At the beginning of 2019, the SIMA Board launched a new initiative called the Business Sustainability Alliance. The Alliance was formed to create efficiencies and cost savings for SIMA members by “reducing and eliminating.”
The initial targets in the mission to “reduce and eliminate” are poly bags, in which nearly all apparel items are warehoused and shipped to retailers, and printed catalogs, which have a profound negative impact on the environment and the industry spends millions of dollars on every year. Earlier this year, SIMA launched its poly bag initiative to the membership by introducing two affordable poly bag options that are more eco-friendly in order to reduce impact on the environment. And SIMA has also announced a partnership with the digital catalog platform, Elastic, in its plan to eliminate printed catalogs in the industry by 2021.
Join SIMA president Shannan North and Josh Reddin from Elastic as they discuss how the move to printed catalogs is not only the right thing to do for the environment, but also is the best thing for business efficiencies and cost savings – for brands and retailers.