Sustainability

Our teams are committed to maximizing NSTO’s environmental stewardship and driving change within all areas of the organization.

Fulfillment Center:
NSTO’s fulfillment center makes a huge impact in the reduction of our overall footprint, recycling 100% of the cardboard that enters the facility. Each month, more than 25 gaylords of flattened cardboard are recycled, in addition to plastic, glass, aluminum, paper, and wooden palettes. The shipping team utilizes sustainable materials for customer orders including biodegradable packing peanuts (which dissolve in water and are compostable), 100% recycled and compostable (unpadded) shipping mailers, recyclable tissue paper, and recycled corrugated boxes.

Merchandising & Product Development:
These teams launched semi-annual sustainability audits to identify new opportunities where waste can be reduced and yeilds maximized, ensuring that the development of NSTO’s private label brands are in-line with other company-wide efforts. Recent sustainability-focused changes include redesigning NEED garment hangtags to be produced from FSC-certified recycled materials and keeping unused fabric out of the waste stream through donations to FabScrap.org and WearableCollections.com.

Operations:
From motion-activated lighting to LED bulbs and bamboo-based tree-free ‘paper’ products within our offices, we recognize that individual efforts add up quickly to make a collective impact. With that in mind, our offices in both Virginia and New York are convenient to public transportation routes, with our HQ also supplementing electric lighting with natural solar. We also provide reusable dinnerware, drinkware and utensils, as well as filtered water, to reduce single-use plastics and collect and recycle everything from paper, plastic, aluminum, and glass to cardboard, denim, batteries and corks.

Externally, we seek out local vendors with environmentally friendly practices and those that value sustainability. From NSTO’s 100% recycled cotton business cards to the water-based inks used by our screen printers, teams throughout NSTO are working to ensure we’re maximizing every opportunity to reduce, re-use, and recycle.

Community Outreach & Partnerships

Supporting our communities and our employees go hand-in-hand. To encourage and facilitate both, NSTO provides full-time employees with paid volunteer hours to use toward causes and organizations about which they are passionate.

NSTO also participates in numerous community outreach and partnership opportunities that align with our business and industry, including, but not limited to:

• Denim collection and recycling programs with Blue Jeans Go Green

• Department partnerships with select School of the Arts programs at Virginia Commonwealth University, including: Fashion Merchandising, Fashion Design, and Photography

• Richmond SPCA ‘Pawtnerships’, raising awareness for homeless pets available for adoption

• Fundraising initiatives with Housing Works, a NYC-based non-profit fighting homelessness and AIDS.

• Arts support and exposure events for NYCxDesign week and Seattle Design Week

• Ongoing partnerships with On The Boards, a contemporary performing arts organization in Seattle, WA.

• Membership and participation in the Carytown Retail Merchants Association

• Meditation workshops at Totokaelo New York in preparation for the NYC Marathon

• And more...