Beloved British footwear brand Hunter Boots recently unveiled a new sustainability and accountability strategy called Hunter Protect.
Hunter Protect details the brand’s commitments to protect and support both the environment and people. According to the UK brand, their lengthy manifesto will play an important role in the day-to-day operations of the business, as well as their long-term objectives.
In total, Hunter Protect is made up of seven pledges, each intended to hold Hunter accountable and measure progress throughout the entire company.
The first sustainability pledge is for all of Hunter’s rubber footwear to be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified by 2025. The second pledge involves the company working alongside the World Land Trust to protect endangered forests, as well as the species who inhabit the land and the people that look after it.
The third pledge relates to the use of sustainable materials with Hunter aiming to achieve 65% of their collection be made out of FSC-certified rubber, bloom algae foam, or recycled textiles by 2022.
As the fourth pledge, Hunter aims to make 100% of its packaging recyclable by 2022. The fifth pledge in the manifesto is for the brand to become carbon neutral and to offset all direct carbon emissions by next year.
The final two Hunter Protect pledges are to conduct a worldwide inclusive leadership training program for all hiring managers by 2022, and to donate a further 15,000 pairs of boots to global charities, specifically those that respond to natural disasters, refugee crises, and pandemics (this is on top of the 150,000 pairs of boots Hunter has donated to date).
Beyond the seven pledges, Hunter’s sustainability and ethics-centred manifesto is defined by three main pillars: Protect Our Forests, Protect Our Resources, and Protect Our People and Community.
The brand says that they have a strong interest in protecting forests owing to their significant use of rubber (which is derived from the sap of trees). They also stated plans to produce 125 footwear styles out of FSC-certified rubber in 2022, which if successful, would make up 14% of their total footwear collection.
In terms of protecting resources, Hunter outlined in detail their aim to increase their use of recycled materials and announced the launch of the Hunter ReBoot initiative. Hunter ReBoot is a recycling solution where customers in the US and UK can return their old Hunter boots, which will then be recycled by West Coast Rubber Recycling in the US and First Mile in the UK. Through these organizations, old Hunter boots will be given new life as everything from speed bumps and playground surfacing to kickboxing and bag filler.
Within the “Protect Our People and Community” pillar, Hunter shares their dedication to working alongside others who hold the same values and beliefs as them. Actions the company is taking include continuing their responsible sourcing programme which ensures the safety of all factory workers, growing the Diversity & Inclusion committee that they formed in 2020, and working with charitable organizations around the world, including Show Racism the Red Card and The Prince’s Trust.
Finally, alongside the unveiling of Hunter Protect, the UK brand also launched the “Protect Our Forests” collection. Created in collaboration with the FSC, the collection includes the brand’s iconic Original Forest Tall boot and Original Forest Short boot. Each Wellington boot was designed using natural, vegan rubber harvested from FSC-certified forests. During the first month of the sale, Hunter will donate 5% of profits from the limited edition collection to World Land Trust to fund the annual salary of a “Keeper Of The Wild” forest ranger.
All images in this article are courtesy of Hunter.
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