Savers Value Village - Sustainability Overview

Our Commitment

We believe that operating as a thrift retailer should go beyond providing high quality secondhand products at unbelievable value. It should also contribute to communities and the environment while offering team members and customers an inclusive, engaged, and positive culture.

While community and the environment are intrinsic parts of our business model, over the past year we have taken additional steps to formalize and build an Executive-led ESG program as part of our commitment to continuous progress in these critical strategic areas for our company. For example, we have established an internal ESG Committee to help build our strategy and engaged a third-party climate change and energy consultant to calculate our Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

By integrating ESG considerations into our business operations, we remain committed to our team members, good corporate governance, a strong compliance culture, and making a positive contribution to the communities we serve.

Our impact at a glance*

3.2B+

pounds of goods diverted from North American landfills (from fiscal year 2019 through fiscal year 2023)

90%+

of our supply is locally sourced (fiscal year 2019 through fiscal year 2023)

$530MM+

paid to our non-profit partners for secondhand clothing and household goods (from fiscal year 2019 through fiscal year 2023)

58%

of management and corporate operations roles were held by team members identifying as female in U.S. and Canada

57%

of U.S. workforce represented by people with diverse backgrounds and ethnicities

274MM

items purchased by our thrifters in North America in 2023.

11 million

items were purchased in Australia in 2023

*as of 12/30/2023 unless otherwise noted

Environmental

As a leader and pioneer of the for-profit thrift category, we seek to positively impact the environment by reducing waste, promoting reuse of textiles and household goods, the recycling of excess metal, cardboard, and plastic, and extending the life of reusable goods.

The textile and clothing industry is one of the most environmentally damaging sectors of the economy; it relies on non-renewable resources such as oil for synthetic fibers, fertilizer to grow cotton and chemicals associated with the production, dyeing and finishing of fibers and textiles. This process is also energy and water-intensive. Meanwhile, discarded clothing is the largest source of textile waste in the world, with the average U.S. citizen throwing away 81 pounds of clothing each year, 95% of which could have been reworn or repurposed.¹ Further, less than 1% of the material used to produce new clothing – whether factory offcuts or clothing after it is used by the consumer – is recycled to make new clothing, which makes reuse key to mitigating the environmental impacts of the textile industry.²

By sourcing and selling second hand items, we contribute to the conservation of resources. Thrift is inherently circular and provides one of the most effective solutions to mitigate the environmental cost of clothing and extending its life.

The vast majority of the clothing and textiles we source are sold to our retail or wholesale customers. During fiscal year 2023, we processed 984 million pounds and 274 million items of secondhand goods, respectively.

Social

We believe our local and socially responsible procurement model, industry-leading and innovative operations, differentiated value proposition and deep relationships with our customers distinguish us from other second hand and value-based retailers.

Our business model sources the majority of our supply from local non-profit organizations in the communities where we do business. We purchase the majority of the secondhand items we sell in our retail stores from nonprofit organizations. Our typical retail store operates a Community Donation Center® (“CDC”), where we accept clothing and household items on behalf of a local nonprofit partner. In addition, our GreenDrop® locations provide communities surrounding our stores with further donation opportunities. We pay our nonprofit partners for these donated goods, creating revenue they can use to help fund and fulfill their missions.

Between 2019 and 2023, we paid our nonprofit partners more than $530 million for secondhand goods, providing them with unrestricted revenue to support their community-focused missions. From 2019 to 2023, over 90% of our supply was locally sourced, delivering a broad and diverse selection to our customers and fostering a sense of community.

Our leading “people” metric across the organization is team member engagement, which is scored across various areas, including overall job satisfaction, whether our team members would recommend us as a place to work, personal commitment, being energized at work and having intent to remain employed. Team member engagement directly impacts the satisfaction of our customers as well as our nonprofit partners and their donors.

We also invest in the training, development and advancement of our team members. During fiscal year 2023, 72% of open salaried management positions filled by internal promotions for the U.S. and Canada. As of December 30, 2023, 58% of the management roles in our stores and corporate operations were held by team members identifying as female, and 57% of our U.S. workforce was represented by diverse backgrounds and ethnicities.

We’re a for-profit company that champions reuse. Shopping in our stores doesn’t support any nonprofit, but donating your reusable goods does.
We pay nonprofits for your stuff, helping them fund programs in our communities. TVI, Inc. is a registered professional fundraiser where required.

Governance

We are committed to ethical practices in every aspect of our business and have adopted a Savers® Code of Conduct that outlines our expectations for internal interactions and helps us maintain compliance with local laws and regulations.

Our five core values guide our strategic direction and how our team members interact with one another, our communities and our customers:

(1) Make service count
(2) Celebrate uniqueness
(3) Do the right thing
(4) Find a better way
(5) Make an impact

SMART (Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles) Association, accessible at
https://www.smartasn.org/SMARTASN/assets/File/resources/SMARTInfographTextileRecycling.pdf
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, “A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion’s future,” accessible at
https://emf.thirdlight.com/link/2axvc7eob8zx-za4ule/@/preview/1?o

Archived ESG Reports