Kathmandu Holdings Limited Sustainability Report 2020

Sustainability
Report 2020
KATHMANDU HOLDINGS LIMITED

KATHMANDU HOLDINGS LIMITED
With the joining of our three brands,
Kathmandu, Rip Curl and Oboz,
we're excited to launch our first
combined sustainability report this
year. And what a year it has been!
As our family of brands grows, we
have new opportunities and new
challenges. We can leverage each of
our strengths to work together for
an even greater impact.
The challenge in the coming years
will be to expand our B Corp
certification and Fair Labor
Organisation accreditation across
the group.
Despite the impacts of Covid-19, all
three brands have made significant
strides in sustainability this year.
Kathmandu celebrated 100%
responsible cotton across its range.
Oboz launched its first range with
sustainable materials, and Rip Curl
celebrated it's 20th year anniversary
of Rip Curl planet day.
People continue to be a huge focus
for our organisation as we extend
our efforts to improve the lives of
workers in our supply chain and look
for new ways to support our teams.
Covid-19 threw many challenges to
our brands, but each of them have
found ways to learn from these
challenges and make the most of
the opportunity to rethink the way
we operate.
XAVIER SIMONET
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DAVID KIRK
CHAIRMAN
Chairman and
CEO report.
Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown,
New Zealand
32INTRODUCTION

HIGHLIGHTS
Kathmandu
Holdings 2020
sustainability
highlights.
BOTTLES WORTH OF FRESH WATER
SAVED BY MOVING TO
SOLUTION-DYED FABRICS
(2017—2020)
PLASTIC BOTTLES
RECYCLED THROUGH
OUR REPREVE PRODUCT
RANGES (2015—2020)
OBTAINED THE
RAINBOW TICK
CERTIFICATION IN
NEW ZEALAND FOR
EMBRACING DIVERSITY
AND INCLUSION
30
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100%
30%
OF RIP CURL
PL ANE T DAY
MILLION
ANNIVERSARY
FSC
CERTIFIED
COTTON
41%
FEMALE
REPRESENTATION
SUSTAINABLE
TREES PLANTED SINCE
THE COMPANY STARTED
IMPROVED GENDER DIVERSITY
IN OUR TEAM WITH NOW
LAUNCHED THE SYPES AND
BOZEMAN COLLECTIONS
CONTAINING RECYCLED
MATERIALS AND ALGAE
BLOOM INSOLES
RECYCLED PLASTIC
IN OUR POLYBAGS
COLLABORATED WITH
KATHMANDU ON
DEVELOPING OUR
SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY
SCORED A B+ IN THE
ETHICAL FASHION
REPORT TWO YEARS
RUNNING
RECYCLED PAPER
SWING TAGS ON
PRODUCTS
B+
20YEAR
TH
IN OUR RANGE
M
40
45

Contents.
64Our journey
True to the trail comes alive with our brand
compass.
72Our suppliers
A narrow supply chain leads to deep
relationships.
76Our products
Bozeman range begins sustainability
exploration.
80Our footprint
Doing the right thing becomes more
tangible.
84Our community
Partnerships led by our brand compass.
90Our team
Big strides in diversity and culture.
96Our journey
We’re excited to move into a new era of
sustainability.
102Our suppliers
A philosophy of relationships underpins our
supply chain work.
106Our products
Sustainable collection and recycled
swimwear.
110Our footprint
Plastic polybags get greener and a shift to
responsible swing tags.
116Our community
We surf, we care and we’re supporting groms
across the globe.
122Our crew
Growing leaders and managers as an equal
opportunity employer.
10Ta matou rerenga
– our journey
Beyond B Corp and progress on our
five-year plan.
18Nga kaiwhakarato
– our suppliers
Our first report under the Modern Slavery Act is
a chance to share our vision.
24Nga hua
– our products
100% sustainable cotton and a move to more
New Zealand made products.
36Ta matou tapuwae
– our footprint
First solar-powered store opens on our road to
carbon zero.
46Ta matou hapori
– our community
Using our networks to increase connection to
the outdoors.
54Ta matou ranga
– our team
Values shine in challenging times.
67

Summit Club member Brando
hiking the Paparoa track.
89

Our journey.
Ta matou rerenga.
OUR JOURNEY
Summit Club members Ronja and
Daniel exploring in Queenstown.
1011

BEST FOR PEOPLE
BEST FOR THE PLANET
BEST IN PRACTICE
* Direct education provided to children
and adults via AHF and NZHT
Kathmandu CEO Reuben Casey
looks at what’s beyond B Corp and
how we’re tracking one year into our
five-year plan.
Last year, we announced our five-year
plan, Best for the World, which has
three pillars: people, planet and
practice.
We obtained our B Corp certification,
and now we’re going further – working
to become a leading global B Corp.
To achieve this, we need to start at
the top. This year, we’ll be embedding
sustainability into our governance
by introducing sustainability key
performance indicators for senior
leadership.
BEST IN PRACTICE
Being a B Corp comes with a lot of
responsibility, and if we don’t have
that responsibility embedded right at
the top, it can be easy to overlook.
Embedding sustainability into senior
leadership helps formalise our B Corp
commitment and also sends a strong
statement to our team and our
customers that we are committed.
BEST IN PRACTICE 2025 GOALS
• Become a leading Global B Corp.
• Integrate circular economy
principles within our business.
BEST FOR PEOPLE
We released our social impact
statement intending to positively
change the lives of 100,000 people by
2025, and this is the area of our plan
that excites me the most.
Every time we talk to our community,
customers and shareholders, human
rights is their number one priority.
This drives us to focus on the people in
our supply chain rather than on
ticking boxes. I think it’s important for
all of us as consumers to remember
that real people are making our
products, and the decisions we make
have a real impact on their lives.
I’m proud of the work we’ve done to
improve the lives of our employees
too such as achieving the Rainbow
Tick, which is especially important for
making sure the 16% of our staff who
identify as LGBTQIA+ feel safe and
supported at work. As part of our
response to Covid-19 we’ve introduced
more flexible working policies this year,
and we are looking for ways to
support more women into future
senior leadership roles.
BEST FOR PEOPLE 2025 GOALS
• Empower our community to
change 100,000 lives.
• All our team members embody our
purpose and values.
• All direct suppliers across our
business meet our minimum
expectations on their social
and environmental impacts.
BEST FOR THE PLANET
Our biggest challenges will be
introducing the concepts of circularity
to our business. It’s a big challenge for
our industry as a whole, but we’ll have
to make progress there to achieve our
goal of integrating circularity into our
business by 2025.
We’re proud to have our first solar-
powered store in Melbourne this year
and hope to expand this initiative.
We also achieved 100% sustainable
cotton in our range and introduced
the Moana range of backpacks made
with recycled ocean plastics.
January’s bushfires in Australia had a
huge impact on our biggest market,
and we felt compelled to respond.
With the help of our customers, we
managed to raise $110,000 for the
bushfire recovery.
Our journey.Best for the world
2025
BEST FOR THE PLANET 2025 GOALS
• Net zero environmental harm from
our business operations.
• 100% of products designed,
developed and manufactured
using elements of circularity
principles.
LOOKING BACK
We can’t talk about this year without
mentioning Covid-19, which saw
stores across Australia and New
Zealand shut in March. We worked
with our suppliers to minimise the
impact on them, and we are pleased
that they’ve reported fewer than 5%
of layoffs. We see our suppliers as
partners, and some have been
partners for a very long time.
Covid-19 has reduced our resources
significantly, but we’ve managed to
protect our commitment to
sustainability. Having less money to
spend means we’ve got to have more
focus on what matters. We’re aiming
for a ‘less but better’ approach that
allows us to focus on what makes the
biggest impact.
REUBEN CASEY
CEO
LOOKING AT SUSTAINABILITY
KPIS FOR SENIOR LEADERSHIP
COLLABORATING WITH RIP CURL
ON THEIR B CORP JOURNEY
ACHIEVED
RAINBOW TICK
OUR PROGRESS THIS YEAR TOWARDS ACHIEVING
OUR 2025 SUSTAINABILITY GOALS.
FIRST RANGE USING
OCEAN PLASTICS
COVID-19 SUPPLIER
COMMITMENT
FIRST
SOLAR-POWERED STORE
INTRODUCED MORE
FLEXIBLE WORKING POLICIES
PROVIDED EDUCATION
TO 18,969 PEOPLE
*
100%
SUSTAINABLE COTTON
OUR JOURNEY1312

B CORP
Certified B Corporations
®

(B Corps™) are for-profit
companies that use the
power of business to build a
more inclusive and
sustainable economy.
OUTDOOR INDUSTRY
ASSOCIATION
We participated in OIA’s
Sustainability Working Group,
a collaborative platform of more
than 300 outdoor brands and
suppliers working together to
identify and implement better
business practices.
SUSTAINABLE APPAREL
COALITION
Membership of the SAC gives
us access to the Higg Index
modules. We’ve been using the
index since 2014, which
supports our sustainability
strategy. The index guides us
on the environmental and
social impacts of our products
and how we can improve.
BLUESIGN
®

Our bluesign
®
system
partnership supports our
chemicals management
programme, materials and
products so that they are
environmentally and
socially friendly.
FAIR LABOR ASSOCIATION
We became the first brand in
the southern hemisphere to
achieve FLA accreditation.
This verifies that our social
compliance programme in our
supply chain exceeds the most
stringent global standards.
Our partners.
CARBON DISCLOSURE
PROJECT
We submit an annual report
to the CDP, which supports
our carbon measurement
and reduction programme.
RAINBOW TICK
We achieved our Rainbow Tick
certification this year, which
demonstrates our commitment
to diversity and inclusion in the
workplace and creating a
supportive work environment for
our team members.
LEATHER WORKING GROUP
Our work with the LWG helps
us to assess the environmental
compliance and performance
capabilities of our tanneries
and to promote sustainable
and appropriate
environmental business
practices within the leather
industry.
CANOPY
We have been partners
with Canopy since 2016.
We work with them to use
our influence in our fabric
supply chain to protect the
world’s remaining ancient
and endangered forests
and endangered species
habitat.
ELEVATE
ELEVATE is our chosen supply
chain partner and an industry
leader in sustainability,
auditing and improvement
services.
TEXTILE EXCHANGE
Our membership with the
Textile Exchange supports
our materials strategy, and
we also participate in their
Preferred Fiber &
Benchmarking Programme.
AUSTRALIAN HIMALAYAN
FOUNDATION
We have been partners with
the AHF since 2011. We work
with the AHF to support
communities in Nepal, the
nation that inspired our brand.
HIMALAYAN TRUST
NEW ZEALAND
We have partnered with the
Himalayan Trust to further
improve outcomes in
education in remote rural
Nepal.
AUSTRALIAN PACKAGING
COVENANT ORGANISATION
We submit an annual report
and action plan to APCO,
which supports our
packaging and waste
strategy.














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MEMBER
TOITU ENVIROCARE
Our membership with
Toitu Envirocare helps us
to measure, manage and
reduce our carbon footprint
through our annual
carbonreduce certification.
OUR JOURNEY1415

Our world.
New Zealand
Samoa
Ireland
Germany
Poland
Netherlands
Belgium
Greenland
Norway
Greece
Austria
Ukraine
Peru
Macedonia
Turkey
South Korea
Iraq
Lebanon
Israel
Malta
Italy
Spain
Portugal
France
England
India
Malaysia
Chile
Venezuela
Ecuador
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Mexico
Honduras
Costa Rica
Fiji
Tonga
Nepal
Cambodia
Afghanistan
Bhutan
Argentina
Canada
China
Russia
Japan
Taiwan
Philippines
Vietnam
Thailand
Indonesia
Timor-Leste
South Africa
Tanzania
Sri Lanka
Australia
KEY
FACTORIES
COMMUNITY
SPONSORSHIPS
53 NATIONALITIES
ACROSS OUR TEAM
MATERIALS SOURCING
OPERATIONS
99 TOTAL
China (76), Vietnam (12),
Indonesia (3), New Zealand (3),
Nepal (1), Italy (1), Spain (1),
Taiwan (1), Israel (1)
24 adventure sponsorship
winners travelled to

Philippines, Nepal, India, Bhutan,
Greenland, Australia (Coffs
Harbour and Tasmania), Peru,
New Zealand, Norway, England,
Tanzania


698 adventure sponsorship
recipients
Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil,
Canada, Cambodia, Chile, China,
Ecuador, England, Fiji, France,
Germany, Greece, Honduras, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia,
Malta, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Philippines, Poland,
Portugal, Russia, Samoa, Scotland,
South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste,
Tonga, Turkey, Ukraine,

United States, Venezuela, Vietnam,
Wales, Zimbabwe
New Zealand
49 stores
1 distribution centre
1 headquarters – Christchurch
Australia
116 stores
1 distribution centre
1 headquarters – Melbourne
China, Taiwan, Australia,
New Zealand, South
Africa, Germany, India,
South Korea, USA, Japan,
Costa Rica, Brazil
USA
Scotland
Wales
Bangladesh
Brazil
OUR JOURNEY1617

Nga kaiwhakarato.
Our suppliers.
OUR SUPPLIERS
Thi Thanh Huyen, a worker at TGI
factory outside of Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam.
1819

“Our Modern
Slavery Act
statement
reflects our wider
approach to
sustainability,
but it’s much
more than that.”
Our first report
under the Modern
Slavery Act.
WE COMMIT TO SUPPORT
WORKERS’ WAGES BY HONOURING
SUPPLIER COMMITMENTS.
WE COMMIT TO IDENTIFY AND
SUPPORT THOSE WORKERS AT
GREATEST RISK.
WE COMMIT TO LISTEN TO
THE VOICES AND EXPERIENCE
OF WORKERS.
WE COMMIT TO ENSURING
WORKERS’ RIGHTS AND SAFETY
ARE RESPECTED.
WE COMMIT TO COLLABORATE
WITH OTHERS TO PROTECT
VULNERABLE WORKERS.
WE COMMIT TO BUILD BACK
BETTER FOR WORKERS AND
THE WORLD.
Covid-19 ethical
fashion commitments
Nguyen Hoang Huy, a worker at
TGI factory is provided protective
gear for his safety.
GARY SHAW
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSE-ABILITY MANAGER
1. International Labour Organization and Walk Free Foundation (2017).
Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage.
2. Nolan & Boersma (2019). Addressing Modern Slavery.
The Australian Modern Slavery Act
came into force in 2018, requiring all
companies operating in Australia to
report annually from this year on the
risks of modern slavery in their supply
chains and how they will address
those risks.
We prepared our first report this year,
outlining our unique approach to
human rights in the supply chain.
The International Labor Organization
has reported that 89 million people
1

experienced some form of modern
slavery in the last five years, and the
impact of Covid-19 is expected to
increase these numbers.
As a certified B Corp, our supply chain
approach is framed by a benefit
mindset. This requires a new business
model that puts equal weight on
profit and people. As authors Justine
Nolan and Martijn Boersma write in
Addressing Modern Slavery
2
, modern
supply chain management tends to
be more “aimed at treating the
symptoms than tackling the
underlying causes: the very nature of
our business model”.
The Kathmandu approach goes
beyond compliance to working
alongside our suppliers to put people
at the heart of our work. “Over the
last five years, we have been shifting
our suppliers to those who share our
values of transparency and
collaboration and are willing to work
together on sustainable
improvement,” says Corporate Social
Response-ability Manager Gary Shaw.
Audits are the main mechanism used
to monitor compliance in the supply
chain, and they can be useful in
flagging issues. However, they have
generally failed to make a difference
to the lives of workers. We have
therefore moved away from a pure
compliance model to one that
recognises each supplier’s strengths
and challenges.
We have given workers a voice with
innovative social media
communication channels and
anonymous confidential worker
surveys that workers can complete
using their mobile phones.
Kathmandu partners with ELEVATE to
manage our audits and worker
surveys and facilitate the necessary
improvement projects in our factories.
“Our Modern Slavery Act statement
reflects our wider approach to
sustainability, but it’s much
more than that,” Gary says.
“For me, it is an exciting invitation to
challenge the existing predominant
business model, which relies on
growth for growth’s sake. It is this
model that is destroying our planet
and is ultimately a very uninspiring
and short-sighted way of doing
business. What we are proposing is a
new lens through which to see
business. If Kathmandu can go all the
way with this idea, I think we’ll be one
of the most exciting companies on
the globe.”
RIP CURL AND OBOZ ALIGN WITH
KATHMANDU ON CSR
The Kathmandu team has been
developing our supply chain
management for many years now and
is recognised by our Fair Labor
Association accreditation and B Corp
status as a leader in this area. We are
excited to report that both Oboz and
Rip Curl have decided to embrace and
participate in our approach to
corporate social responsibility (CSR)
and supply chain improvements.
They will work to align with our
standards, methodology and mindset
– moving away from a compliance-
based model to one that relies on
partnership and trust.
Both brands will also work with
ELEVATE as their supply chain partner.
“We all have the same goal when it
comes to our respective supply chains,
which is protecting and enhancing the
wellbeing of workers. This also leads to
a more efficient and profitable
business. It is great that we can
leverage the combined weight of the
three brands under the Kathmandu
umbrella to facilitate this,” says Gary.
WORKER WELLBEING IN THE FACE
OF COVID-19
When large companies around the
world began cancelling orders due to
Covid-19, it had a devastating effect
on the garment industry. Millions of
workers have been laid off and now
face desperate circumstances as their
only means of income has ended.
There are more beneficial and ethical
ways to respond to the crisis, and this
is what Baptist World Aid (BWA),
Tearfund and the International Labor
Organization (ILO) are asking of
companies with a new call to action.
The decision was made to cancel the
annual Ethical Fashion Report for
2020, and instead BWA and Tearfund
asked companies that normally
participate to outline how they are
responding to Covid-19, given the
impact on workers in their supply
chains.
Gary says this was an opportunity for
Kathmandu to reinforce the
company’s mindset, approach,
and values.
“Many countries have no safety net
for workers who lose their jobs.
When COVID 19 hit, we called our
suppliers and while we did have to
delay some orders, we did not cancel
any. This helped our suppliers to plan
for the future while keeping workers
meaningfully employed.”
In April, we sent a survey to all of our
suppliers to understand more about
how they have been affected.
"80% of our suppliers replied to the
survey and the results showed that
fewer than 5% had to lay anyone off
which was very encouraging."
OUR SUPPLIERS2120

COLLABORATING WITH OTHER
BRANDS
Our regular audit schedule was
disrupted by Covid-19. Regular travel
was disrupted and in most cases
restricted. Physical audits would put
both workers and auditors at risk.
We therefore decided to collaborate
more closely with other brands and to
share audits more openly. We also
worked with our supply chain partner
ELEVATE to create and use a remote
assessment process that allows
factories that are due for an audit to
submit the relevant documents and
photographs digitally for review.
Corporate Social Response-Ability
Manager Gary Shaw says the remote
audits are not as robust as an in-
person audit. “But it’s better than
stopping audits completely. It shows
our ongoing commitment to working
with suppliers to both respect the
impact of Covid-19 on their business
while continuing to safeguard and
improve the lives of workers.”
TRAINING THE TRAINERS
This year, we partnered with a non-
governmental organisation to run
modern slavery prevention training in
a Vietnamese factory. When we first
approached the supplier about this
opportunity, there was little interest
as they did not think Vietnam had a
problem with modern slavery.
Tragically, on 23 October 2019, the
bodies of 39 Vietnamese nationals
(29 men, two boys and eight women)
were found in the trailer of an
articulated refrigerator truck in the
United Kingdom. They are believed to
have been victims of modern slavery.
The supplier then contacted
Kathmandu and agreed to partner
with us in this trial.
Using a ‘train the trainer’ model, we
paid a local Vietnamese NGO to
educate trainers about modern
slavery prevention and the
circumstances that can lead to people
being more susceptible to slavery.
It also covered child abuse, sexual
99
FACTORIES KATHMANDU
PARTNERS WITH
39
SUPPLIERS KATHMANDU
PARTNERS WITH
NEW SUPPLIERS SCREENED
USING SOCIAL CRITERIA
100
%
12
*
62
TOTAL AUDITS
CORRECTIVE
ACTION PLANS
10
EXITS
680
HOURS TRAINING STAFF
exploitation and how to keep
families and children safe from
online predators.
“The supplier came back and said the
training was empowering – a huge
success,” says Gary. “It was certainly
a very cost-effective way for us to
make a powerful, immediate and
meaningful difference.”
The next step is to look at expanding
this programme to other suppliers.
We were invited to meet with the
Vietnamese Government to discuss
this and other CSR initiatives.
“Unfortunately, the meeting was
cancelled because of Covid-19, but we
are hoping this will develop into a very
cool example of corporate, NGO and
government collaboration,” Gary says.
OUR SUPPLIERS
2020
Nguyen Tan An, a worker at TGI
factory outside of Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam.
* Due to COVID 19, we approved a lot more copy audits than normal as it was prudent to do so (35).
Kathmandu completed 12 of our own audits, a smaller number than normal because of this.
OUR SUPPLIERS2223

Our product team sewing samples in
our Christchurch office workshop,
that will later be used to create our
NZ Made Aotearoa T-Shirts.
Nga hua.
Our products.
OUR PRODUCTS2425

Summit Club members Jared and
Hayley wearing our sustainable
cotton T-Shirts in Cuba.
Our sustainable
cotton journey
100
%
2020
99
%
2019
78
%
2018
74
%
2017
59
%
2016
38
%
2015
Why 100% sustainable
cotton is not the end
of the story.
We set a target to have 100%
sustainable cotton in our range by
2020, and we are proud to have hit
that goal this year with the release of
our Summer 2020 range.
This was an important goal because
cotton production uses a large
amount of water and around 25% of
the world’s pesticides.
To reach our 100% sustainable cotton
milestone, we used a mix of organic,
recycled and Better Cotton Initiative
(BCI) cotton.
Organic cotton is grown with no
pesticides or chemical fertilisers.
This is great, but the difficulty in
shifting from traditional to organic
cotton meant the transition was slow
and the numbers small. Enter BCI –
now the largest sustainable cotton
programme in the world – creating
long-term change by helping farmers
grow cotton in a way that reduces
stress on the environment and
improves the welfare of farming
communities.
BCI has trained 1.6 million cotton
farmers in 21 countries on five
continents.
For pure sustainability, nothing beats
recycled cotton, which uses factory
waste to create a new yarn with no
dyeing.
“Recycled cotton – like all recycled
materials – fits better into our aims to
move towards a circular economy
where we can work towards closing
the loop,” says Kathmandu Head of
Product Innovation and Product
Sustainability Manu Rastogi.
So now that we’ve reached 100%, is it
time to pat ourselves on the back and
relax? Definitely not, says Manu.
“Reaching 100% sustainable cotton
only means we are 100% ‘less bad’.
Now we need to shift from reducing
our impact to doing good. The next
challenge is to think about what is
beyond sustainability and look at
regenerative agriculture,” Manu says.
There are some exciting trials in place
for regenerative cotton as well as
other textiles such as leather and
wool.
“We want to move from not just
taking resources to giving back
resources. That’s what we’ll be
exploring next.”
“We want to move
from not just
taking resources
to giving back
resources. That’s
what we’ll be
exploring next.”
MANU RASTOGI
HEAD OF PRODUCT INNOVATION
AND PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY
OUR PRODUCTS2726

Chloe and Jonathan collecting
beach waste in our new Moana
pack, made from ocean plastics.
Recycled polyester
range grows.
We have recycled 30,423,221 plastic
bottles since we started counting in
2015. Although the total bottle count
dropped this year because of Covid-19,
our range of recycled polyester
continues to grow.
The bottle count number comes from
the growing number of products that
use REPREVE recycled polyester. Manu
Rastogi says there are many other
recycled polyester products in the
range, but the bottle count is limited
to REPREVE products.
“Only REPREVE is able to accurately
tell us how many plastic bottles go
into each of our products, so this is
the only product we are comfortable
reporting on. If we could get an
accurate count on other recycled
polyesters, we estimate it could
double our recycled bottle count.”
This year, we expanded our Heli
recycled insulation range to include 10
styles. The Heli range uses a synthetic
ecodown made from recycled post-
consumer PET bottles, which are
broken down into resin and reinvented
as polyester fibres that mimic down
by trapping warmth in air pockets.
This year, we also introduced the
Moana day pack range, which is a
blend of BCI cotton and recycled
polyester made from marine and
ocean plastic. The recycled yarn
makers, Bionic Yarn, work with Robert
F Kennedy Jr’s Waterkeeper Alliance
to collect and recycle plastics on
Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula.
The programme is a pilot for
launching into other regions where
there is currently no recycling
infrastructure.
Our plastic bottle
recycling journey
* Against a target of 10 million for FY20.
Lower 2020 bottle counts due to Covid-19
reduction in sales.
30
MILLION
AND COUNTING
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
0.84
1.2
3.9
6.7
9. 3
8.2
MILLION
MILLION
MILLION
MILLION
MILLION
MILLION*
OUR PRODUCTS2928

Summit Club member Sian
in Lyttelton wearing our Solus
pack which is made from
solution-dyed fabrics.
Manu Rastogi Head of product
innovation and product sustainability
Saving water to
save lives.
8.7
MILLION*
2020
11.5
8.5
MILLION
MILLION
12.1
MILLION
2018
2019
2017
Bottles worth of
fresh water saved
*
40
MILLION
AND COUNTING
* This year’s lower total reflects decreased orders due to Covid-19.
* This is based on 500ml bottles.
Water savings
“It is something
we can’t afford to
take for granted
any more.”
The United Nations says, “By saving
water, we save lives.” It’s something
we can’t afford to take for granted
any more.
Water wastage and pollution have
disastrous consequences for the
environment and, in turn, for people.
With 700 million people worldwide at
risk of being displaced by intense
water scarcity by 2030, the United
Nations is calling for a “fundamental
shift” in the way water is managed.
As Kathmandu moves to align with
the UN Sustainable Development
Goals, we are determined to
contribute to Goal 6 — access to
water and sanitation for all. By using
more recycled cotton and solution-
dyed polyesters, we have been able to
keep moving the needle on how much
water is used in our products.
We’ve saved 40 million bottles of
water already.
MANU RASTOGI
HEAD OF PRODUCT INNOVATION
AND PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY
OUR PRODUCTS3130

OUR PRODUCTS
Wool sourced from merino sheep on
a Mackenzie Country station in the
South Island of New Zealand.
New Zealand-made
products hit home.
When we started down the path of
creating a New Zealand-made range,
we had no idea that a global
pandemic would arrive to illustrate
just how important it is to keep
manufacturing industries alive at
home.
The aim was to support local
manufacturing and local jobs so that,
if the global supply chain is disrupted,
we have not got all our production
offshore. Achieving this turned out to
be more difficult than we anticipated
with our New Zealand merino range.
Although there are plenty of merino
farms in New Zealand, including right
in our backyard here in Canterbury,
there is no processing capability left
in the country. Eventually, we found
an Australian processor who could
process our New Zealand merino clip
into fabric before sending it back to
us in Christchurch.
Here we worked with local
manufacturer Albion Clothing to
create our range of New Zealand-
made t-shirts. Another challenge was
finding a local supply for trims and
packaging.
“It was a good trial programme where
we were able to gain a lot of
understanding and learning,” says
Manu Rastogi. “Covid-19 has really
driven home how much we rely on
other countries to produce our
products. In the future, we would like
to expand this programme and use it
as a place where we can experiment
and innovate. We’d like to inspire
other New Zealand companies to do
the same. By working together, we
can make even more impact.”
LISTED IN PREFERRED
MMCF "100% UPTAKE"
100
%
#
7
IN RESPONSIBLE WOOL STANDARD
“TOP 10 BY VOLUME”
#
7
#
8
IN RESPONSIBLE DOWN
STANDARD “TOP 10 BY VOLUME”
IN RECYCLED POLYESTER
“TOP 10 BY VOLUME”
LISTED IN MCI DOWN INDEX LEVEL 4
— LEADING PERFORMANCE BAND
LISTED IN MCI COTTON INDEX LEVEL 4
— LEADING PERFORMANCE BAND
LISTED IN MCI STRATEGY LEVEL 4
— LEADING PERFORMANCE BAND
GLOBAL SCOREBOARD
Results from the 2019 Textile Exchange's Corporate
Fiber and Materials Benchmark Program.
3233

CARE AND REPAIRSAFETY
Sean and Michelle wearing our
merino face masks in Melbourne.
0.34
%
2016
0.31
%
2017
0.26
%
2018
0.20
%
2019
0.15
%
2020
Quality return rates
Our product return rates for
quality failures are very low, but
we still strive to reduce this year
on year.
Covid offers a
chance to reset.
As stores shut, Covid-19 lockdowns
threatened to halt the textile
industry’s sustainability
transformations. But Manu Rastogi
has taken the pause as an
opportunity to reset and look for ways
to do more with less.
“Our aim is to do less but do better
and take the time to refocus on where
we can have the most impact,” Manu
says. “What Covid has highlighted for
us is that these are collaborative
pursuits. To get out of a global
pandemic, everyone has to contribute,
and the same goes for the challenges
facing the textile industry. People are
now realising that collaboration is
really important.”
With industry conferences and trade
shows going digital and online, more
people than ever are able to
participate, Manu says.
As Kathmandu looks for ways to do
more with less, we will be putting
ideas like circularity and carbon
neutrality on the table.
“It’s time to look at what it would
mean if one of our core lines became
carbon neutral. We are starting slowly
but with a bigger vision and looking
at how we can bring our business
more in line with the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals,”
Manu says.
“Our aim is to do
less but do better
and take the
time to refocus
on where we can
have the most
imp ac t.”
MANU RASTOGI
HEAD OF PRODUCT INNOVATION
AND PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY
Only one of the
reported incidents
were a result of non
compliance with
voluntary codes.
3,377
REPAIRS
REPORTED INCIDENT
1
OUR PRODUCTS3435

Ta matou tapuwae.
Our footprint.
OUR FOOTPRINT
Chloe and Jonathan keeping dry
while hiking in Japan.
3637

The road to
carbon zero.
OUR FOOTPRINT
On reflection, we realised our target
would be better focused on our
intensity, as this has been where our
operational improvements have come
from and still allows Kathmandu to
grow as a business. Our revised target
is a 20% reduction on our Scope 2
emissions per store by this year based
on 2012 numbers. We safely achieved
this. However, the tangible
improvements our business will start to
achieve will come when we set science-
based targets. We hope to complete
this process this coming year and can
set a more aggressive reduction target
in line with the level of decarbonisation
required to keep global temperature
increase below 2°C compared to pre-
industrial temperatures.
5,8924505
40
40
2020
2020
38.5
TONNES CO2e
2018
38.1
TONNES CO2e
2019
40.8
TONNES CO2e
TOTAL SCOPE 2 EMISSIONS
SCOPE 3 TRANSPORT EMISSIONS
5,582
6,340
630
492
2018
2019
AUSNZUK
6,251
6,862
TONNES CO2e
TONNES CO2e
SCOPE 2 AVERAGE CARBON
EMISSIONS PER STORE
77 TONNES OF STOCK MOVED629 TONNES CO
2
e2,396 TONNES OF STOCK MOVED
398 TONNES CO
2
e
6,347
TONNES CO2e
46.5
2020
TARGET
20
% REDUCTION
OF 2012 CO2e PER STORE
Waste and carbon emissions continue
to have the biggest impact on our
footprint. That’s why we developed an
ambitious five-year plan to eliminate
both. Our goal is to be net-zero carbon
by 2025.
MEASURE, MANAGE, VERIFY,
MITIGATE
Our path to net-zero carbon is paved
with four simple steps: measure,
manage, verify and mitigate.
We are currently working on our fourth
year certification of our carbon
footprint by Toitu Envirocare under
the carbonreduce programme.
Covid-19 helped reduce our carbon
footprint this year with decreases in air
travel, commuting and electricity. The
challenge will be to see if we can make
some of these carbon savings
permanent by encouraging new ways
of working.
A permanent flexible working policy
that now allows staff to work from
home up to two days a week could
have a big impact on commuting
emissions, while an increase in online
meetings could save on air travel.
In 2014, we set a target of 20%
reduction on our Scope 2 emissions by
2020, and since then, our store network
has grown from 125 stores to 165 stores.
Jonathan, taking a stroll down
the road in Japan.
OUR CARBON
JOURNEY
*
* 2020 figures are pre-certification estimates.
3938

New carbon offset
programme restoring
Australian outback.
We offset 1058 tonnes of carbon from
our 2019 air travel emissions through
the Bierbank and Lanherne
Regeneration Project in Queensland.
The project is part of the Australian
Government’s Emissions Reduction
Fund and is re-establishing permanent
native forest on land that had been
cleared by grazing and mining.
The project will provide much-needed
habitat for six endangered species
and 21 vulnerable species in the region.
It will also create jobs and economic
activity in an area where
opportunities can be limited.
Kathmandu Sustainability Specialist
Shannon Ball says carbon offsetting is
a great way to invest in conservation.
“Bush regeneration projects need
money from somewhere. It’s great
that businesses like ours can benefit
from the carbon offset they provide.”
As we start setting science-based
climate targets and move towards our
net-zero carbon goal in 2025,
Kathmandu will look to offset more of
its emissions.
OUR FOOTPRINT
Arthur’s Pass National Park
"Carbon offsetting
is a great way
to invest in
conservation."
SHANNON BALL
SUSTAINABILITY SPECIALIST
4140

First solar-powered
store opens.
This year, we opened our first 100%
solar-powered store in Blackburn,
Victoria. This follows a solar panel
installation in our Melbourne
distribution centre in 2016.
Kathmandu Project Manager Dean
Smith says the Blackburn store was a
good solar project because it is a
stand-alone store.
“Because many stores are located in
large shopping centres, it won’t be
possible for solar power to be rolled
out across the entire store network,
but we intend to assess which of our
stores can be adapted for solar power
in the future to help reach our net-
zero carbon target by 2025.”
The system has a solar battery
generator that’s able to deliver 100%
of the store’s annual energy or up to
92,000 kilowatt-hours. The system will
eliminate up to 124 tonnes of carbon
dioxide emissions overall.
The array will use the battery on
overcast days and for backup power.
A live feed of the store’s solar
activities will be displayed on a
monitor within the store, allowing
customers to view power generation
versus usage.
OUR FOOTPRINT
Solar panels on top of our
Blackburn store in Victoria.
The system will
eliminate up to 124
tonnes of carbon
dioxide emissions
overall.
4342

“Sustainable
store design is
not something
you achieve and
tick a box and are
done with. It’s a
constant process
of getting better.
Every year, we
introduce new
elements and new
practices.”
Reducing the
waste we pass on
to consumers.
As our waste journey continues, we’re
turning our mind to the waste we
send home with our customers and
our goal to have 100% sustainable
packaging by 2025.
Sometimes, it’s little things that add
up to make a big difference. Our store
staff started asking a simple question:
“Do you need a bag?” This got
customers to pause and think,
resulting in 6% fewer bags used per
transaction compared to last year.
We’ve set up a working group to look
at a more sustainable alternative to
the plastic delivery satchels we use to
deliver online orders.
As members of the Australian
Packaging Covenant Organisation
(APCO), we subscribe to their vision
for a future where packaging is
circular.
“This vision recognises that our planet
has finite resources,” APCO says in its
2020 report our packaging future.
“It acknowledges that our traditional
take, make and waste approach is not
going to sustain our communities in
the future.”
PROJECT POLYBAG COMING BACK
FROM DISRUPTION
Our journey to zero waste continues
with a new signpost in place – a zero-
waste target for 2020. Cardboard and
plastic recycling is the cornerstone of
our zero waste project, which took a
big hit in New Zealand when China
shut its doors to offshore plastic
recycling.
We went from 100% of plastic
polybags recycled in all New Zealand
stores in 2018 to just over half our
stores last year. Now we are
expanding our partnership with New
Zealand-based plastics recyclers who
are turning soft plastics into fence
posts, plastic matting, buckets and
other products. Three more stores
were added to the Soft Plastics
Recycling Scheme this year.
Kathmandu Sustainability Specialist
Shannon Ball says, “A key project is
getting better information on which
of our stores have good recycling
options and which don’t. We are
aiming to process as much recycling
locally as we can, and we are also
looking for ways to reduce the size
of our polybags and introduce
more recycled content into our
packaging too.”
TENT COLLECTORS HELP REFUGEES
Some of our returned tents have
found a new home at refugee camps,
thanks to the work of Hastings-based
non-profit Tent Collectors.
The organisation saves tents from
landfill and collects them from
festivals to be redeployed to Syrian
refugee camps in Europe, including
the Greek island of Samos, which
currently houses 5,900 people in a
military camp built for 600. Tents that
were returned by customers and
couldn’t be resold as seconds were
donated to Tent Collectors.
CHRISTCHURCH STORE WINS RED
AWARD FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Our new flagship store in Christchurch
– built with our focus on sustainable
and reusable materials – was
recognised with an award for
sustainability by the New Zealand
Retail Interiors Association. The RED
awards are the country’s premier retail
design awards, and the sustainability
category judges fit-outs on materials,
equipment and services.
Kathmandu Store Design and
Development Manager Abigail
Wasmer says the approach to store
design is about continuous
improvement. “Sustainable store
design is not something you achieve
and tick a box and are done with.
It’s a constant process of getting
better. Every year, we introduce new
elements and new practices.”
A big focus has been on selecting
natural and sustainable materials,
shifting from particleboard to solid
and plywood timbers that can be
recycled and reused.
Abigail says the approach is also
about bringing suppliers and
contractors on the journey with us.
“In Melbourne, our shopfitters have an
entirely solar-powered factory, and we
give contractors reusable coffee cups
and water bottles so that they can
reduce their waste. We’ve also put
water-filling stations in stores so that
anyone can come in and refill a bottle.
Sometimes, little things can make a
big difference.”
This year, we switched 32 new and
refurbished stores to LED lighting,
which has helped us towards our goal
of becoming net-zero carbon by 2025.
New Moana packs made from
ocean plastics.
STORE WASTE
BREAKDOWN
43
% paper/
cardboard
18
% co-mingled
recycling
15
% polybags and
shrink wrap
24
% non-recycled
material
OUR FOOTPRINT
OUR PACKAGING FUTURE
AUSTRALIAN PACKAGING
COVENANT ORGANISATION
ABIGAIL WASMER
STORE DESIGN AND
DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
“It acknowledges
that our
traditional take,
make and waste
approach is not
going to sustain
our communities
in the future.”
4445

Our community.
Ta matou hapori.
OUR COMMUNITY
Molly Spark competing in her first
Kathmandu Coast to Coast race.
4647

Positively
changing lives.
$5,684.13$6,245.43$16,468
TOTAL DONATED TO
TOTAL DONATED TOTOTAL DONATED TO
OUR COMMUNITY
MINUS18QTOPIAACTIONAID
Pride campaign was
communicated online
and in store.
TOTAL FUNDS
DONATED
Last year, we announced our new
social impact goal - intending to
positively change 100,000 lives by
supporting our workers in our supply
chain, assisting our partners to grow
their education programmes in Nepal
and providing adventure
opportunities to our Summit Club
members.
This year, although many events we
planned were interrupted by Covid-19,
we’ve still made progress on this goal.
CELEBRATING DIVERSITY
We wrapped our International
Women’s Day campaign and our
Pride campaign into a project we’ve
code-named Positive Days of Impact.
This supports our goal to be best for
people and aligns with our new social
impact strategy.
For International Women’s Day (IWD),
celebrated annually on 8 March, we
partnered with the charity ActionAid,
which supports women across the
globe to break the cycle of poverty
and to live free from violence. We
asked customers to join us with in-
store fundraising and donated 1% of
our sales on IWD to ActionAid.
We also put on two fundraising
events in Sydney and Auckland.
These ‘micro-adventures’ took women
into the outdoors with experienced
female guides.
As part of the campaign, we profiled
three inspiring women from our
community who are working towards
gender equality.
PRIDE AT K ATHMANDU
We believe adventure is for everyone,
regardless of what part of the
rainbow you hail from. We celebrated
Pride from January to March by
raising more than $10,000 for
charities that support and celebrate
rainbow youth.
The Minus18 Foundation is Australia’s
youth-driven charity for LGBTQIA+
youth. For over 21 years, Minus18 has
been running high-impact LGBTQIA+
events, workshops and campaigns,
creating peer support, safe spaces
and inclusive environments across
Australia.
Qtopia is a social service for
LGBTQIA+ young people, their
whanau and their communities in
Canterbury. Using education,
advocacy, support and celebration,
Qtopia aims to create positive and
lasting social change.
We encouraged customers to donate
online or in store, and we matched
donations. We also organised a
fundraising 'micro-adventure' event
in Sydney.
PARTICIPATION
Participation means going beyond
learning about our differences to
living and experiencing them. This
year, we looked to take a more active
role in our community. We partnered
with Maori language immersion
school Te Whanau Tahi to connect
students learning about the outdoors
with our teams and share our
experience of the outdoors.
We further developed relationships
with rainbow youth organisations
Qtopia and Minus18 who support our
growing awareness and
understanding while we support them
in their objectives.
Our ongoing commitment is to
support young people in outdoor
adventures.
4948

“I feel
independent
and proud of
myself.”
Products that
give back.
We love creating products that give
back to the causes dear to our hearts.
Our Nepalese-made Christmas
ornament is inspired by the Himalayan
red panda. The pandas were given to
customers who made a $10 donation
to the Australian Himalayan
Foundation and New Zealand
Himalayan Trust and 100% of the
donations were passed on to the
charities. This year, we raised $89,586
with our Christmas giving programme.
ARTIST SERIES T-SHIRT
Our latest Artist series T-Shirt was
created by Ash 'Chimp' Sisson, a New
Zealand street artist known for his
vibrant murals.
Armed with a sketchbook and
Kathmandu gear, Chimp took part in
Kathmandu’s Nepal Treks to Everest
Base Camp to draw inspiration from
the stunning Himalayas – a once in a
lifetime trip that he found eye-
opening.
His design illustrates the story of a
journey between two cultures – Nepal
and New Zealand – through the
ambitious upward gaze of an
adventurous woman.
$5 from the purchase of every limited
edition tee goes directly to the
Australian Himalayan Foundation or
the Himalayan Trust of New Zealand.
KHUSI BEANIE
Khusi means ‘happy’ in Nepalese.
Our Khusi Beanie reflects the support
that this product provides for
traditional Nepalese knitters.
For 31-year-old Sabina, who
experienced regular headaches,
knitting is both a livelihood and a
support unit.
“I feel a strong connection with the
other knitters. We work as friends and
this helps us enjoy our work,” Sabina
says.
Sabina uses her income on household
expenses for her family – the rest she
saves for a rainy day.
This was the fourth year that the
Khusi Beanie has been part of
our range.
OUR COMMUNITY
AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRE SUPPORT
Last summer was one of the worst
on record for Australian bushfires.
We launched an appeal to raise funds
for the Australian Red Cross Disaster
Relief and Recovery Fund.
We promised to match funds donated
by our customers up to $50,000.
Our customers rose to the challenge
and donated just over $60,000, which
saw more than $110,000 donated
in total.
LIZARD TEE APPEAL
Our vintage Lizard tee made a
comeback this year to join in the fight
for Australian native species impacted
by bushfires. All profits from the
limited edition tee were donated to
the work done by Greening Australia
to conserve and restore wildlife
habitat. Sales continue, and $4,000
has been raised so far.
SABINA
TRADITIONAL NEPALESE KNITTER
Sarah keeping cosy in our
Khusi Beanie made in Nepal.
The panda that gives back.
FUNDRAISING FOR
OUR COMMUNITIES
$110,053
$ 33,94 0
$ 89,58 6
23,332
TOTAL UNITS SOLD
AMOUNT RAISED
AMOUNT RAISED
FROM CUSTOMERS
KHUSI BEANIEARTISTS TEE
XMAS GIVINGAUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRES
5150

Part of our best for people five-year
goal is about inspiring and equipping
people to discover their potential
through education, personal
development and wellbeing.
We committed to giving 10,000
Summit Club members access to
outdoor adventure and volunteering
opportunities with free events.
ADVENTURE SERIES
Although Covid-19 meant that only
three of our 16 adventure series events
went ahead, we did connect with 52
participants in this guided hiking
programme.
RUN CLUB
Run Club is a weekly free trail running
programme for Summit Club
members of all levels. Each Run Club
session offers professional coaching
focusing on different skills, then puts
trail running techniques into practice
all over the city. Last year, we held
more than 80 running sessions for
2629 participants across Christchurch,
Adelaide and Melbourne.
SUMMIT CHALLENGE
We challenged Summit Club members
to climb the height of Everest to raise
money for our partner charities that
support Nepal. The New Zealand
event, Summit Challenge, had 220
participants who raised $39,295 for
the New Zealand Himalayan
Foundation. The Challenge included
three group hikes held in Wellington,
Christchurch and Auckland.
SUMMIT CLUB VOLUNTEERING
We worked with charity partner
Tangaroa Blue to host six volunteering
events. Across all six events, 318
participants collected 672kg of
rubbish.
KATHMANDU COAST TO COAST
We supported the Coast to Coast
Rangers again this year in their work
to give young people opportunities to
participate in the Kathmandu Coast
to Coast race. Run by the Aspiring
Youth Development Trust, the Rangers
programme gives kids exposure to
outdoor activities as well as
developing lifelong skills and
introducing them to sustainable
knowledge and values.
Getting our community
into the outdoors.
Adventure
sponsorship
OUR COMMUNITY
In 2007, Bronwyn Griffin's life was
suddenly and irreversibly changed
when her husband and the father of
her children was taken by a sudden
fatal heart attack.
“At the time, I was pregnant with our
third child, our middle child was nine
months old and our oldest was just
two years old. Since Nick’s death, we
have forged on together to live an
active and healthy lifestyle with a
shared passion for mountain biking.”
This January, Bronwyn and her kids
(now 11, 12 and 13) decided to take on
the Overland Track (including Cradle
Mountain) in Tasmania. With pack
loads varying from 15kg to 24kg,
the four spent seven days in the
mountains and raised $5,000 for
heart research.
“The weather on the mountains is
notoriously unpredictable, and we
were met with a full spectrum of
weather – crushing heat, pouring rain,
snowfall and strong winds that
almost swept us off our feet.”
Despite some challenging times,
Bronwyn says the beauty of the track
and their fundraising efforts kept their
spirits up.
“We saw so many animals and plants
that were just beaming with vitality
and life we couldn’t help fall in love
with the Cradle Valley,” she says.
“The slow pace allows you to soak up
the vibrancy, diversity and complexity
of the environments you pass through,
and I loved the places that
conversations go when you have so
much uninterrupted time together.”
Bronwyn says the trip finished with a
rush of accomplishment for doing it
together.
“Our love for hiking together is now
firmly embedded, and we can’t wait
to plan our next adventure together.
We’ll continue to put our efforts
towards the prevention of early
cardiac death, which is an issue close
to our hearts.”
Competitors encounter multiple
river crossings as part of the annual
Kathmandu Coast to Coast race.
TOP TIER WINNING
APPLICATIONS
TOTAL
APPLICATIONS
VOUCHERS
DISTRIBUTED
STAFF
ENTRIES
WINNERS VISITED:
PHILIPPINES
NEPAL
INDIA
BHUTAN
GREENLAND
AUSTRALIA (COFFS HARBOUR AND
TASMANIA)
PERU
NEW ZEALAND
NORWAY
ENGLAND
TANZANIA
332
698
424
ADVENTURE
SPONSORSHIP BY
NUMBERS
5352

Our team.
Ta matou ranga.
OUR TEAM
Our visual merchandising
team at our new flagship store
opening in Christchurch.
5455

Sharmali exploring the native
bush on the Paparoa Trail in
New Zealand.
PEOPLE WHO ARE STEADFAST
AND NOT EASILY SWAYED BY
STRONG COMPETITION
He toka
tu moana
Our values shine
through our people
in challenging times.
CELEBRATION
It’s not enough to simply accept our
difference so we believe they should
be embraced and celebrated.
One way we celebrated our diverse
workforce was with a diversity video
featuring four team members sharing
their stories and experiences of same-
sex families, gender transition, spina
bifida, use of a wheelchair and
autism. The message behind our
this is me video was that, while we’re
all different, we’re all the same too.
In March, we achieved our Rainbow
Tick a celebration for 17% of our
workforce that identifies as LGBTQIA+.
We celebrated women in our business
through participation in events such
as the M2 Journey to Excellence, and
we celebrated our New Zealand
cultural heritage across the year.
We have challenged ourselves to
celebrate diversity more in our brand
and marketing content from now on.
Our future diversity strategy includes
a celebration of the faiths, cultures
and other differences that make our
people who they are.
The journey continues.
Like most businesses around the
world, the Covid-19 pandemic forced
us to do things differently. We have
seen our core values come through in
the way our teams responded to a
year of change and uncertainty.
We witnessed resourcefulness as our
people adapted with agility to new
ways of working in the absence of
travel and the closure of office spaces
and embraced new ways of
collaborating and communicating —
from Facebook Workplace updates to
utilising available technology for
collaboration and communication.
Openness and directness were
essential for our team to stay
connected and informed and safe and
as discussions about personal
wellbeing became more crucial
than ever.
More than anything, the passion and
determination of our teams drove
them to find new ways to deliver
results and keep our business
operating.
These changes led to the introduction
of a permanent flexible working policy
that allows support staff to manage
their workload and personal
requirements through flexibility in
work time and location, with the
ability to work 40% of their hours
from home for many team members.
We have also flipped our approach to
performance management on its
head and supplemented annual
reviews (look back) with regular
ongoing coaching (look forward) to
drive development and results.
This year has shown our teams to be
resilient and focused on doing their
best under unfamiliar circumstances.
Our people have been the driving
force behind the positive change that
makes us stronger as a business.
OUR JOURNEY TO INCLUSION
Kathmandu is an incredibly diverse
workplace and each team member
brings their own experience, values
and identity to work with them each
day.
This diversity is core to our business,
and our goal is to leverage this
strength and strive to be a truly
inclusive organisation where everyone
has a place.
We have committed to this journey to
inclusion, both within our brand and
beyond, as we want to bring our
industry and community so that
everybody we reach feels seen, heard
and valued.
Our diversity programme has three
objectives: education, participation
and celebration.
EDUCATION
We strive to educate ourselves but
also look at how we can influence our
wider communities. We create
opportunities to learn from others
both in and out of our business.
This year, we have grown our whanau
by developing new relationships in our
wider communities.
These included Bros for Change, who
shared Maori culture, and Anton
Matthews, who led group classes on
cultural awareness and te reo Maori.
OUR TEAM5657

Measuring the
diversity in our
diversity.
OUR TEAM
Sharmali exploring the native
bush on the Paparoa Trail in
New Zealand.
In November, we conducted a team
diversity survey to get a better picture
of what our workforce looks like.
As expected, we found a diversity of
nationalities, ethnicities, faiths,
cultures and abilities and were able to
form a picture of our team.
There is a lot of diversity in our
diversity. Our teams encompass the
cultures, faith, values and personal
characteristics of the world we live in.
We discovered that 11% of
respondents identified themselves as
having a health issue (including
mental health) or disability that
prevents them from doing activities
that others do. This broad definition of
'disability' gives us a new perspective
on supporting our teams.
We learned that about 25% of our
team speak more than one language
and that after English, Spanish and
French are the most common
languages spoken by our team
members.
The data collected will help us to
make sure that everyone in our
workplace has representation and a
voice and that our diversity activities
are aligned with our people.
The third-party anonymous survey
had a high response rate with 42% of
team members completing the
survey, well above the industry
benchmark standard of 30%.
KATHMANDU ACHIEVES THE
RAINBOW TICK!
The Rainbow Tick is a certification
that helps organisations ensure they
are safe and welcoming workplaces
for rainbow team members.
To achieve the Rainbow Tick,
Kathmandu was found to have fully
achieved success in five areas:
strategy and policy, employee
engagement and organisational
support, external engagement,
organisational development, and
monitoring.
The Rainbow Tick is a New Zealand-
based certification. We believe this
certification reflects our business
across all locations, while we work
towards achieving a ranking in the
Australian Workplace Equality Index.
SUPPORTING WOMEN IN OUR
BUSINESS
This year, we looked for new ways to
support and develop women in our
business to thrive in their roles and as
leaders. Women from across the
business attended conferences and
forums to network with and learn
from other successful women.
Our teams can also now look to even
more internal role models as more
women joined the executive
leadership team, bringing the number
of female senior leaders to five this
ye a r.
The next step is the development of a
formal policy and framework to
support women in their career
development at Kathmandu.
GEARING UP ON CAPABILITY
We took a more strategic approach to
capability this year launching our
Gear Up Curriculum to support the
development of the core skills and
competencies that allow our teams to
be successful. The curriculum was
designed to support our Next Level
business strategy, providing key
competencies to drive our business
success, including critical thinking,
influence skills and change leadership.
Individuals work with their managers
to identify development objectives
and create an individual develop plan
from the curriculum and annual
training calendar. Gear Up means
learning and development can be
planned strategically and resources
used more effectively to the benefit of
our teams and the business.
EMPOWER WOMEN
IN ANY GROUP ENTERPRISE,
THE PERFORMANCE OF EACH
MEMBER IS KEY TO ITS SUCCESS
Whakamanahia
te wahine
Ka ora pea i a koe,
ka ora koe i a au
OUR DIVERSE TEAM
(BY THE NUMBERS)
536525
%
DIFFERENT
NATIONALITIES
LANGUAGESSPEAK MORE THAN
ONE LANGUAGE
OUR TEAM5859

For our retail teams, we continue to
develop accessible and relevant content
delivered through our online learning
platform Kampus. In addition to core
operational and product knowledge
content, we have diversified to include
a wider range of professional and
personal development content.
We extended eligibility for
management courses across levels of
management to create a more visible
learning pathway for 3ICs and ASMs to
develop into the next roles in their
career.
To develop expertise in our teams, we
further extended our Footwear Guide
Certification programme, certifying a
further 50 Footwear Guides this year,
and partnered with Oboz to create
online content for our wider teams.
In addition to Kampus, workshops and
in-store training, we utilised Facebook
Workplace to deliver accessible and
effective information (sharper, smarter,
faster) and facilitate knowledge
sharing within teams to drive a culture
of learning.
Even when stood down, our teams
sought out development opportunities,
and retail teams took the opportunity
to upskill themselves and prepare to
welcome our customers back with
confidence and exceptional service
when stores reopened.
During the initial closure alone,
our teams completed 7,002 courses on
Kampus and took the opportunity for
personal growth as well, as evidenced
by the courses they completed.
TOP 5 COURSES
OVERALL
RAINBOW TICK
INCLUSION AT WORK
OBOZ 2020
DEALING WITH STRESS
AND ANXIETY
COVID-19:
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
WINTER READY 2020
IT IS OUR PEOPLE THAT WILL
CONTINUE TO DRIVE
KATHMANDU’S SUCCESS AS A
BRAND AND WILL DO SO MORE
STRONGLY DUE TO THE AGILITY,
RESILIENCE, AND SOLUTION FOCUS
WE HAVE ALL DEVELOPED.
Tania Griffiths started as casual
labour in Kathmandu’s Melbourne
distribution centre back in 2014.
Today, she is a warehouse system and
continuous improvement analyst
overseeing the implementation of new
WMS systems, creating standard
operating procedures and process
maps and training casual and full-
time staff.
Looking back, Tania puts her success
down to hard work and an eagerness
to learn.
“Upon joining Kathmandu, my main
focus was to work super, super hard.
I wasn’t aware of what my journey
was going to hold however, I am a
very hard worker, and I take pride in
my work. If I’m doing a task, I want
to know the ins and outs. If there’s
an issue, I want to investigate it and
find out what went wrong and how
I can fix it.”
As a casual worker, Tania says she
asked regularly if there were full-time
positions available. “Eventually, I was
offered a full-time position. I explored
and gained so much knowledge from
other areas of the warehouse — from
picking and packing to e-commerce
and dispatch.”
This well-rounded base of experience
set her up to become a Superuser on
our new and first Australian-built
Crossbelt Automated Sortation
System when the distribution centre
moved into its new 5-star Green Star
rated building in 2015.
The world has
changed and so
has Kathmandu.
At the time, Tania remembers,
“I didn’t have a lot of confidence
talking to groups of people, managers
nor staff. It was hard for me to stand
up and talk freely and express if I had
an improvement idea or to complete
training needs. Daily setup meetings
were very nerve-wracking.”
Tanya’s confidence got a boost when
she joined the Kathmandu TrekBud
Mentor programme, where her
mentorship was complemented with
online learning. Tanya’s mentor was
Nova Knight.
I think she’s progressed amazingly,”
Nova says. “She has gone on to deliver
training workshops to the whole of the
distribution centre and put together
comprehensive engaging training
material. Her confidence to execute
and stand up and deliver was
awesome to see.”
“I benefited a lot from those
modules,” Tania says. “It was really
good for highlighting the areas I
wasn’t so confident around.
We learned about presenting to
team members and the different ways
people have of learning and tailoring
their needs by incorporating different
learning styles. I became more
confident, knowledgeable and
accommodating in myself and others.
It was a super-exciting journey to work
with Nova. She’s become a great
friend.”
In February this year, Tanya completed
a course on empowering women in
the workplace from Swinburne
University. “The course looked at
being bold at work and having an
influence in the workforce.”
While the distribution centre has a
large percentage of males in the office
space, Tania says she’s never felt that
was a barrier and has only helped her
gain confidence in her leadership.
“I feel very supported. I’m very
thankful to everyone who’s supported
me through my journey. My bosses are
amazing, and Kathmandu is such
a great company to be a part of,”
Tania says.
IT'S AN EVER-CHANGING WORLD
He ao hurihuri
OUR TEAM
Tania Griffiths, warehouse system and
continuous improvement analyst.
Next level
in retail
development.
6061

6263

Our journey.
OUR JOURNEY
Aerial view of Oboz’s
neighborhood mountain
range, the Bridgers.
6465

Our journey.
AMY BECK
PRESIDENT, OBOZ
Oboz President Amy Beck charts
the company's sustainability
journey so far.
Oboz was born in 2008 in Bozeman,
Montana. From the very beginning,
the company was built with the
intention of doing the right thing for
the planet and for the consumer.
We’ve been planting trees and
offsetting carbon emissions for 12
years – long before those kinds of
things became fashionable.
But our good intentions have not
necessarily translated into a solid
sustainability plan, so as we mature
as a brand, we’re now in a phase of
crafting a clearer way for our journey
– one that focuses on impact over
optics.
To guide us on our journey, we’ve
created a brand compass built on our
long-held mantra – true to the trail.
This compass will guide everything we
do at Oboz – from building great
footwear to how we give back to our
community and the way we treat
each other and the planet. It’s a
mindset that grounds us in what’s
most important: doing things the
right way, having fun and exploring
our path in life. Any other way just
wouldn’t be true to the trail.
TRUE TO OUR PEOPLE
This point of the compass reflects our
commitment to all the people who
our brand touches – from our
employees to our retailers and
suppliers. By joining the Kathmandu
family, we are committing to Fair
Labor Association and B Corp
assessments. We’ll learn from all the
work done at Kathmandu to improve
the supply chain.
TRUE TO THE EXPERIENCE
We believe in the power of the
outdoors and that people will live a
better life if they can experience
nature, so our work in this point of the
compass is reflected in our support for
conservation partners and our
determination to minimise our own
impacts on the planet.
TRUE TO YOUR FOOT
Making sure our products stand up
to our commitment is the core of
this compass point. For Oboz,
sustainability is durability.
Delivering great fit and functionality
also sits at this point on the compass.
TRUE TO OUR COMMUNITY
Giving people opportunities to access
the outdoors is a key part of this
compass point. Our community
programme supports adventure,
education and access to wild places.
It supports the people and the place
that we are from.
There’s no doubt that our company is
inhabited by people passionate about
sustainability, and this year, we’re
working to build a strategy around
that passion. We’re creating a ‘green
team’ that will have members from
every department, and we have
started work on a three-year
sustainability plan for Oboz, which will
include goals we can measure our
progress against.
We will lean on the knowledge of our
parent company to accelerate
progress on this important journey.
It’s one we’re all excited to undertake.
TRUE TO THE
TRAIL COMPASS
OUR JOURNEY
Jackie Nourse, Bozeman
resident, founder of Traveling
Jackie, and friend of Oboz, looks
out from atop the M Trail.
6766

Our world.
New Zealand
Germany
UK
Canada
China
Japan
Taiwan
Vietnam
Australia
KEY
FACTORIES
COMMUNITY
SPONSORSHIPS
5 NATIONALITIES
ACROSS OUR TEAM
MATERIALS SOURCING
OPERATIONS
1 TOTAL
Vietnam – 3
120 vulnerable teens provided
with adventure-based
mentorship experiences.
Canada, United States of America,
Germany, Vietnam, Taiwan
United States of America
New Zealand, Australia
United Kingdom, Taiwan
Canada, Japan
China, Taiwan, Vietnam
USA
OUR JOURNEY6869

A little help from
our friends.
LEATHER WORKING GROUP
The Leather Working Group is a
not-for-profit membership
organisation for stakeholders
across the leather supply chain.
LWG aims to promote
sustainable business practices
and create alignment on
environmental priorities
throughout our membership
and the industry as a whole.
REPREVE
REPREVE is the world's number
one brand of recycled
performance fibre.
It's high-quality fibres are
made from 100% recycled
materials, including post-
consumer plastic bottles and
pre-consumer waste. They are
also certified and traceable.
Oboz incorporates REPREVE
fibres into the laces of our
Bozeman and Sypes collections.
CONSERVATION ALLIANCE
The Conservation Alliance
harnesses the collective
power of business and
outdoor communities to
fund and advocate for the
protection of North America’s
wild places. Our CEO Amy Beck
sits on the board, and we
provide financial support.
TREES FOR THE FUTURE
Trees for the Future has a direct
impact on the Earth and lives
of the people who need it most
by helping plant trees and
giving families the ability to
transition from unsustainable
farming techniques to a forest
garden system. We participate
in OIA’s Trade Advisory Council,
which reviews U.S. trade policy,
relevant federal legislation and
international trade
negotiations, develops federal
trade policy that may affect
OIA membership and
recommends policy positions
to OIA government affairs staff
and OIA leadership.
IN SOLIDARITY
In Solidarity brings the outdoor
industry together to build a
more inclusive future.
OIA
We participate in OIA’s
Sustainability Working Group —
collaborative platform of more
than 300 outdoor brands and
suppliers working together to
identify and implement better
business practices. Through
them, we plant a tree for every
shoe sold.
CAMBER
Camber Outdoors is a
national non-profit supporting
workplace inclusion, equity,
and diversity in the active-
outdoor industries. We are a
Corporate Partner for Camber.
BLOOM
Bloom transforms green water
into clean water to make
performance foams.
Bloom foam is created by
replacing a percentage of
plastic polymer in conventional
EVA with repurposed algae
biomass harvested from
freshwater sources. Oboz
incorporates Bloom’s foam into
the footbeds of our Bozeman
and Sypes collections.
OUR JOURNEY7071

Our

suppliers.
OUR SUPPLIERS
An assembly of custom lasts
within an Oboz factory.
7273

True to our people.
Oboz President Amy Beck knows that
every hand that creates a pair of
Oboz shoes belongs to someone in our
global supply chain.
“In this context,” she says, “being true
to the trail means an ongoing
commitment to their welfare and
wellbeing as members of the wider
Oboz family and brand. We work
collaboratively to protect their rights,
promote their ongoing development
and positively impact their lives so
they can also live true to the trail.”
At Oboz, we have a very narrow
supply chain, as Director of
Operations Chris Rischke explains.
“We have three factory partners. All of
them are in Vietnam. The factory that
makes some of our most iconic styles
we’ve been working with for 10 years
now. Building long-term relationships
with suppliers is important to us.”
Our second-largest supplier is one of
the top footwear manufacturers in
the world. It was one of the first to
become certified by the Fair Labor
Association (FLA). “They’ve done
phenomenal work, both on the
product side and the social side,”
Chris says. “They have a full training
programme to elevate staff into
management roles, and they have a
parental leave programme.”
As in other parts of our business,
we’ve used the expertise of our parent
company to leapfrog our supply chain
work. Like Kathmandu, we’ll be using
ELEVATE supply chain consultants to
conduct factory audits, and we’ve
worked to identify policy gaps around
responsible purchasing, child labour
and forced labour.
“We’ve always practised responsible
purchasing and fair labour, but we
hadn’t written them into formal
policies,” says Chris. “Formalising
these policies is part of our work to
obtain FLA certification and B Corp
certification as we work to align with
Kathmandu.”
We’ve also started training staff on
these policies. “We’ve got a small
team, but we’re making sure we
educate the entire team on
responsible purchasing and all policies
– particularly the ones who travel to
our factories as we want them to be
on the lookout for any breaches.”
The next step for Oboz is to create a
three-year strategy for managing
human rights in our supply chain.
This will be guided by our mission to
become FLA accredited and to
undertake the B Corp assessment, but
we are also looking for ways to apply
our true to the trail philosophy to our
factory partners and the communities
they operate in.
“True to the trail is an idea that
accepts that everyone has their own
trail – and that includes our suppliers
and the people in our supply chain.
In the coming years, we’d like to
understand more about what their
trail looks like – as a business and as a
community,” Chris says.
OUR SUPPLIERS
NRI
This year, we switched our distribution
partner to a California company
called NRI.
“NRI feels like a like-minded partner,”
says Director of Operations Chris
Rischke. “They give back to their
community and support their staff in
further education, which is fairly
uncommon in the warehousing
industry.”
NRI says it is committed to doing
business ethically but also in an
environmentally and socially
responsible manner. It defines its
approach to corporate responsibility
as starting “at home with our
employees”.
“Within the community, we
understand that our business and
that of our clients do not excel
without a healthy environment.
We look for ways to become greener
and encourage our team members to
bring forward their ideas too.
Community at NRI extends to many
different avenues that are important
to our team members. We support
and encourage our employees to
participate in events that have
meaning to them. This includes
volunteering, donations in kind and
fundraising events. At NRI, we are
pleased to say that we contribute one
full-time team member per year to
activities in the community!”
After our move, Rip Curl also switched
to NRI. The company now manages
the entire Kathmandu portfolio in
North America.
“They give back to
their community
and support their
staff in further
education, which
is fairly uncommon
in the warehousing
industry.”
CHRIS RISCHKE
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
NUMBER OF
FACTORIES
NUMBER OF
SUPPLIERS
TOTAL AUDITS
CORRECTIVE
ACTION PLANS
EXITS
% OF NEW SUPPLIERS
SCREENED USING SOCIAL
CRITERIA
HOURS
TRAINING STAFF
3
3
*
43
0
100
%
76
3
OUR SUPPLIERS
2020
*Our three factories were audited at the very end
of FY19, and corrective action plans were issued to
each of them to be worked through in FY20.
A highly skilled laster pulls the
shoe’s upper leather over the
lasting board.
7574

Our

products.
A hiker stands atop a rock on
the Sypes Canyon trail in the
new W’s Sypes Mid, launching
Spring 2021.
OUR PRODUCTS7677

OUR PRODUCTS
CARE AND REPAIRSAFETY
Bozeman sustainable range.
Exploring
sustainable
materials.
Our approach to sustainable products
has three pillars – durability, materials
and process. Oboz Director of Product
Merchandising and Development
Dan Wehunt says, “If we can do
better in all three of those categories,
we’ll be doing better for the
environment.”
DURABILITY
Durability comes first. If our product
doesn’t last and ends up in the waste
stream too early, any other initiatives
won’t do any good. “Durability is core
to our brand, core to our product and
core to our approach to sustainability,”
says Dan.
We have implemented lightweight
polyurethane foam into some of our
core hiking product franchises.
Polyurethane performs longer than
traditional EVA, resulting in more
durable products. We have also begun
to source Cordura-branded textiles,
which provide best-in-class abrasion
resistance.
“The goal is keeping our product on
people’s feet longer,” Dan says.
MATERIALS
This year, we released our Bozeman
collection. “This range was an
opportunity for the Oboz brand to
begin to explore what’s possible for
sustainable materials in our footwear,”
says Dan.
The Bozeman is a lifestyle range with
eight styles, which accounts for about
15% of the entire range. For each
material, we tried to source a recycled
alternative. The lining material is
made from a unique blend of recycled
polyester and natural fibres that help
wick moisture. Laces are REPREVE
recycled polyester, and the woven
upper textile and webbing
components are 100% GRS-certified
recycled polyester.
To reduce the petrochemicals in our
foam, we’ve replaced 20% of the
virgin EVA foam in the Bozeman
range with a product called Bloom,
which is made from algae.
Moving forward, we plan on rolling
Bloom algae into more of our insoles
throughout the product line.
We’ve started exploring alternatives
to our carbon rubber, which is
associated with toxic chemicals and
deforestation. We’ve started looking
at compounds that might be longer
lasting and at rubbers that use a
blend of rubber and rice husk.
We’re also exploring what’s known as
regrind rubber, where rubber scraps
are blended together to create a new
product from waste.
Size can be a limiting factor for Oboz.
Many sustainable materials have high
minimum order quantities that we
struggle to meet. “The outdoor
industry is ripe for collaboration.
Partnering with other small and mid-
sized brands, we could really make
an impact. There is an opportunity
for us to work together to consolidate
materials and overcome this
challenge.”
PROCESSES
As an outdoor hiking footwear
company, we primarily rely on leather
for its durability and protection
against the elements.
“While leather is a byproduct of the
meat industry, we acknowledge the
tanning process is not the most
environmentally friendly process,
and we are constantly looking for
ways to improve. We require all of
our water-resistant leathers to use
PFC-free treatments. We also support
and encourage our tanneries to work
with the Leather Working Group.”
The Leather Working Group (LWG) is
a not-for-profit organisation that
developed a system to certify leather
manufacturers according to their
environmental compliance and
performance capabilities.
The certification reflects their scores
on a large number of indicators
including waste management, water
use and air and noise emissions.
Oboz works with two tanneries that
are rated Gold and Silver under
the LWG. We’re supporting and
encouraging our suppliers to
improve their scores and achieve
Gold certification.
Internally, our next step is to set
strategic goals for the sustainability
of our products. This will elevate
sustainability as a priority in our
product development and will
help us identify short-term and
long-term goals.
FROM HARMFUL ALGAE TO
SUSTAINABLE SHOES
We’ve replaced traditional EVA foam
in our Bozeman range with an algae-
based blend called Bloom. Bloom is
made by cleaning up toxic algae from
waterways. Algal blooms around the
world are harmful to wildlife and
humans. From Chinese lakes choked
with algae to Southern Californian
beaches where swimmers get sick -
the problem has been dubbed a
global crisis - and it’s driven by rising
global temperatures and excess
nutrient runoff.
But Bloom founder Ryan Hunt
discovered a way to turn the algae
into foam. His company, Algix
harvests, dries and extrudes the algae
into an aglae-blended EVA for the
footwear industry. Each pair of shoes
helps to clean waterways and
sequester carbon. A single 200g
product cleans 45 litres of water and
28 cubic metres of air. To date, Bloom
has cleaned almost 600 million litres
of water and 373 cubic metres of air.
At Oboz, we’re excited to make our
shoes part of the solution.
3,2503,117
LACES REPLACEDREPLACEMENT SHOES
INCIDENTS
1
The one reported
incident was a result

of a minor customer
injury from an isolated
manufacturing defect.
8
STYLES
15
%
RANGE
7978

Our

footprint.
OUR FOOTPRINT
A hiker keeps to the path while
trekking down the Bridger
Ridge Trail.
8081

We plant a tree
for every pair sold.
Oboz was founded with an intention
to do the right thing. We plant a tree
for every pair of shoes sold, and we
have been offsetting carbon since
before it was popular. But we know
there is much more we can do, and as
we grow and mature as a company,
we’re committed to improve the way
we measure and track our footprint.
TREES FOR THE FUTURE
Our 12-year partnership with Trees
for the Future has seen a total of
3.3 million trees planted.
Trees for the Future is a non-profit
founded in 1989 that helps
communities around the world plant
trees. The organisation works with
communities in Central America,
South America, Africa and Asia to
incorporate tree planting into their
agricultural activities.
This work has empowered rural groups
to protect the environment and to
preserve traditional livelihoods and
cultures for generations. They have
planted 187 million trees in the last
30 years.
Last year, we supported Trees for
the Future to plant 700,000 trees.
CARBON OFFSETTING
We carbon offset our shoe shipments
and also all employee travel,
commuting (although almost
everybody bikes) and the office utility
bill with the help of the Bonneville
Environmental Foundation, an
Oregon-based non-profit organisation
that markets green power products
to public utilities, businesses,
government agencies and individuals.
Last year, we offset 493 tons of CO
2
.
President Amy Beck says, “We’ve
always offset carbon, but I think we
can go deeper here, especially
because we’re a relatively small brand.
One of the biggest impacts we’ve
seen from COVID is the reduction in
travel, and we hope we can learn from
that to reduce our impact going
forward.”
We use a lot of money and carbon
shipping samples around the world.
To reduce that, we’ve started work on
3D modelling technology that would
allow us to make this part of our sales
process digital.
As we start to explore what circularity
means for our industry, we’ve
partnered with gear rental company
Arrive Outdoors to trial a rental
programme.
RENEWABLE POWER
100% of our office juice comes from
wind, solar and biomass from
northwest Montana and Wyoming
through the E+ Green Power
Partnership.
WASTE WARRIORS
We have gone through a process to
make all our packaging recycled and
recyclable. We don’t use polybags,
and we have ticked off certifications
for sustainable packing.
The shoes we don't sell make a
difference too. We donate our
unsellable (but still trail-worthy)
shoes, partnering with Project Sole
and local non-profits to find feet
in need.
2019
TOTAL MEASURED ELECTRICITY EMISSIONS
At Oboz we measure our
total electricity emissions
by calendar year.
2018
2017
479
250
TONNES CO2e
TONNES CO2e
493
TONNES CO2e
OUR CARBON
JOURNEY
OUR FOOTPRINT
We educate our customers on
how to properly clean and
condition boots to ensure
longevity, reducing product
waste, and to limit the
transfer of invasive species.
“We’ve always
offset carbon,
but I think we can
go deeper here,
especially because
we’re a relatively
small brand.”
AMY BECK
PRESIDENT
USA
8382

Our

community.
OUR COMMUNITY
Aerial shot of Bozeman, Montana,
looking toward the Bridger Range
of the Rocky Mountains.
8485

Staying true to
our community.
The Oboz community is made up of a
diverse group of like-minded, free-
spirited adventurers exploring some of
the most amazing places two feet
can take them. Our community
partnerships are led by our brand
compass and our belief that people’s
lives are improved by spending time
outdoors. This year, we also started
taking active steps to explore what
we can do to improve diversity, equity
and inclusion in our organisation and
our community work.
Oboz Director of Brand and
Consumer Experience Rich Hohne
says, “Our community efforts
reinforce the brand’s pledge of being
true to the trail. Critical to this
promise is celebrating the experience
of being on the trail and being true to
our community. Oboz’s vast efforts in
our local community and key areas
across North America support what’s
important and encourage people to
get outdoors more – because any
other way just wouldn’t be true to
the trail.”
CONNECTING PEOPLE TO
LANDSCAPES
The Gallatin Valley Land Trust
connects people to the landscapes
that surround Bozeman through the
conservation of open spaces and
creation of trail systems. We have put
$7,000 towards the acquisition and
trail development of a property in
Bear Canyon. Together with other
outdoor industry leaders, we’re
working towards better access to
6,000 acres of state land.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR VULNERABLE
TEENS
Big Sky Youth Empowerment’s mission
is to provide the most vulnerable
teens in the Bozeman area with
opportunities to experience success
through an adventure-based
mentorship programme. To make sure
the kids have proper footwear for trail
hiking, we support the programme
with 40 pairs of shoes. We’ve also set
aside cash and promotional resources
to help the organisation achieve its
goals to support more than 120 kids
from grades 8 to 12. We even hit up
our friends at Darn Tough to provide
high-quality hiking socks.
PRESERVING WILDERNESS
For more than 50 years, Montana
Wilderness Association (MWA) has
been working with communities
across the state to protect, preserve,
connect and restore Montana’s
wilderness heritage, quiet beauty and
outdoor traditions. MWA was critical
in securing designation for all 15
wilderness areas in Montana.
MWA’s activism, trail maintenance,
educational programmes and
Wilderness Walks help local
communities around the state protect
Montana's wilderness now and for
future generations. We provide $1,000
in support as well as discounted shoes
for staff.
A hiker takes a break to look
upon Bozeman while on the
Sypes Canyon trail located in
the Bridger Mountain Range.
OUR COMMUNITY8687

SUPPORTING RESPONSIBLE
TREKKING
Wildland Trekking is a global leader in
the adventure travel industry.
They provide responsible and
sustainable hiking adventures while
promoting the conservation of both
natural and human communities.
We support Wildland Trekking with
gear donations and discounted prices
for guides and employees. Oboz is the
official sponsor of Wildland Trekking’s
Bunsen Peak hike in Yellowstone
National Park.
ENCOURAGING OUTDOOR
APPRECIATION
Oboz supports the Banff Mountain
Film Festival – an international film
competition and annual presentation
of short films and documentaries
about mountain culture, sports and
the environment. Banff is the premier
international film festival for outdoor
films, and it supports emerging
outdoor filmmakers and artists.
We support the festival with $24,000
for three years. We have also
sponsored and led a sunrise hike at
the festival for the past three years.
CELEBRATING CREATIVITY
Live From The Divide hosts songwriters
in an intimate venue on the north side
of Bozeman. The music venue has
hosted legends like Steve Earle and
Sturgill Simpson. Performances are
recorded for radio and online
broadcast, and producer Jason
Wickens interviews visiting acts.
The resulting podcasts and broadcasts
invite listeners to go deeper into the
words and sounds that connect with
our collective and individual
experiences. Oboz supports Live From
The Divide with $25,000.
TREES FOR THE FUTURE
Oboz has partnered with Trees for the
Future since our inception.
The organisation works to improve the
livelihoods of impoverished farmers by
revitalising degraded lands through
their Forest Garden programme.
We work with Trees for the Future to
plant a tree for every pair of shoes
sold. This partnership has seen around
3.3 million trees planted since the
company started. Our trees are
currently supporting the Tabora Forest
Garden project in Tanzania.
The project helps families transition
from unsustainable farming
techniques to a forest garden system,
which is a multi-layered system that
combines varieties of crops and trees.
Trees for the Future says this system
has the potential to end hunger and
poverty for millions of subsistence
farmers struggling to survive
throughout the developing world.
OUR COMMUNITY
A Bozeman icon, the Genuine Ice
Cream trailer welcomes summertime
crowds on Main Street.
Singer/songwriter Colter Wall
performs at local venue Live
From The Divide. For 2020,
Oboz is title sponsor of Live
From The Divide, along with its
broadcast and podcast series.
KIDS HELPED
TO GET OUTDOORS
$24,000
FOR THREE YEARS TO SUPPORT
BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL
$1,000
AND DISCOUNTED GEAR FOR
MONTANA WILDERNESS
ASSOCIATION
$7,000
FOR GALLATIN VALLEY
LAND TRUST
$25,000
TO SUPPORT SONGWRITERS
WITH LIVE FROM THE DIVIDE
COMMUNITY
BY THE NUMBERS
TREES PLANTED
3.3
MILLION
120
8988

Our

team.
OUR TEAM
Two backpackers assess their
route in the Beartooth Mountains.
9091

Big strides in diversity
and culture.
Our teams normally participate in
Trails Day with the Gallatin Valley
Land Trust, which we support and
host. Trails Day is a community event
for building and maintaining trails in
our region. This year, we couldn’t do
the event as a group, but the Trust
didn’t let that stop work on trails.
They kicked off with a virtual event
and encouraged people to spend
some time working on trails safely
and separately.
Many of our team members volunteer
on community or industry boards.
President Amy Beck sits on the
Conservation Alliance Board and is a
mentor for the Outdoor Industry
Association’s leadership programme.
Rich Hohne, Director of Brand and
Consumer Experience, is a long-time
partner and board member of Big Sky
Youth Empowerment, which provides
opportunities for vulnerable teenagers
in our community to experience
success and become contributing
members of our community through
group mentorship and experiential
adventures. Our newest team
member, Planning Analyst John
Nehring, sits on the Gallatin
Watershed Council working on
restoration projects in the watershed
to improve stream health and water
quality and unifying efforts around
addressing water quantity and to
extend water supply planning efforts
beyond city limits.
Being true to our people is one of the
four points of our true to the trail
compass. We’ve made some big
strides in that internally this year,
and we’re looking forward to pushing
further down this path.
27
TOTAL STAFF
59
%
41
%
MALE
REPRESENTATION
FEMALE
REPRESENTATION
BY THE
NUMBERS
Oboz is a small team and so it’s
natural for us to focus on people.
Our turnover rate is generally very low.
Last year, four employees left and we
also added three new roles – taking
our total team number to 27.
This large year of hiring resulted in a
welcome shift in diversity – our team
went from 29% women to 41%
women.
President Amy Beck says, “This
improvement in gender diversity is
one of the things I’m really proud of
this year.”
Two roles this year were filled
internally, reflecting our commitment
to promoting professional
development within our team.
We’ve been working with Kathmandu,
our parent company, to implement
more training, mentoring and
leadership development.
We’re establishing key performance
indicators around this so we can track
and review our progress.
We created a Colture Club this year to
help us create new ways to build a
supportive and inclusive culture at
Oboz. Our JEDI task force has been
enacted to broaden the Oboz team’s
awareness on issues of systemic bias
and injustice as well as to research
opportunities for development,
recommend actions to Oboz
leadership and reach out to diverse
outdoor and environmental groups to
learn and offer help. We signed our
commitment to the Outdoor CEO
Pledge that will track our actions on
improving recruitment and
representation among Oboz brand
ambassadors and partners.
OUR TEAM
Looking forward to the future,
or in this case, the Beartooth
Mountain peaks in the
Absoroka-Beartooth
Wilderness Area of Montana.
“This improvement
in gender diversity
is one of the things
I’m really proud of
this year.”
AMY BECK
PRESIDENT
9392

Nathalie Darcas and Leah
Thompson wearing My Bikini
in the Maldives
9594

OUR JOURNEY
The Search, Portugal.
Our journey.
9697

Brand values
in action.
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
COMMITTED CREW
COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT
HONESTY AND INTEGRITY
WE SUPPORT YOUNG SURFERS WITH OUR GLOBAL GROMSEARCH EVENT SERIES.
WE USED RECYCLED MATERIALS TO CREATE BEAUTIFUL NEW SHOP FITOUTS
THAT REFLECT OUR BRAND AND HAVE A LOWER ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT.
WE SUPPORTED PASSIONATE CREW CLIMBING
SUMMITS FOR KIDS WHO NEED HEART SURGERY.
OUR PLANET DAY INITIATIVES AROUND THE WORLD PUT CREW TO WORK
IMPROVING THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES WHERE WE OPERATE.
WE’VE JOINED KATHMANDU’S MISSION TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF PEOPLE
IN OUR SUPPLY CHAIN WITH A TRANSPARENT NEW SUPPLY CHAIN PARTNER.
OUR JOURNEY
Rip Curl CEO
Michael Daly is
well placed to
comment on
the company’s
sustainability
journey. He’s been
with the company
for 18 years and
in the role of CEO
since 2012.
Three time World Champion Mick
Fanning competing at Pipeline, Hawaii/

Rip Curl is a 50-year-old company.
When I started 18 years ago, there
were only three stores. Now there are
more than 200. Rip Curl is a global
company with staff on five continents
and our own manufacturing facility in
Thailand.
When the company founders started
making plans to retire in the late 90s,
they put on paper the values and
principles of the brand that they
wanted to see carry on. One of those
values is to actively contribute to the
communities we operate in, especially
the environment.
This is something Rip Curl has done
very well. We often operate in small
beachside communities where we are
the biggest employers in town.
Here in Torquay, Victoria, there
wouldn’t be a facility or organisation
that we haven’t contributed to in
some way. I’ve joined our crew
planting trees, weeding and removing
rubbish at our annual Planet Day,
which has run for 20 years now.
When I became CEO, we sat down
and worked out where we would focus
our sustainability efforts for the next
decade. We came up with three areas
of focus.
SAVE OUR SURF
The first area of focus is on preserving
and protecting our oceans. This work
was already under way with beach
cleanups around the world, as well as
tree planting and foreshore protection.
ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCTS
This area of focus covers everything
from the fabrics we select to swing
tags and polybags. We are
challenging ourselves to push this
area further with our Saltwater
Culture Collection.
ACT SUSTAINABLY
Under this banner are initiatives that
help us become a better corporate
citizen – from elevating our supplier
base to managing our waste.
We are getting better in all of these
areas, but we still have a lot of work
to do. The acquisition by Kathmandu
has been a great catalyst for us to
look internally at what we can do
better. We are going through the
B Corp baseline assessment, and we
are all in on that. It aligns really well
with our values.
I’m very proud that our company is
not one that has woken up overnight
and picked up sustainability because
it is good for sales. It is something
that fits the brand values that have
been written down for 20 years and
are lived passionately by our team,
some of whom have been with the
company for 48 years.
Our journey.
MICHAEL DALY
CEO
To help face our challenges, we’ve
made some changes with our crew to
help us ramp things up. We hired
Lucy Nakaroti to fill a brand-new role
of Sustainability Coordinator.
We’ve also created a sustainability
working group, which is made up of
representatives from departments
around the business.
Together, we’ll tackle the challenges
ahead of us — making sure we focus
on the areas where we can have the
greatest impact.
CUSTOMERS
9998

Our world.
New Zealand
South Korea
Italy
Spain
Portugal
UK
India
Mexico
Canada
China
Japan
Taiwan
Vietnam
Indonesia
South Africa
Australia
KEY
FACTORIES
EVENTS AND ATHLETES
MATERIALS SOURCING
OPERATIONS
98 TOTAL
China – 65
India – 15
Bangladesh – 6
Thailand – 3
Vietnam – 3
Australia – 2
France – 1
Indonesia – 2
Italy – 1
Mexico – 1
Australia (QLD, VIC, WA),
Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa,
Tahiti, USA, France, Portugal,
Hawaii
A total of 10 Rip Curl team-riders
attend each of these locations
whilst competing on the WSL
Championship Tour.
Stores - 160
Australia 104, NZ 1, Brazil 3,
Canada 2, Europe 20,

Japan 2, USA 28
Head office – 8
Australia 3, Brazil 1, Europe 1,
Japan 2, USA 1
China, Taiwan, South
Korea, Italy, Thailand,
Bangladesh, Indonesia,
India, USA, Japan
Warehouse – 6
Australia 2, Brazil 1, Europe 1,
Japan 1, USA 1
USA
Hawaii
Tahiti
Bangladesh
Brazil
OUR JOURNEY
Sweden
Germany
France
Thailand
100101

OUR SUPPLIERSOUR SUPPLIERS
Kolton Sullivan and Leah
Thompson in Indonesia.
Our

suppliers.
102103

“There is always
more to do and
more to learn.”
HELEN SHARP
RIP CURL ETHICAL SOURCING
AND COMPLIANCE MANAGER
Baptist World Aid.
OUR SUPPLIERS
NUMBER OF
FACTORIES
NUMBER OF
SUPPLIERS
TOTAL AUDITS
CORRECTIVE
ACTION PLANS
EXITS
% OF NEW SUPPLIERS
SCREENED USING SOCIAL
CRITERIA
HOURS
TRAINING STAFF
53
13
154
5
100
%
606
99
OUR SUPPLIERS
2019
Rip Curl began contributing to
Baptist World Aid’s Ethical Fashion
Report in 2017. From 2017 to 2018,
we improved from a C+ to a B+ and
then maintained that score in 2019
despite increased reporting
requirements that caused a lot
of brands to drop.
Rip Curl Ethical Sourcing and
Compliance Manager Helen Sharp
says the approach has been
conservative. “Unless we can 100%
back up our claims, we don’t make
them, so I think our real position is
probably a bit better than what
we rep or t.”
Providing all the detail for the report
is a long and arduous process, but it
has helped give Rip Curl a better
picture of where we are and how we
can improve.
“It can be daunting to look at all the
data that is required, but I think
overall we learned that we are doing a
lot more than we thought we were,”
Helen says. “We also became more
aware of where we can improve some
of our processes and procedures.”
This year, instead of a report, Baptist
World Aid is asking brands to commit
to supporting workers in their supply
chain as Covid-19 ravages the world.
Rip Curl’s supply chain philosophy is
built heavily on relationships — with
some suppliers having been with the
company for 25 to 30 years.
“It’s about a partnership based on
mutual respect,” says Helen.
“Empowering the workers is
something we can do better with a
long-term relationship that allows for
improvement.”
Last year, Rip Curl moved under the
Kathmandu Holdings Limited
umbrella, a B Corp with Fair Labor
Association accreditation.
This relationship brings a lot of supply
chain experience, and Rip Curl is ready
to take the next step up. We have
announced we will align with
Kathmandu’s supply chain
management under ELEVATE — the
same supply chain consultant used by
our parent company.
ELEVATE will help Rip Curl introduce a
social media-based grievance
mechanism for workers that will give
them a voice. “We take it for granted
that we can raise an issue if we have
one, but for many people in the world,
it’s not that easy,” Helen says.
“There is always more to do and more
to learn,” says Helen. “Working with
ELEVATE gives us a presence in-
country and allows us to streamline
things with Kathmandu and even
share audits. This is a new chapter
for us. It’s really exciting.”
For 31 years, Rip Curl has owned its
own factory in Chang Mai, Thailand,
which employs 528 people making
wetsuits and personal floatation
devices.
Helen says, “Owning our own factory
ensures that the workers are fully paid
and all rights respected. We also
support many local community
projects — including projects to clean
up rubbish, support Children’s Day,
support housing the poor and fund
medical equipment for the local
hospital.
Our partners.
INTERTEK
We partner with Intertek, a
leading Quality Assurance and
testing provider.
AUSTRALIAN PACKAGING
COVENANT ORGANISATION
(APCO)
We are a signatory of the
Australian Packaging Covenant,
continuing to collaborate with
other industries on sustainable
packaging solutions.
AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY
GROUP
AI Group provides unlimited
calls to the workplace advice
line, regular award and
compliance updates and
access to HR, safety and
business improvement
resources, webinars, podcasts,
networking and knowledge
events.
LEATHER WORKING GROUP
Working with a supplier that is
approved by the Leather
Working Group helps us to
assess the environmental
compliance, performance
capabilities, and to promote
sustainable and appropriate
environmental business
practices within the leather
industry.
105104

OUR PRODUCTS
Leilani McGonagle wearing the Saltwater
Culture Cheeky Coverage Long Sleeve
Swimsuit and Leah Thompson wearing
the Saltwater Long Sleeve Surf suit at
the beach in Indonesia.
Our

products.
106107

OUR PRODUCTS
“It’s all very well
to use recycled
material, but the
philosophy is all
encompassing."
Molly Picklum wearing the G
Bomb Long Sleeve Spring Hi Cut
Wetsuit, surfing in NSW.
20192019
2019
20202020
2020
7. 26.9
3.6
22.910.3
11.4
TONNESTONNES
TONNES
TONNESTONNES
TONNES
Made with sustainability
in mind.
Our Saltwater Culture Collection is
made with sustainability in mind.
This collection is Rip Curl’s foray into
sustainable product development.
It’s a place to learn and experiment
with recycled and low-impact
materials that still deliver the
durability that Rip Curl products are
famous for.
“The most sustainable thing we can
do is make really durable products,”
says Jarrah McDiarmid, Product
Manager Equipment and Accessories.
“That’s what Rip Curl is built upon.
It’s one of our key brand values.”
The first product produced under the
Saltwater Culture Collection was the
Mirage boardshort, made from
recycled polyester using recycled
plastic bottles.
Other product divisions were challenged
to create products for the collection.
This added Econyl swimwear, organic
cotton tees, recycled polyester
backpacks and equipment and even
footwear made from sugarcane.
When the wetsuit division created a
recycled polyester rash vest for both
genders, that gave the range a good
boost in unit numbers.
All Saltwater Culture products use
recycled polyester trims, recycled paper
FSC swing tags and string.
“It’s all very well to use recycled
material, but the philosophy is
all-encompassing. We want to look at
the whole product and how it is shipped,
delivered and communicated.”
One of the biggest challenges with
the Saltwater Culture Collection is
managing the extra costs of
sustainable products. Consumers
aren’t always willing to pay more for
sustainability, so our focus for the
future is on larger-volume product
categories where we can have more
impact and more purchasing power.
“Our industry is inherently connected
with the environment and protecting
our environment. We’re also aware
that our industry causes harm, but
we all have a vision to make it more
sustainable,” Jarrah says.
The next steps are to find ways to
track and measure our impact and
set goals for converting more and
more of the range to sustainable
fabrics.
“Everyone at Rip Curl is really
passionate about sustainability, but
it’s still kind of new for us. We’ve got a
lot to learn in this area. We aren’t
perfect, and neither is this collection.
But it’s the start, and we’re proud to
say we are making progress.”
RECYCLED FISHING NETS IN
SWIMWEAR RANGE
Senior Swimwear Designer Natalie
Bortolotto had an idea to develop a
planet-friendly range and then took it
a step further.
“I put forward the idea of changing
our entire basics range to be recycled
fabric,” Natalie says.
Eco Surf Essentials launched last year
using Econyl, a fabric created by
Italian firm Aquafil that regenerates
industrial plastic and fishing nets.
Traditional nylon production uses huge
amounts of water and produces
nitrous oxide, which is 10 times more
potent than carbon dioxide.
It’s estimated that up to 40% of
plastic waste in the ocean is nylon.
Discarded fishing nets threaten
marine life — trapping whales,
dolphins, sharks and turtles.
Econyl collects this waste and
transforms it into a high-quality fabric
that uses less water and creates less
waste than traditional nylon
production, reducing the global
warming impact by up to 90%.
“I did my research on Econyl because I
was sceptical. Some plastic recycling
uses huge amounts of water and
energy, and I wasn’t interested in
greenwashing,” Natalie says.
By putting this fabric into a timeless
essentials range, Natalie says this
long-lasting swimwear can be a great
part of a carefully considered
wardrobe.
Around 65% of the Rip Curl swim
collection now uses recycled elements.
We’ve used more than 15 tonnes of
Econyl so far — that’s saved 105
barrels of crude oil and 5.71 tonnes of
CO
2
emissions.
“We are a brand that is heavily
connected to the ocean so I want to
make sure we're leaders' in innovation
and sustainability. As a designer,
thinking about sustainability requires
me to think outside of the box, which
I love. And creativity and innovation is
one of Rip Curl’s core values, so it fits.”
152
%
OUR SUSTAINABLE
FABRIC SEARCH
ORGANIC COTTON
REGENERATED POLYAMIDE
-ECONYL(
RECYCLED
P O LY E S TER
TOTAL
INCREASE
218
%
217
%
50
%
INCREASEINCREASEINCREASE
JARRAH MCDIARMID
PRODUCT MANAGER EQUIPMENT
AND ACCESSORIES
109108