalls.

All our polybags are 'designed for recycling' with ease and at scale. We ensure this by partnering with a closed manufacturer who can easily recycle old bags into new ones. However we are aware that, depending on the end customer, some aren't currently practically recyclable at scale. Superdry collect & return all polybags from retail orders, & our wholesale partners can do the same. We have not included polybags used for ecom orders within our recyclable total to align with EMF GC definitions.