Kmart Group - Sustainable products
Kmart Group is committed to making more sustainable products. This includes designing quality products made from responsibly sourced sustainable materials, which are packaged responsibly and can be reused or recycled at the end of their life.
Sustainable materials
During the year, Kmart and Target continued the implementation of their sustainable material commitments, working towards the responsible sourcing of key materials, including cotton, polyester, cellulose and timber.
Target reached a significant milestone meeting its 100 per cent sustainably sourced cotton commitment. This means that all of the cotton sourced for Target own-brand clothing, bedding and towels is now ordered as Better Cotton, organic or recycled.
Kmart and Target partnered with environmental not-for-profit organisation, Canopy, to progress the elimination of deforestation from their cellulose (viscose, modal and lyocell) supply chains. This includes mapping the supply chains to get a better understanding of where forest fibres are coming from and, where required, working with suppliers to transition to sourcing from fibre producers that have been audited and assessed as taking substantive action to eliminate known risk of sourcing from ancient and endangered forests.
Circular economy
Kmart and Target continue to extend their use of recycled materials across a wide range of product categories, including activewear, outerwear, denim, swimwear, knitwear, footwear and bedding. Kmart Group also continued its participation in the Circular Fashion Partnership, a cross-sector project led by the Global Fashion Agenda, in partnership with Reverse Resources, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and P4G, to develop long-term scalable solutions for capturing and reusing post-production textile waste. As of June 2022, Kmart and Target have 17 factories participating in the project and segregating waste, with the next step to find ways to re-direct the textile waste back into Kmart and Target products.
Product quality and durability continues to be a key focus for the brands, with quality playing an integral part of Target’s product strategy and positioning to deliver affordable quality to more Australian families. In February 2022, Target launched its ‘Life Tested’ marketing brand campaign, featuring a series of relatable stories from Australian families putting Target products to the test.
Packaging
Recognising the importance of accurate and consistent data to business decisions, government reporting and securing permission to use the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) on product packaging, a significant program of work has been underway to develop, pilot and implement new packaging data collection protocols and tools with suppliers. The appointment of a new data integrity officer in Shanghai is supporting the work of the Kmart Group Sustainable Packaging Manager to engage with internal and external stakeholders in the delivery of Kmart Group’s Sustainable Packaging Principles and Standards. Furthermore, cross-functional working groups continue to provide input and direction to Kmart Group’s sustainable packaging journey.
With improved data collection systems being developed internally and in consultation with the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, approximately 6,000 Packaging Recyclability Evaluation Portal assessments were completed to add to the approximately 2,000 customer facing ARL approved products.
