Sustainability: Goals for a Brighter Future
At Milliken, we strive to discover new ways to enhance lives and make the world around us easier, safer, and more beautiful. While we are proud of the environmental responsibility we have demonstrated throughout our history, we recognize the need for continuous evolution with goals that protect and improve our world. As a company, we have set a high bar for ourselves by publishing a set of measurable goals for 2025. These include Planet Goals to shrink our footprint, Product Goals to promote circular economies, and People Goals to care for our employees and communities.
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Our 2025 Goals to Protect and Improve our World
Our 2025 Planet Goals will reduce our global footprint in order to increase our global impact: ZERO waste to landfill, increase renewable energy use 10X, ZERO environmental violations, and reduce indexed greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and solid waste by 25%.
Our 2025 Product goals will help to create circular economies through internal assessments and industry-wide collaborations: analyze new products launched using Life Cycle Analysis principles, and convene scientists and thought leaders to advance the goal of solving the plastics end-of-life challenge.
Our 2025 People goals recognize that developing cutting-edge innovations begins with cared-for communities: an inclusive associate community, ZERO lost time safety incidents, ZERO data privacy breaches, and 100,000 volunteer hours in our communities.
Positive Impact on the World Around Us
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In the following pages, we outline new, aggressive company goals, such as a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and solid waste creation; 100,000 volunteer hours to enhance the communities where we live and work; zero lost work days and the safest work environment possible; and extensive reviews of products we manufacture to best understand their role in the circular economy—all by 2025.
Interested in reading the 2019 Milliken Corporate Sustainability report?
Telling our Sustainability Story
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Long before it was a buzz word in everyday consciousness, sustainability was a cornerstone of Milliken’s operational excellence. Evolving from the company’s first-ever recycling policy established in 1901 to today’s holistic view of how sustainable products can positively impact our world, we have a long history of championing sustainable measures and challenging what sustainability can accomplish. We are excited to once again challenge the framework of sustainability by enlisting National Geographic to produce a series of custom articles in National Geographic magazine and website.
Want to learn more about our sustainability story?
Read more
The United Nations Global Compact Initiative
Milliken & Company is pleased to announce that we have joined the United Nations Global Compact Initiative — a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices. With this announcement, Milliken is proud to join thousands of other companies globally committed to taking responsible business action to create the world we all want.
The UN Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world, with more than 9,500 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and more than 70 Local Networks.
Want to learn more about the United Nations Global Compact?
www.unglobalcompact.org
Sharing Green Spaces
Our environmental stewardship extends far beyond the footprint of our buildings. Our 600-acre campus in Spartanburg, which hosts our corporate headquarters, is one of the largest corporate green spaces in the southeast of the United States and is open to the public. A nationally recognized arboretum and horticultural testing ground, its attractions include open fields, groves and woods, fifteen decorative fountains, six ponds and more than 500 different trees and shrubs.