text
stringlengths 11
437
|
|---|
Our network of stations is currently in 22 states. |
At this time, we have 206 charging stations at 94 locations. |
Customers and associates can find stations through independent mobile apps for electric-vehicle drivers or on Kohls.com in the store locator section. |
Since 2014, the company has issued more than 150 million electronic credit card statements to Kohl’s charge card holders. |
We have seen a steady increase in customers opting in for electronic billing. |
To date, more than a quarter of our credit statements are delivered electronically. |
We will continue to push our customers to a more paperless and sustainable environment. |
For more detail on environment measurements, please refer to Key Metrics at the end of this report. |
We share our sustainability story with customers and associates in several ways. |
In 2017, we refreshed our overhead audio messages that play in stores and added information on plastic bag recycling and hanger recycling. |
We localized the message to play in the stores that have electric vehicle charging, solar panels, LEED® or ENERGY STAR certification. |
Overhead messages allow us to easily connect with customers while they shop. |
We also highlighted these localized store features in a prominent location on Kohls.com so customers can find them on the store map in our “Store Locator” tab. |
To share our mission of a more sustainable tomorrow with associates, we include environmental challenges in areas such as food sustainability and energy use every quarter. |
We do this on the company’s Design A Life You Love platform for overall well-being. |
To support our culture of appreciation for a job well done, “Caught Green-Handed” digital recognitions allow associates to specifically celebrate environmentally- conscious behavior. |
Associates applauded each other more than 1,700 times for taking part in a sustainable activity. |
In 2017, we published several stories on the company intranet that highlighted major recycling initiatives, specifically those with direct associate participation. |
With so much activity happening behind the scenes, we believe communication is an important part of engaging and educating our customers and associates so they can feel proud about being part of our sustainability success. |
We are committed to providing healthy and engaging environments for our customers, associates and communities through our more than 1,100 stores, facilities and corporate offices. |
As part of these efforts, we have invested in building and maintaining energy efficient, sustainable buildings. |
We use the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design™ (LEED®) green building program rating systems to guide the design, construction and operation of our stores. |
Our expansive LEED® portfolio with 433 locations across the country stands as a testament to the steps we have taken to reduce our environmental impact and provide customers with a positive and healthy shopping environment. |
There are three LEED® rating systems that Kohl’s leverages across our building portfolio: LEED® Building Design and Construction, LEED® Building Operations and Maintenance, and LEED® Interior Design and Construction. |
Kohl’s was also one of the first companies to complete the recertification process in the LEED® Volume Program. |
For new construction and existing buildings, we developed three LEED® Volume Program prototypes, which we use to influence future projects and streamline the process. |
We operate our stores using LEED® guidelines and policies. |
Currently, 36 percent of our buildings are LEED® Certified™. |
New Building Design and Construction Since 2008, newly constructed stores have been built according to the Building Design and Construction: Retail rating system. |
In 2012, Kohl’s began to use our LEED Gold® Building Design and Construction: Retail prototype as the basis for new store design and construction. |
As of 2017, we have 150 stores that are LEED® Certified™ under the LEED® Building Design and Construction: Retail guidelines. |
Design Taking into account climate, site location and usage patterns, we model all of our building plans to ensure that our designs achieve high levels of energy efficiency and meet ENERGY STAR specifications. |
Our facilities include features such as low lighting power density and reflective membrane roofs that help conserve energy. |
Operations In each Kohl’s store, we have installed an automation system to monitor heating, cooling and ventilation; low-flow fixtures to conserve in-store water; and efficient, programmed heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units to provide an increased supply of outside air to improve in-store air quality. |
Corporate Locations In addition to our stores, we work to bring sustainability to our corporate facilities. |
Currently, seven of our corporate facilities are LEED® certified. |
The Kohl’s Innovation Center (KIC) is LEED® Silver Certified™ under the LEED® for Commercial Interiors rating system. |
Five corporate locations have obtained LEED® Gold Certified™ status, including, but not limited to, our photo studio, design studio, and San Antonio, Texas call center. |
Our focus on sustainability over the last decade has increasingly shifted from building new stores to improving the operational efficiency and customer experience of our existing facilities. |
Maintaining efficient, environmentally-responsible buildings requires continual maintenance, monitoring and investment. |
Our facilities are managed and operated with LEED® guidelines as the blueprint to help ensure that we are implementing proven best practice approaches to building maintenance. |
Currently, 273 of our stores are certified under LEED® Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance. |
Recommissioning is a process Kohl’s uses to evaluate stores’ equipment and store functionality to ensure it is operating as designed. |
It is a tool we use to monitor existing locations that are underperforming – often those with a high-energy usage and low ENERGY STAR scores. |
Recommissioning gives us an opportunity to ensure that our energy-using equipment is in good operating condition and address any discrepancies through maintenance or replacement. |
The results include greater energy efficiency and lower costs over time. |
Replacing lights with LEDs has allowed us to reduce our emissions and save on both electricity and maintenance costs. |
To that end, we continued our sales floor lighting upgrade program in 2017, retrofitting 130 stores with LED lighting. |
By replacing fluorescent fixtures with LED fixtures, we anticipate that we will reduce our total consumption by more than 38 million kilowatt-hours. |
We also completed 82 HVAC replacements, installing newer, more efficient models in stores across the country. |
We plan to continue to maximize efficiency in 2018 and beyond by upgrading our facilities to LED lights and newer HVAC systems. |
Kohl’s maintains several key partnerships intended to further advance the efficiency of our stores, facilities and corporate offices. |
As a participant in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge, Kohl’s set a goal to reduce energy use by at least 20 percent across 112 million square feet of our occupied building space by 2020, against a 2008 baseline. |
We are working toward this goal through a combination of sustainable building and maintenance practices. |
At the end of 2016, we had achieved an 18 percent reduction in energy usage from a 2008 baseline. |
In recognition of our continued leadership in energy efficiency, Kohl’s was again awarded an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award in 2017. |
We have been working with the EPA ENERGY STAR program since 1998. |
ENERGY STAR provides Kohl’s with tools and technical information to help save money and protect the climate through improved energy efficiency. |
Our participation in this program helps us assess the performance of our buildings and set goals to improve energy efficiency. |
Using the ENERGY STAR scoring system, buildings are rated on a scale of one to 100. |
A score of 75 or higher achieves ENERGY STAR certification, indicating that the building is among the top 25 percent of retail stores in the country for energy efficiency. |
Eighty-eight percent of our stores are ENERGY STAR certified, including 14 stores certified in 2017. |
We invest in appliances, equipment and processes to help conserve this precious resource. |
Our stores feature efficient low-flow faucets and new stores have low-flow toilets. |
Together, these measures are helping to reduce indoor water usage by 20-30 percent, compared to the baseline, which was based on the requirements of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and 2005. |
We are working to install smart irrigation controllers that use live weather data to inform irrigation schedules and reduce outdoor water usage. |
We are also exploring strategies to utilize native vegetation and drought-resistant plants to significantly reduce or even eliminate the need for irrigation altogether. |
In our work to drive efficiency among our domestic and international carriers, Kohl’s maintains two key external partnerships. |
Domestic Carriers In 2017, Kohl’s was honored with the EPA’s SmartWay Excellence Award. |
We are a member of the EPA SmartWay transport program, a public-private initiative working to improve fuel efficiency and reduce transportation related emissions. |
In 2017, it was reported that 100 percent of miles our merchandise traveled domestically in 2016 were with SmartWay members. |
Kohl’s uses SmartWay tools to measure our domestic road transportation emissions footprint, and we report our transportation data annually to the EPA. |
Through careful planning and collaboration, we contributed to the elimination of 2.3 million miles of inefficient truck travel in 2017. |
Delivering cargo, trucks are often underutilized or even empty during return trips. |
Backhauling truck loads with cargo for their return trip ensures no miles traveled are wasted. |
The benefits to backhaul include reduced fuel costs, road miles, emissions, and congestion due to fewer empty trucks on the roads. |
Additionally, Kohl’s continues to support shipment by rail. |
This is a more economical way to move our products between our distribution centers and stores than shipping by road, and emits 75 percent less carbon emissions. |
In 2017, Kohl’s rail shipments accounted for more than 77 percent of the total miles traveled by our carriers. |
International Carriers Kohl’s engages its ocean carriers through its membership in the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Clean Cargo Working Group. |
This group’s membership includes more than 85 percent of the world’s ocean carriers, including nine of 10 Kohl’s ocean carriers. |
Ninety-seven percent of carriers transporting Kohl’s merchandise travels on a BSR cargo ship. |
BSR makes up-to-date ocean emission data available, enabling group members to further understand our overall supply chain footprint. |
For more detail on environment measurements, please refer to Key Metrics at the end of this report. |
We hold ourselves to high ethical standards to create a positive social impact, and expect the same from our business partners. |
We have a clear code of conduct that we honor ourselves and Terms of Engagement that we require of our merchandising vendor partners. |
We maintain fair business practices, and put ethics and safety at the forefront of our business decisions. |
RESPONSIBLE SOURCING At Kohl’s, social impact extends to our relationships with our suppliers and merchandising vendor partners. |
This is embedded in our social compliance process and reinforced by our policies, programs and partnerships. |
We expect our vendor partners to live up to their commitments, including the fair and ethical treatment of workers engaged in the manufacturing of merchandise procured for Kohl’s. |
The collaborative efforts of several, separate departments help to ensure that our proprietary brand products are responsibly sourced. |
Our product development, merchant and global trade compliance departments each play a role. |
The product development and merchant departments identify product categories for proprietary brands, develop individual product styles and negotiate the purchase transaction with suppliers. |
The global trade compliance department works with agents, vendor partners and factories to monitor factory working conditions to help ensure the fair and ethical treatment of workers in a safe and healthy work environment. |
OUR POLICY Our Terms of Engagement (“our Policy”) spell out expectations to our vendor partners regarding wages and benefits, working hours, prohibiting the use of child or forced labor (which includes, without limitation, prison and slave labor, or human trafficking for those purposes), discrimination, disciplinary practices, women’s rights, legally-protected rights of workers to free association, health and safety issues, and more. |
Our Policy conveys our requirement and expectation of social compliance to our vendor partners in order to minimize human rights risks from operations throughout our supply chain. |
Our policy is posted at Corporate.Kohls.com. |
We communicate our zero tolerance regarding egregious policy violations to vendor partners during vendor meetings and through business correspondence to ensure awareness and understanding of these critical issues in order to reduce human rights risks in our supply chain. |
Verification • Working with our vendor partners to raise awareness of the issue of human trafficking. |
each facility used to produce merchandise sold to Kohl’s will operate in compliance with our Policy and all applicable laws, including but not limited to, laws regarding slavery and human trafficking in the countries in which they do business. |