Munich, 4th April 2023. Westwing releases its second Sustainability Report 2022, showcasing the company’s continued commitment to sustainability and outlining its progress in key areas such as supplier engagement, materials and packaging, planet and people, and sustainable choices.
As the world faces increasingly urgent environmental, social and economic challenges, Westwing recognizes the importance of taking responsibility and addressing its own contribution to these issues. Sustainability has been identified as one of the pillars of the company’s new strategy, with the belief that customers can choose to live both beautifully and sustainably.
“As a company that recognizes our responsibility to society and the environment, we see sustainability as a way of life that is here to stay and that we and our customers are eager to embrace,” says Delia Lachance, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Westwing.
2022 Sustainability Report: Our Sustainability journey
As the need for all organizations to reduce negative impacts on people and the planet continues to grow, Westwing is working to increase the level of disclosure and transparency across its sustainability performance. Westwing’s second Sustainability Report 2022 showcases the company’s commitment to sustainability and the significant progress made in each of the four strategic key areas as mentioned above.
“One year into the implementation of our 2030 Sustainability Strategy, we are proud to share our progress and learnings across each topic area in addition to our plans for the year ahead.These are the result of collaborative efforts across the entire Group, with sustainability integrated into the core business strategy and all departments working towards a common sustainability vision,” says Erasmia Kitou, Head of Corporate Sustainability at Westwing.
Key highlights:
- Westwing continues to partner with its suppliers to drive positive change with 96% of non-EU Westwing Collection suppliers having been audited on social aspects.
- The company has also enhanced its supplier engagement approach by introducing more stringent requirements, incorporating environmental considerations along with the social ones and expanding the scope of its assessments to include EU suppliers.
- Westwing increased its use of FSC-certified wood to 60%, from 8% in 2021 and its use of certified organic, recycled, or responsibly sourced cotton to 31%, from 7%. Westwing is also now a member of Better Cotton and is certified to Global Recycled Standard and Global Organic Textile Standard.
- With respect to its packaging, the company has made progress by switching to more sustainable alternatives such as recycled foil shipping bags and increasing the packaging used from recyclable materials to now represent 95% of all packaging. With a comprehensive packaging improvement roadmap in place for its European Logistics Center in Poland further improvements are expected for the upcoming year.
- Westwing has taken the next step in its science-based target journey by developing draft reduction targets with plans to submit for official validation shortly. Alongside these efforts, the company has also progressed towards its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2027, with a 22% share of renewable electricity achieved at the end of 2022.
- Westwing launched over one hundred group-wide “We Care” campaigns and more than doubled the number of products identified as “Sustainable” in its Shop.
- 85% of Westwing’s workforce rated their job satisfaction as good or very good in the latest pulse check survey.
- The company showcased clear improvements in its ESG ratings. For example, Westwing received a rating of AAA (on a scale of AAA-CCC) in the MSCI ESG Ratings assessment, representing a clear improvement from the previous year (rating of A).