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Goodwill Partners with Levi’s to Launch ‘Care Tag for Our Planet’

On October 21, 2009 Goodwill Industries® of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties (CA) announced “Care Tag for Our Planet,” a new national partnership between Goodwill and Levi Strauss & Co. Beginning in January, Levi’s will become the first major retailer to include messaging on product care tags that encourages consumers to donate unwanted clothing to Goodwill®.

In addition to traditional washing, drying and ironing instructions, all Levi’s care tags will read “Donate to Goodwill when no longer needed and care for our planet.” A new “donate” symbol will accompany the added wording.

The Care Tag for Our Planet partnership was reached through shared values held by each organization: Goodwill’s commitment to help communities recycle usable items while helping those in need and Levi Strauss & Co.’s goal to reduce the environmental impact of its products. The initiative was conceived by BBDO West, Goodwill of San Francisco’s pro bono agency, which came up with the unique idea to use care tags to communicate this message.

“Levi’s is an iconic brand with the ability to make an immediate impact with consumers,” explained San Francisco Goodwill President and CEO Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez. “Our collective goal is to extend the idea of care tags beyond washing, drying and ironing to encouraging consumers to donate these clothes when no longer needed. By doing so, millions of pounds will be diverted from landfills and thousands of lives will be transformed by the power of work in the Bay Area and across the country.”

GII President and CEO Jim Gibbons expressed support for the partnership, explaining that it supports Goodwill’s commitment to environmental stewardship and supporting its entrepreneurial business model of collecting and selling donated goods.

“A Care Tag for Our Planet is Goodwill’s first partnership of its kind designed to increase the life cycle of clothing and textiles to address the approximately 23.8 billion pounds that end up in U.S. landfills each year,” he said.

The partnership provides many opportunities to raise awareness of Goodwill’s mission and services in communities across the United States and Canada. Goodwill plans to spread the word to consumers through online viral campaigns and in retail store communications.

Read more about the partnership on Business Wire, The Huffington Post, or on Levi’s web site.