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Limited Brands In Action

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It Matters How We Play The Game

Footprint

As a values-led organization, Limited Brands is increasingly integrating the protection and preservation of global resources into our everyday business practices. It's part of doing what is right and means that we are committed to sustainable, responsible and thoughtful environmental behavior. We realize that we have a long way to go, but we're pleased with our initial steps to reduce our impact on the environment. Going forward, our commitment is to consistently improve upon and expand our environmental stewardship efforts, while continuing to collaborate with other advocates who share our values.

We strive to manage the natural resources entrusted to us through:

  • thoughtful procurement of supplies, equipment and merchandise; and
  • our daily business operations.

Interwoven through every step is our commitment to:

  • minimize waste generation and maximize recycling;
  • partner with not-for-profit organizations to promote reuse;
  • conserve energy and preserve natural resources;
  • promote the increased use of recycled content paper;
  • partner with environmentally responsible suppliers;
  • build relationships with environmental agencies and non-governmental organizations; and
  • hold ourselves accountable for our environmental stewardship efforts.

Promoting sustainable materials

Paper

We are proud of our partnership with ForestEthics to raise environmental standards in the catalogue industry. As a result of extensive and thoughtful discussions with ForestEthics in 2006 and 2007, we are taking measures to ensure that the pulp used in the paper we procure for catalogues is not from endangered forests. Listed here is our paper policy, our commitment going forward and the steps we have already taken.

In December 2007, we were honored to receive the Boreal Stewardship Award from the Canada's Boreal Leadership Council. During the last three years, we have learned more and more about the Canadian Boreal Forest. The more we have learned, the more committed we have become to Boreal Forest conservation, to help ensure survival of caribou and advocating for First Nations communities.

Promoting Materials
Limited Brands' paper policy:
  • addresses the entire paper and forest products lifecycle; and
  • eliminates suppliers sourcing from endangered forests.
We are committed to:
  • no longer accepting paper sourced from endangered forests of Canada's Boreal Region—this includes Alberta's Rocky Mountain Foothills as well as the British Columbia Inland Temperate Rainforest.
  • our goal of producing our catalogues with 10 percent post-consumer waste (PCW) or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper.
  • having a preference for FSC certification. We partnered with one of our principal suppliers to achieve FSC certification at its four paper mills.
  • an overall catalogue paper reduction.
  • continual improvement of the environmental attributes of our catalogue paper and paper use and will have an independent third party audit our progress and make public the results.
  • phasing out paper procured from endangered forests.
  • providing $1 million to research and advocacy to protect endangered forests. We funded a study by the Conservation Biology Institute in 2007 to understand the impact of sourcing pulp from the Alberta Foothills on species and ecological values. The results were concerning and we, along with our partners from Forest Ethics, met with the Alberta government, forest companies and oil and gas companies to promote change.
Our 2007 progress:
Working with our paper products suppliers, we have successfully been able to reduce the demands on our forests by steadily increasing our use of post-consumer waste (PCW) paper and paper certified to FSC standards by:

  • continuing to print all of our 27 million Victoria's Secret Clearance Catalogues on FSC-certified, 100 percent recycled paper - of which approximately 80 percent is PCW. In addition, we dramatically increased the use of PCW and FSC-certified paper in our other Victoria's Secret Catalogues.
  • improving our efforts to carefully review our catalogue mailing list. In an effort to reduce the amount of unwanted catalogues mailed, we go to great lengths to ensure that our catalogue mailing lists are accurate and up-to-date.
  • providing a toll-free number (1-800-411-5116) for clients to call if they want to reduce or unsubscribe from catalogue mailings.
  • printing our 2007 annual report and proxy statement on FSC-certified paper that is a combination of 100 percent PCW and 30 percent PCW paper stock. (The financial section of our annual report is printed on 100 percent PCW paper stock while the cover and editorial section are printed on 30 percent PCW paper stock.)
  • changing the office and copier paper we use to 30 percent PCW.
  • utilizing PCW or FSC-certified paper for over 90 percent of the other paper we purchased.

Through these efforts we hope to play a constructive role in promoting more environment friendly paper policies in the catalogue industry.

Energy and Climate

Energy

Lighting and air conditioning consume a great deal of energy. In an effort to reduce our energy consumption, Limited Brands has been rolling out numerous energy-efficient projects which have significant energy savings and pollution reduction associated with them. Our efforts include:

An added benefit of switching to the more efficient, compact fluorescent lamps is that the new lamps generate less heat which, in turn, reduces the energy required to cool the stores.
  • building new stores with more efficient lighting technology, including highly-efficient Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH) bulbs.
  • modifying approximately 900 stores with more efficient lighting bulbs and fixtures.
  • replacing older, less efficient lamps in over 700 stores with new, more efficient compact fluorescent lamps.
  • these lighting projects alone reduce our store electricity consumption by 50,000,000 kWh annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 35,000 metric tons.
  • proactively replacing aging HVAC units in our stores with newer, more efficient units. The first phase of this project has resulted in the replacement of approximately 125 HVAC units over the past two years, reducing electricity consumption by more than 1,500,000 kWh while cutting carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1000 metric tons.
  • replacing the existing roofs on three of our seven Ohio distribution centers with newly designed roofing systems creating a 15 percent reduction in energy consumption and costs. Following the success of the first three installations, we plan to install the same energy-efficient roofing on the rest of our distribution centers.
  • over the next several years, replacing all of our current fluorescent lighting fixtures in our home offices, distribution centers and call centers with more efficient, compact fluorescent lighting fixtures. Replacing the lighting in these buildings will reduce energy consumption in these buildings by an estimated 15,000,000 kWh and reduce emissions by 8,640 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Fossil Fuels

The movement of freight around the world requires the use of fossil fuels. The use of ocean vessels is the most fuel-efficient means of transporting merchandise from overseas. We work with freight carriers to maximize the use of ocean vessels and minimize the use of air shipment. To complement this effort, we optimize cargo space by fully loading cargo containers bound for the United States.

Limited Brands is committed to:

  • increasing the utilization of our rail service. Rail service utilizes less fuel and produces less air emissions than truck service.
  • utilizing highly efficient trailer stacking techniques to optimize the use of trailer space and reduce the number of trucks and amount of energy required to transport our merchandise in our distribution centers.

In 2006, Limited Brands became a partner in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay Transport Partnership program. This program works with shippers, freight carriers and logistics companies to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution caused by the transportation of goods. Limited Brands is working with the SmartWay program on several projects that will result in a reduction of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2005, Limited Brands began a program to convert much of our inbound freight from truck to rail in order to reduce diesel fuel consumption and emissions. During 2007, this much-expanded project resulted in:

  • a 100 percent increase in the number of containers shipped via rail instead of truck over 2006;
  • a savings of 122,500 gallons of diesel fuel; and
  • reduced emissions of carbon dioxide by nearly 1,300 metric tons.

We will continue to work with SmartWay to identify opportunities to optimize this program in the future.

In October 2007, Limited Brands was honored to receive an Environmental Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SmartWay Transport Partnership for its leadership in conserving energy and lowering greenhouse gas emissions from its transportation and freight activities.

In 2007 Limited Brands participated for the first time in the Carbon Disclosure Project by completing and submitting CDP5, the format in which participants document the carbon generated by their activities and operations.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

We're committed to working with our suppliers and vendors to find creative ways to further reduce the amount of paper, packaging materials and other natural resources used in our business operations.

Since 2005, Limited Brands has been a partner in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WasteWise program, which works with companies to increase waste management efforts to ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on climate change. Our recycling efforts have been centered on:

The US EPA's annual report recognizes Limited Brands as being passionate about the global community and highlights the company's significant waste management achievements.
  • Efficient packaging
  • Elimination of PVC containers
  • Store recycling efforts
  • Pallet recycling
  • Product re-use (donations/sample sale
  • Other recycling

Below is a list of some of the items Limited Brands recycled in 2007:

  • 9,691 tons of corrugate and office paper
  • 217 tons of alcohol-containing products, rather than dispose of the material as hazardous waste
  • 274 tons of metal
  • 546 tons of plastic
  • 8 tons of textiles
  • 4,333 tons of wood from pallets
  • 6 tons of toner cartridges
  • 82 tons of computers and other electronics
  • 15 tons of batteries
  • 125 tons of glass

In total, during 2007, Limited Brands kept nearly 18,000 tons of material from going to landfill through reuse and recycling!

Efficient Packaging

Our merchandise is stored and shipped in specially designed cartons that Limited Brands helped to develop along with our apparel suppliers and a packaging material expert. These unique cartons are manufactured using fewer raw materials than our previous cartons and are designed to hold more merchandise, stack more efficiently and require less space on transportation vehicles. The containers are manufactured with approximately 46 percent post-consumer waste recycled recycled content.

Elimination of PVC Containers

In 2003, Limited Brands stopped using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) containers for our Bath and Body Works and Victoria's Secret personal care products, which reduced our PVC usage by 4.3 million pounds per year (insert fun fact). Those personal care products are now stored in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers which is the most widely used plastic in consumer packaging. It's readily recycled in most communities and its manufacture is considered to be more environmentally friendly than PVC.

Store Recycling Containers

Recyclable personal care products returned from our stores to our distribution center are packaged and shipped in five-gallon plastic pails. When they arrive at our distribution centers, we empty the containers, clean them and return them to the stores for reuse. In 2007, 33,588 pails were reused, weighing approximately 35.6 tons.

Additionally, in 2005, we changed the absorbent used in our recycling containers from vermiculite, a mined substance, to 95 percent recycled-content fiber pads. This change helps promote the market for the recycled-content pads and eliminated the need for nearly 17 tons of vermiculite in 2007.

Pallets

Merchandise that is received from vendors is often shipped on wood pallets. We reuse the pallets to handle merchandise in our distribution centers. Pallets that are damaged are sent to a third party for repair and are redistributed for further use. Pallets unable to be reused are ground into fine wood shavings and are ultimately used for purposes such as mulch for landscaping. During 2007, we sent more than 4,000 tons of wood pallets for recycling.

Product Re-Use
  • Donations
    In an effort to find beneficial ways in which surplus products and supplies can be reused, Limited Brands has partnered with various charitable organizations, such as the Central Ohio Sustainability Alliance - Waste Not Center. The Waste Not Center accepts donations of items that are in good condition and makes them available to teachers, artists and others for use in various types of projects. In 2007, Limited Brands donated to various charities approximately 20,000 pounds of discontinued product and other items which would otherwise have been thrown away into a landfill.
  • Associate Sale
    The Associate Sale is an event in which merchandise and products that can no longer be sold in our retail stores are made available for our associates to purchase at a reduced cost. Sales from the 2007 Associate Sale resulted in the reuse of more than 57 tons of products/merchandise that would otherwise have been thrown away. Additionally, all money raised through the sale is donated to United Way of Central Ohio.
Other Recycling

As an alternative to disposal, Limited Brands goes to great lengths to recycle miscellaneous materials. In 2007, approximately 83 percent of all material processed through our distribution centers for disposal was instead recycled or reused.

Partnerships

Limited Brands is currently involved in partnerships with the following organizations:

Associations

Limited Brands is currently a member of the following environmentally focused organizations:

Recognition

Limited Brands has received the following awards and recognition for our environmental efforts:

In a news release published by the U.S. EPA, the EPA said it was a proud to honor Limited Brands for these extraordinary achievements, adding that, Limited Brands has its priorities straight with a clear commitment to reducing waste.
  • Partner of the Year - Very Large Business from the U.S. EPA WasteWise program, October 2008
  • Boreal Award from the Canadian Boreal Initiative, December 2007
  • Excellence Award from U.S. E.P.A. Smartway Transportation Partnership, November 2007
  • Partner of the Year - Very Large Business from the U.S. E.P.A. Waste Wise Program, October 2007
  • Honorable Mention in the Very Large Business category from the U.S. EPA WasteWise program, October 2006
  • Emerald Award for "Best Practices" from the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, April 2006
  • Two Gold Achievement awards from the U.S. EPA WasteWise program, October 2005