Flipkart Group partners with Canopy to save world’s ancient and endangered forests

As signatories of the two initiatives, Flipkart and Myntra will shift towards sustainable sourcing of forest-derived products and pilot alternative solutions to transition away from forests for raw materials.

Flipkart and Myntra have joined hands with Canopy, a not-for-profit environmental organisation, to support approaches and systems to eliminate the use of materials derived from ancient and endangered forests in its use of packaging, paper or man-made cellulosic fibers, the Flipkart Group said on Thursday.

The two Flipkart Group companies have joined Canopy's Pack4Good (packaging) and CanopyStyle (fashion) initiatives to advance their commitment to move towards sustainable packaging and material sourcing.

"Flipkart as a homegrown e-commerce marketplace is committed to creating a sustainable environment by sourcing responsibly while creating sustainable alternatives for business needs. In this endeavour, we are so pleased to be joining both CanopyStyle and the Pack4Good initiatives, in order to save the world's ancient and endangered forests," said Hemant Badri, Senior Vice-President and Head of Supply Chain at Flipkart.

As signatories of the two initiatives, the companies will shift towards sustainable sourcing of forest-derived products and pilot alternative solutions to transition away from forests for raw materials. Over the next three years, Flipkart and Myntra will focus on:

• Reducing corrugated paper and paperboard
• Encouraging the use of recycled, reusable and/or FSC certified paper and packaging
• Sourcing products with responsibly sourced man-made cellulosic fibres
• Design and implement systems that minimize the use of packaging materials
• Increase utilization of recycled materials in packaging
• Adopt best practices including researching and applying emerging and circular economy innovations

Additionally, the partnership will focus on increasing the use of digital communication, marketing and accounting systems as well as the use of responsibly sourced man-made cellulosic fibre for in-house products.

"This association with Canopy and the adoption of CanopyStyle for fashion and Pack4Good for packaging is a major step towards our goal of further eliminating single plastic use and increasing environment-friendly practices," said Neetu Jotwani, Vice-President and Head of Sourcing, Myntra.

To recall, Flipkart and Myntra recently announced a shift away from single-use plastics in their packaging.