Missoula News

corporate environmental responsibility

REI Boss Sally Jewell Speaks at UM

By Emily Darrell, 10-02-07

Sally Jewell, president and chief executive officer of REI, speaks at a press conference Monday afternoon at the University of Montana as part of the Gilkey Executive Lecture Series. Jewell joined the national outdoor gear and clothing cooperative in 2000 and assumed the position of CEO in March, 2005. Photo by Anne Medley.

Sally Jewell, president and CEO of outdoor-gear giant REI, came to Missoula Monday to speak as the fourth presenter in the Gilkey Executive Lecture Series. At a question and answer session held prior to the lecture, Jewell explained her views on corporate environmental responsibility, the REI co-operative philosophy, and the future of REI’s expansion.

Jewell, a Seattle native, became chief executive officer of REI in 2005 after five years as a chief operative officer for the company and says that in REI she has found her “soulmate.”

“Finally,” Jewell said, “my vocation matches my avocation.”

Jewell says she’s always had “a lifelong commitment to nature.” One her biggest worries is that kids these days don’t spend enough time outside. According to Jewell her company’s biggest competitor is not Patagonia, North Face, or L.L. Bean but rather electronics superstore Best Buy.

Why Best Buy? Because video games, TV, and computers are keeping kids indoors and away from nature, Jewell says. This is why much of the money that REI regularly gives to charity—in 2006 it granted $4 million to various community environmental organizations—ends up in programs to help engage kids in outdoor activities. In addition to jiving with her own personal philosophy, it also guarantees that she has a renewable customer base.

REI, or Recreational Equipment, Inc. was started in Seattle in 1938 as a consumer co-operative to provide hard-to-find climbing equipment for serious mountaineers. Jewell said the business has “had its ups and downs” and has spent a lot of its history deeply in debt, though it is now debt-free.  “We’re very healthy,” Jewell said of the company today. Last year, in fact, was the first year in REI’s history that sales exceeded $1 billion, and Jewell expects to hit the $2 billion mark in the next six years.

While the business is still run as a co-op, it now has over 2.5 million members, 91 retail stores, and a booming online business. Every year since 1998 the company has landed a spot on FORTUNE magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for, due partly to its dedication to providing even part-time employees with health insurance benefits and encouraging employees to “balance their work and personal lives.”

Jewell said that excellent customer is service is central to the REI philosophy, and that all REI employees are trained to be helpful to any person who comes in the store, even if they’re only asking about local recreation opportunities. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t buy a thing,” she said.  “It’s that kind of credibility we’re trying to create.”

Jewell spoke of a commitment to making REI “carbon neutral” and “waste neutral” by 2020. “It’s inconsistent to encourage people to use the outdoors when we, and all companies, are having an adverse effect on the planet.”

In terms of monitoring working conditions in REI’s overseas manufacturing centers, Jewell said that all factories that make REI brand products are put through a rigorous yearly audit, by which safety standards and payroll records are evaluated. However, only 20 percent of the merchandise REI sells carries the REI brand name.

Jewell said the company is now working with the Fair Labor Association to monitor working conditions for the other brands that REI stocks, and she’d like to find a way to hold all foreign factories that manufacture REI’s goods held accountable to the same environmental standards as U.S. factories.

Correction: This story has been altered to correct a mistake in paragraph six. Jewell said sales exceeded $1 billion last year, not profits. We apologize for the error.

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