Rick Lambell has left his role as head of sustainable development at Kmart Group to take on a new position at his recently launched sustainability advisory business Beyond Sustainable Retail Group (BSRG). Lambell stepped down from his role in January 2024 after nearly 10 years at Kmart Group, covering sustainability across Kmart, Target and more recently with Anko.
In this op-ed, Lambell opens up about his time at Kmart Group and what it taught him.
I was with the Kmart Group business for just under a decade, starting on the Kmart side of the business and later picking up responsibilities for Target and Anko Global.
For many years, my focus was on proving to the market that a retailer could be both low-cost and have a strong commitment to transparency, sustainability, and human rights. By demonstrating leadership and proving it was possible, I aimed to encourage others in the industry to follow.
From humble beginnings, Kmart Group has come a long way and now has a mature sustainability program by world-standards. With momentum well and truly established, the time was right for me to move on to my next challenge, which is to support other retailers on the journey and accelerate change across the industry.
We achieved an enormous amount, but a couple of the moments really stand out. The first was delivering one of the fastest 0-100% implementations of more sustainable cotton in the world, primarily through the Better Cotton program. This was a water-shed moment for Kmart’s sustainability program, as it proved the concept that a high volume, low margin business could rapidly scale-up more sustainable fibres.
This paved the way for future success in recycled polyester and other materials. The key to success of the sustainable cotton project was strong executive sponsorship, a dedicated project team and a single-minded focus on delivering results fast.
The second was the huge improvement Kmart Group’s was able to make in local and global benchmarks, such as the Baptist World Aid Ethical Fashion Report, Fashion Transparency Index, and Corporate Human Rights Benchmark. Kmart Group had achieved at top 10 ranking in all benchmarks by 2023, including first in the world in the Fashion Transparency Index in 2022.
This was a big team effort and testament to the hard work of many individuals at Kmart Group over the past decade. Success with the benchmarks requires both continues improvement in policies and processes relevant to the fashion sector, and a strong commitment to transparency and disclosure.
I think for any retailer starting out or looking to accelerate their work in sustainability, one of the biggest challenges is articulating the business case and the customer value proposition. I certainly had my share of hard knocks in my early years as I was learning myself and working out how best to do this. Although a work in progress, over time this became easier as customer and media data and metrics improved, and with a very clear upward trajectory in customer and stakeholder interest in sustainability evident.
We used reputation and brand data to support the case for stronger action on sustainability and to measure the success of individual initiatives. Peer benchmarking and in-depth case studies were also critical in providing proof points and to demonstrate progress.
Keeping up momentum and focus on sustainability objectives over the long-term was another key challenge. This was particularly true during COVID and periods of structural change. You do need to be bit pragmatic and know when to push and when to pull back a little. Businesses are complex with many competing priorities, and it’s important to respect that and be cognisant of the pressure the teams are feeling. Sustainability is not always a top priority. The key is to be resilient and play the long game, which is what sustainability is all about. During these times we focused on building the foundations - e.g. the data and standards - so we were ready to accelerate quickly when the time was right.
I learned a huge amount working at Kmart Group and will be forever grateful for the experience. Having sat on both sides of the corporate and consulting fence for many years, I believe that there is an opportunity to do things differently.