Salvos Stores nominated for sustainability award

Meriel Chamberlin (left) with Madeleine McGowan at the Textile Recovery Facility. Image: File

BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE

Salvos Stores have been nominated for an Australian Retail Council (ARC) Award, with the winner to be announced in Melbourne this evening. 

The ARC Sustainability Excellence Award acknowledges the dedication of a retailer’s stewardship and innovation in embracing sustainable practices.

This award recognises a business who has implemented groundbreaking initiatives to transition to a low-carbon economy and actively collaborates with their team, stakeholders and customers to enhance positive environmental outcomes.

In a deeper commitment than just target-setting, the recipient uses their influence to champion positive policy changes that broaden the adoption of sustainable practices within the retail sector, according to the ARC website. 

Other finalists in the category include Coles, IKEA Australia, Vinnies and Woolworths Group.  

With the opening of The Salvation Army’s Textile Recovery Facility in Queensland, the first of its kind in the country, Salvos Stores are working towards greater circularity across its retail and reuse practices. 

Textile Recovery Facility Business Development Manager Meriel Chamberlin said that as a retailer with more than 420 stores, the footprint of Salvos Stores was enormous, and gave them great credibility in the retail space. She said the plans to establish a centre like the Textile Recovery Facility had been five years in the making, with Madeleine McGowan, Regional Manager for Salvos Stores and previous Chief Executive Matt Davis doing extensive work to make the project viable, securing $4.97m funding support from the Queensland Government to establish the facility. 

Meriel said The Salvation Army Australia was now trusted across the world for its focus on sustainable textile recovery, standing on the shoulders of TSA teams in the UK and the Netherlands, and that the fact it was a national and an international organisation meant there was enormous potential to expand the work of fabric reuse. 

“What we are doing here is massive, together we are leading in so many ways,” Meriel said.  

“It’s really big.” 

The Salvation Army has a long history of seeking to establish sustainable and ethical practices around factory production. One hundred and thirty-five years ago, The Salvation Army established its own matchstick factory which provided an alternative to the standard matches which were produced using phosphorus, a substance which caused long-term health impacts for factory workers. 

The winner of the ARC Sustainability Excellence Award will be announced today at a cocktail event at the Ritz Carlton in Melbourne.