Forests are vital to humanity and our planet—providing clean air and water; mitigating climate change; reducing the impacts of floods; providing wildlife habitats; and directly supporting approximately 1.6 billion people who depend on forest ecosystems for food, fresh water, clothing, medicine and shelter. But forests are also threatened: every minute, approximately 85 acres are destroyed, which means we lose millions of acres each year.

To help halt forest destruction, we are dedicated to sourcing sustainable packaging and catalogues. Beginning in 2004, Tiffany started requesting third-party certifications for our blue bags, with a preference for Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™) certification—the premier standard in responsible forestry management—and started requiring all new global print suppliers to have FSC™ certification. In 2015, we set our sights higher with a new goal to remove commodity-driven deforestation from our key wood and paper supply chains by the end of 2020. To meet this goal, we worked closely with the Rainforest Alliance to create formal guidance for sustainably sourcing wood and paper products. In 2019, 100% of our catalogues and marketing collateral and 100% of our consumer packaging was also sustainably sourced. Our Tiffany Blue Boxes and bags are also made with at least 50% recycled content.

Tiffany places a high priority on excellent design, including in our stores. Behind the beauty of our buildings are sustainable design elements which reduce our overall environmental impact; reduce our costs; and support employee and customer wellness at retail, office, distribution and manufacturing facilities. As of June 2020, 16 of our new and renovated retail stores in our Asia-Pacific region received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver or Gold certification, demonstrating excellence in sustainable building design and construction. 

We believe that climate action is a moral and a business imperative. Climate change impacts our employees, our customers and our shareholders and we support a sustainable future for the planet on behalf of every community we reach. We are active in the movement to combat climate change and use our voice to advocate for responsible climate policy and the importance of protecting biodiversity.

Tiffany & Co. is proud to join with the other members of the business community in the U.S. and globally to call for climate action. We believe that together we can call for change and demonstrate that climate action is good for business. Since the U.S. began considering a withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, we joined other business leaders to call for the U.S. to continue climate action through signing onto the We Are Still In open letter.

Building on past efforts, in 2020, we joined with other businesses to virtually lobby the U.S. Congress for a COVID-19 recovery plan that enables the nation to rebuild sustainably. We lobbied to support public policies aimed at advancing our economy and protecting society’s most vulnerable citizens, while facilitating a net-zero emissions future.

As a company, we feel it is our responsibility to use the power of the Tiffany brand to lead powerful conversations about climate change. We speak out and raise awareness during critical moments that directly affect the planet and our communities. In 2017, we placed an ad in The New York Times urging the U.S. to not withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. In late 2019 and early 2020, we continued that tradition when devastating bushfires decimated millions of acres of land in Australia. We placed full-page ads in two of the country’s prominent newspapers to raise awareness of the connection between the bushfires and climate change and to call on the Australian government to take urgent climate action to help reduce future bushfire risk and protect the nation’s people and wildlife.

We also monitor our memberships to ensure we do not associate with groups that oppose important climate change efforts. In 2009, we resigned from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over our disappointment in their approach to legislation and regulatory efforts to address climate change. We screen all of our memberships against an InfluenceMap list of groups known to reject climate science or undermine responsible climate policy around the world. In 2015, we added a question about climate policy to our annual Political Spending Disclosure questionnaire, sent to major trade associations.    

In some places, preserving natural beauty means protecting landscapes from mining activity. After more than 180 years in the industry, we know there are certain places where mining cannot be done without forever destroying landscapes and harming wildlife and communities. As a company that sources metals directly from mines in the United States, we believe that we have a role to play in protecting landscapes across the U.S.

Since 1995, when we opposed a proposed gold mine that would have threatened Yellowstone National Park, we have been using the power of our voice to help protect places that have a high value to the environment, the cultural traditions of indigenous people or local economies across the United States. Over the years, we have spoken out to oppose a proposed copper and silver mining project in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area near the Idaho-Montana border; and we have voiced our opposition to the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, home to one of the world’s greatest remaining wild salmon watersheds.

In addition to advocating for the protection of critical landscapes, we are vocal about reforming outdated U.S. legislation for the mining sector so that it better protects the public lands we all enjoy.