Explore Nordstrom Near 06820

Nordstrom is committed to transforming itself into a more environmentally friendly company, but transitioning a $15 billion company is complicated. Extensive marketing and communication materials highlight the company’s efforts to diminish its impact on the global climate crisis and advocate for systematic change in the fashion industry.

We conducted this review using information from Nordstrom’s main website, its press site, and the company’s 2022 Impact report (scroll down the page to find the link). The company’s sustainability initiatives and goals are updated according to the findings in the company’s most recent Corporate Sustainability Report (CSR). As of this writing, the 2023 CSR was not available. We contacted Nordstrom to ask when a more recent report will be available.

Where to find Nordstrom near 06820?

Nordstrom at the Sono Collection, 100 N. Water Street, Norwalk, CT 06854

What they sell: Nordstrom offers a diverse range of brands under its ‘sustainable style’ category. You can search for sustainable-style women, sustainable-style men, and sustainable-style kids. Nordstrom’s sustainable criteria are under ‘details and care’ in each product description.

The company also has a selection of private-label brands under the “Nordstrom Made” umbrella. Private label collections are produced for retailers by third-party manufacturers and then sold under a retailer brand. Some examples of Nordstrom private label brands are Nordstrom, Zella, Open Edit, Treasure & Bond, BO., Caslon, Nordstrom Signature, Chelsea28, and Halogen.

2025 sustainability goals

In 2020, Nordstrom unveiled a series of five-year objectives to enhance its corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and initiatives for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. This website examines fashion and its environmental impacts. If you are interested in Nordstrom’s broader corporate efforts, more information is available on Nordstrom.com.

The 5-year goals relevant to fashion design, sourcing, and manufacturing are as follows:

Climate Change: Establish a science-based target to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
Environmental Impact: Reduce single-use plastics and ensure that 15% of the company’s product assortment meets Nordstrom for Good standards.
Preferred fibers: Nordstrom Made products are designed and produced using 30% responsibly farmed, recycled, and manufactured primary raw materials.
Circular Economy: Prioritize circular systems designed to regenerate materials at the end of a product’s life cycle.

What We Like About Nordstrom’s Sustainability Efforts

Alterations, Tailoring, and Refurbishment

As part of the focus on the circular economy, Nordstrom understands that well-fitting and well-cared-for clothes will stay in your closet and out of the landfill. If something doesn’t fit, they offer in-house tailoring and alterations for a fee. Nordstrom’s tailors can help you wear items longer by refitting, adjusting hemlines, adding pockets, customizing garments with embellishments, repairing zippers, and reinforcing seams. You can make an appointment online; the item does not have to have been originally bought at a Norstrom store. Since 2022, 160 tons of clothing have been kept out of the landfill through alterations and refurbishment by Nordstrom tailors.

Image courtesy of Nordstrom, Inc.

Clothing Donation

Nordstrom has partnered with Give Back Box. You can donate at selected stores, but the drop-off service is unavailable in Norwalk. However, you can still pack a box with gently used clothing, accessories, and/or shoes, print a prepaid shipping label from Givebackbox, and drop it off at a UPS or USPS location. Since 2022, customers have donated 13 tons of unwanted clothing, and Nordstrom’s private label donated 1 ton. These clothes are refurbished and resold through various channels.

Nordstrom Quality Center (NQC)

Nordstrom has had a team of specialists in place since 1998 to repurpose damaged or returned products. Since 2022, 190 tons of clothing have been sent to NQC. Sellable goods may be refurbished and sent to Nordstrom Rack or Last Chance stores in Phoenix and Chicago. Items that can’t be resold are purchased by jobbers, who resell them for other uses.

BeautyCycle

Image courtesy of Nordstrom, Inc.

Nordstrom has a collection bin in the beauty department in Norwalk. Their goal is to take back 100 tons of beauty packaging by 2025. The containers will be “recycled for eventual reuse.” We emailed Nordstrom for an explanation of what “eventual reuse” means.

The program accepts empty hair care, skin care, make-up, and sample containers. No aerosol cans, perfume, nail polish, nail polish remover, electronics (hair and skin care tools), non-empty containers of any product, and biomedical or biohazardous waste. They hope to divert 100 tons of beauty packaging from landfills by 2025.

Partnerships

Nordstrom is working with or has donated money to several organizations addressing climate change and working toward a cleaner fashion sector. The groups mentioned on their website include the following: Clean Air Task Force, Fibershed, FABSCRAP, Fashion for Good, Forterra’s Evergreen Carbon Capture Program, Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular, Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition), The Nature Conservancy, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.

How Nordstrom’s sustainability efforts can be improved

Significant work is being done in the “Nordstrom Made” and “Nordstrom for Good” product categories. We want to see the same standards for other brands the retailer sells. The company wants to broaden its sustainable brand assortment, but the criteria for brand partners are low. By the end of 2025, Nordstrom’s goal is 15% of products sold online will meet the criteria for ‘Nordstrom for Good.’ There is no mention of anything similar in physical stores,

We reached out and asked if there are separate goals for stores and also about the other 85% of products the company sells. We will update this review when we receive a response.

Preferred Materials: Nordstrom requires all “Nordstrom for Good” products to be made of at least 30% preferred materials. We emailed and asked why the minimum percentage of preferred material for each product isn’t higher. The textiles used to make a garment directly impact whether it can be recycled and its end-of-life options.

Responsible Sourcing & Manufacturing

To earn the designation as a “Nordstrom for Good” product, the item must possess one of the following certifications: Fairtrade, Good Weave, Better Cotton Initiative, U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, EMF Jeans Redesign, Cradle to Cradle—material health, OEKO-TEX 100, and OEKO-TEX Made in Green. Distinct criteria are established for Nordstrom’s private-label brands. We hope in the future, Nordstrom will require sustainable sourcing, and ethical manufacturing criteria to be applied to everything the company sells.