Developing a better outdoor future for everyone
REI, the US’s best known active outdoor lifestyle co-op retailer has always been well known for its grounded and altruistic approach to supporting good causes. This heritage is set to continue with the launch of their Action Fund. The Action Fund, set up as a charity, which, for the first time, will allow and enable the public to contribute. effort to advance racial equity, diversity and inclusion within REI and broader society.
The Cooperative Action platform harnesses the collective strength and size of the co-op's 20 million members and more than 15,000 employees, empowering them to fight for a more sustainable and equitable future for the planet and the people on it. REI invites everyone to participate in Cooperative Action by donating to the Fund, voicing their support for legislation that impacts the outdoors through the Cooperative Action Network, and reducing their carbon footprint by purchasing and trading in used gear.
The REI Action Fund will focus on three specific grant-making initiatives:
- Connecting more people outside: The Fund will support outdoor-focused organizations led by and serving Black communities, Indigenous peoples, people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with physical disabilities, and women.
- Creating more space outside: The Fund will support efforts to increase equitable access to the outdoors, with specific emphasis on community-led carbon reduction projects that bring environmental benefits closer to home for marginalized communities.
- Centring health outside: The Fund will support efforts to strengthen and amplify scientific research, and support Traditional Ecological Knowledge to demonstrate that time outside improves mental, physical and emotional health and well-being.
The RRI Action Fund is a great move from one of America’s best known active outdoor lifestyle retailers, effectively the nations ‘go-to’ outdoor store. Proving that it is in the market for reasons beyond the bottom line, and operating with a heads-up view to the future, both for their customers' wellbeing and the good of the planet is wider terms. Together with powerhouses like Patagonia, we are genuinely witnessing the green shoots of a new growth within the industry where sustainability, responsibility, and altruism can be seen as a direct and actual positive driver for better social engagement for brands and their customers. Bravo.