Columbia Sportswear Company released its 2019 Corporate Responsibility Report which includes highlights from the progress made throughout 2019 in the three main areas of focus in its corporate responsibility strategy – empowering people, sustaining places and responsible practices.

The report assesses work accomplished in 2019 by its four primary brands – Columbia, SOREL, Mountain Hardwear, and Prana including:

  • Pledging to support 150,000 women in their participation in the HERproject by 2025;
  • Built seven water towers in 2019 in its manufacturing partners’ communities, for a total of 15, which provides approximately 15,000 people a day with clean water through the Columbia Clean Drinking Water Program;
  • Donated $2,037,098 by CSC to charitable causes or organizations;
  • Connected approximately 8,058 students to the outdoors through Columbia’s support of The National Park Foundation’s “Open OutDoors for Kids” campaign;
  • Launched product collections with sustainable attributes across its brands;
  • Used 100 percent Responsible Down Standard certified down across all of its brands;
  • Reduced absolute emissions in North American operations by 9 percent since 2018;
  • 6th year of Higg Index annual supply chain assessments; and
  • Completed 390-plus unannounced audits conducted at its manufacturing partner facilities with more than 40 percent of manufacturing partner facilities independently audited by third-party auditors.

A key element of this year’s report is the addition of Human Resources data capturing highlights from the global workforce in 2019 including workforce statistics, employee well-being programs and employee-driven initiatives.

The corporate responsibility efforts can we read here. The company has also released a Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Index which discloses its corporate responsibility efforts in accordance with SASB industry-specific standards and can be read here.

Photo courtesy Columbia Sportswear