Issuu

Social and Environmental

Impact Report 2025-26 Transforming lives, protecting our planet

We’re here,

supporting and serving our communities

Staff and volunteers at our Wellington shop. 2

Executive Summary

We are Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) and as the trading arm of our parent charity our core purpose is: Enabling mission and providing resources to help the work of The Salvation Army. We do this through our three business areas: charity retail, clothing collections, and publishing and supplies. Reuse and recycling are central to our work. By extending the life of donated goods, we lessen environmental impact, raise vital funds, and provide direct support to people facing hardship through our community-giving initiatives. Like many organisations in the sector, we have seen a significant change in some of our markets and, as such, we have adapted accordingly. Despite these changes, 2025-26 was a year of positive impact, strengthening communities, reducing waste, and supporting a more equitable and sustainable future through our social and environmental initiatives. Here are just some of the highlights: • The Charity Retail Association awarded SATCoL the Social Value Award 2025 and Outstanding Charity Retailer of the Year 2026. • We opened 8 new large-format Donation Centres. • We completed 7.8m transactions in our stores – an increase of 13% on the previous year. • Our in-house tailoring team manufactured around 200 Salvation Army uniforms at our Midlands-based Support Centre. • We were the official clothing collector for the TSC London Marathon for the second year in a row. • Overall, we collected, reused and recycled 83,000 tonnes of textiles and 27,000 tonnes of other items. This positively contributed to 467,000 tonnes of avoided emissions.

You can read more about our initiatives throughout this report. Thank you for your continued support. Social & Environmental Impact Report

Our impact SATCoL’s social, environmental and financial highlights for the year 2025-26

Triple Bottom Line Dashboard

Financial Year 2025-26

People

Planet

5,061

Collected Items

FREE clothing vouchers redeemed

£1.71m

Payments to partners’ charities, local authorities, schools and clubs

7.8m

83,000

Profit Avoided Emissions

Contribution to Parent Charity

27,000

Tonnes

Textiles

Other items

467,000** tonnes

(+14% YOY)

customers served in our shops

1,378

7,137

paid colleagues

volunteers

+21*

+1,046*

-31%†

Retail Energy Consumption (kWh/m2)

-7%†

Operational Carbon Emissions

268

volunteers moved to paid employment

3,959 tonnes

£4.847m in FY 2025/26

Contribution arising from SATCoL’s participation in the Retail Gift Aid Scheme

All data is for the financial year April 2025 to March 2026, unless otherwise indicated. Year-on-year (YOY) compared to same period in previous year. *Compared to year end March 2025. **Avoided emissions based on total textiles and other items. †Compared to baseline 2019-20.

Social & Environmental Impact Report

Your impact

Our Blantyre team celebrate during Volunteers’ Week 2025. SATCoL now has over 7,000 volunteers helping in our charity shops and donation centres across the UK. 6

Whether you are a customer, donor, volunteer, collaborator or partner, your support makes our work possible. Here are just some ways your impact counts: • Volunteers remain at the heart of our success. By the end of March 2026, we had 7,137 volunteers, an increase of 17% on the previous year, supported by an inclusive, values led culture. At the same time, retail continues to act as a proven route into employment: 268 volunteers moved into paid roles within the year. • During Great Big Green Week, over 1,000 of you, our charity shoppers, took part in our Sustainable Fashion Survey which revealed that 74 out of every 100 items sold in our stores replace the purchase of brandnew clothing. This means less carbon released into the atmosphere, less water and chemical use, and less waste going to incineration or landfill. This is known as a 74% displacement rate which is an industry-wide recognised measure of environmental impact. • Over 500,000 people engaged online with our seasonal initiatives, including Great Big Green Week, Volunteers’ Week, Sustainable Fashion Week and Christmas. For Christmas 2025, insight led research shaped our campaign message – “Gifts that don’t cost the earth but mean the world”. In the first two weeks alone, customers purchased thousands of extra sustainable gifts from our stores, an increase of 15.6% on the previous year, and showed that people welcome more sustainable and affordable Christmas shopping experiences.

Social & Environmental Impact Report

Want to learn more? Download our FREE Reuse, Repurpose, Restyle magazine: www.salvationarmytrading.org.uk/publications/ restylemagazine/ Find SATCoL’s Sustainable Conversation podcast series on Apple, Spotify or by visiting SATCoL TV: www.satcol.org/satcol-tv Support our work in reuse and recycling by visiting your nearest donation point or store: www.salvationarmytrading.org.uk/find-us/ Interested in volunteering? Start your journey with us: www.salvationarmytrading.org.uk/support-us/ volunteering/

Join the team If you want to find out about volunteering with us, ask in store or scan the QR code.

Every donation makes a difference

Our Parc Tawe donation centre team, along with all our donation centres offer free furniture collections. 8

Every year, across our clothing banks, charity shops and donation centres, we collect and carefully manage more than 250 million donated items. That’s an incredible achievement made possible by the generosity of our supporters. While a reduction in our clothing bank network began in February 2025, in response to changing market conditions, we are continually evolving and innovating to ensure that every donation makes a difference. Here are just some of our achievements in the financial year 2025-26: • Our 5-year partnership with HMP Five Wells continues to support prisoners with skills development and confidence building. At the end March 2026, over 16,000 tote bags and almost 1,500 furniture items had been repurposed and resold in our stores. • We collected 12 tonnes of clothing from the TCS London Marathon 2025, and prepared to support the iconic event as its official clothing collector for the third year in 2026. • We further developed The Salvation Army’s Donate By Post service to offer a convenient way for people to reuse and repurpose and support the charity – this service saw a 150% increase in donations. • Our retail stores hosted more Kilo Sales than ever before, offering good quality second-hand items at even better prices. • Our online Collectables and Curiosity eBay shop saw a 91% increase in sales, thanks to the generosity of our donors.

Social & Environmental Impact Report

6,530

190+

65+

385+

1,770

1,378

7,137

clothing banks

donation centres

corporate partners

employees

high street charity shops

processing centres

CCD house collections

volunteers

We’re here.

For the people who need us the most

The Salvation Army works from over 600 locations across the UK, supporting their local community. 10

When parents are struggling to buy school uniforms and essentials, when older people are lonely, when people have nowhere safe to call home, The Salvation Army is in over 600 locations across the UK, providing a warm welcome and urgent practical support to people who need it most. Here is just some of the community news from The Salvation Army: • A Dementia Friendly Café began in March. Hosted by The Salvation Army in Chesterton, it offers people living with dementia, and their carers, a local space to come together and enjoy activities. • The Salvation Army’s Gloucester House, a drug and rehabilitation centre, celebrated 65 years. Corrina Rose, Referrals Coordinator, said: “We regularly receive calls from former residents just to tell us they’re still in recovery and thank Gloucester House for changing their lives. These moments remind us that what happens here creates ripples through generations - saving not just individuals, but entire families.” As the trading arm of our parent charity, we have a ‘dare to care’ approach in our work. CARE represents our values: COMPASSION, ACCOUNTABILITY, RESPECT and EQUALITY. As well as the funds we raise to help The Salvation Army, our colleagues work closely with Salvation Army churches and community projects across the UK, offering additional direct support. Here are some of the ways we have helped: • 5,061 free clothing vouchers were redeemed in our stores – providing much-needed items such as clothes, shoes, suits for interviews, baby outfits and much more. Over the past 3 years, 16,919 free clothing vouchers have been redeemed in our stores. • 32 of our shops and donation centres offer help to survivors of Modern Slavery who are referred from the specialist support unit at The Salvation Army. Our role is a simple yet crucial step for people as they start to rebuild their lives. • Our Clothing Collection Division colleagues responded to 463 requests from bereaved families, helping with home collections and this, along with all our community-giving, reflects our dare to care values. • In the summer of 2025, our stores gave away over 29,000 free school uniform items – helping families with Back-to-School costs.

Social & Environmental Impact Report

5,061

FREE clothing vouchers redeemed

7.8m customers served in our shops

£1.71m raised for our partners

268

volunteers moved to paid employment

£4.847m raised for The Salvation Army

Sustainable solutions, trusted services SATCoL operates Take Back Schemes for several major brands as well as The Salvation Army’s own Donate By Post scheme. These schemes raise vital funds for our parent charity’s work and extend the useful life of unwanted items.

SATCoL is uniquely placed to help donors, corporate partners and communities maximise textile reuse and recycling. Our nationwide network of clothing banks and over 250 high street shops and donation centres makes donating easy, while providing affordable second-hand goods and responsible reuse solutions. Responding to changing consumer preferences, The Salvation Army’s Donate by Post service saw donations increase by 150% year-on-year, offering a new convenient way for people to support our parent charity and be sustainable. For businesses, our Corporate Partnerships team provides trusted solutions for overstocks, returns, end-of-range products. We operate Take Back Schemes, helping brands engage customers while encouraging reuse and supporting circular economy goals. Our work is underpinned by decades of experience and a commitment to high standards. Items that cannot be sold in our stores are sold to selected partners for reuse or recycling, ensuring second-hand goods remain available at affordable prices in markets where they are most needed, or are recycled into new products and materials. We undertake regular Code of Conduct audits and are a founding member of TRUST (Trader Recycling Universal Standard), an independent body which aims to improve and maintain standards within the recycling sector. Some of the highlights from SATCoL’s work in reuse and recycling: This is the equivalent to taking 244,000 cars off the road.

83,000 tonnes

83,000 tonnes of textiles collected in our shops and clothing banks last year.

467,000 tonnes

Through our reuse and recycling schemes, we helped to avoid 467,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.*

This also helps avoid 59.4 billion litres of water used in clothing manufacture, equivalent to 594 million bath tubs of water.

27,000 tonnes

27,000 tonnes of nonclothing items collected and repurposed each year.

* You can find our avoided emissions methodology on our website: https://salvationarmytrading.org.uk/how-we-help/sustainability/

Social & Environmental Impact Report

Closing the textiles loop

Rosie Wrighting MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion, visited our Kettering Processing Centres to see Fibersort™ and Project Re:claim™ in action.

John Lewis and Regatta Professional are two brands that have harnessed the capabilities of SATCoL’s innovative Fibersort™ and Project Re:claim™ technologies, demonstrating how scalable solutions are transforming fibre-to-fibre recycling today. Fibersort is the UK’s first automated sorting process that accurately identifies and sorts second-hand garments by fibre type. Project Re:claim is a joint venture between SATCoL and Plan B Circular (formerly Project Plan B); the partnership brings together vast expertise and infrastructure to offer polyester recycling at scale. John Lewis partnered with British wool recycler ‘iinouiio’ and SATCoL, to use wool sorted by Fibersort, and created a circular knitwear collection made from reclaimed and repurposed wool. Megan Lovesey, John Lewis Knitwear Buyer said: “We’re so excited to introduce what we believe is a first among major UK high street retailers, combining expert craftsmanship with customer donations to create a collection that continues our circular journey.” Regatta Professional’s Recycle.me collection demonstrates how products can be designed with end-of-life recycling in mind. The five-piece uniform range, developed in collaboration with the Circular Textiles Foundation, is made entirely from 100% polyester mono-fibre fabrics and trims, enabling garments to be recycled through Project Re:claim™ and returned to the supply chain. Other highlights from the year include: • Fibersort™ surpassed 2 million items automatically sorted. • More than 200 tonnes of polyester pellets were produced, with over 54 tonnes used in yarn trials and production. An estimated 3,000 garments can be produced with every tonne of recycled polyester pellets. • London Marathon Events visited our facilities to film and showcase the innovative work taking place through Project Re:claim™. • The Project Re:claim™ team hosted 34 visits from retailers, professional bodies, universities and colleges. Project Re:claim is Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certified.

Social & Environmental Impact Report

Being accountable Reducing our own carbon emissions

SATCoL has sourced its electricty via Ecotricity since September 2023. Green supply tariffs have been in place since September 2020. 16

Our own carbon emissions are relatively small. Especially compared to the amount of carbon emissions we help our customers avoid through enabling them to purchase second-hand items, rather than buying new. Nonetheless, we need to play our part and SATCoL has set stretching targets to reach net zero and reduce our carbon emissions by 90% by 2040. You can find our full sustainability strategy on our website. Over the past year we have made some great progress against our targets. Here are some of the highlights: • 7% reduction* in operational carbon emissions** • 56 additional smart electricity meters installed during the year • 4 new locations were converted from gas to electric heating, in total 18 new locations have been converted since 2022 • Most of our forklifts have been converted from LPG gas to electric, with just one remaining • 31 electric vans in our fleet (10% of fleet) • 72% of our company cars are electric and 24% hybrid (total 96%) • Business train travel increased to 135,000 miles (84% increase*) • Continued to source 100% of electricity from certified renewables via Ecotricity, one of the UK’s greenest electricity suppliers • 50% of staff have completed our environmental training modules: ‘environmental awareness’, ‘environmental action’ and ‘energy efficiency’ Priority actions planned for next year: • Saving carbon emissions and costs in three key areas: energy, waste and water • Introduction of a green travel policy • Continue the roll-out of our procurement sustainability programme

reduction in operational carbon emissions*

96%

of company cars are electric (72%) or hybrid (24%)

electric vans in our fleet (10% of fleet)

84% increase in business train travel

* Compared to our 2019/20 baseline ** This covers energy use in our buildings, own fleet and business travel (all modes) Read more about our targets and progress online: https://salvationarmytrading.org.uk/how-we-help/sustainability/

Social & Environmental Impact Report

Our work A small snapshot of our broad and far-reaching work in the past year

Main picture: Over 1,000 customers took part in our Sustainable Fashion Survey during Great Big Green Week in 2025. The results revealed that 74 out of every 100 items sold in our stores replaced the purchase of brand-new clothing. Opposite (clockwise from top left): In September 2025, colleagues from across our divisions and support functions joined together to watch the Big Reveal which announced SATCoL as 21st Best Large Company to Work For (UK), by Best Companies Ltd. We also ranked 5th Best Company in the Charity Sector (UK) and 5th Best Company in Scotland, based on independently verified and benchmarked surveys completed by 739 colleagues and 1,174 volunteers. Staff and volunteers at our Renfrew donation centre celebrate SATCoL winning the Charity Retail Association’s Social Value Award 2025. SATCoL colleagues, volunteers and helpers support our role as official clothing collector of the TCS London Marathon 2025. During the first two weeks of our Christmas campaign 2025, customers purchased thousands more sustainable gifts from our stores, an increase of 15.6% on the previous year. For more examples of our work, visit: https://salvationarmytrading.org.uk/how-we-help/news/

Colleagues gather for ‘The Big Reveal’

CRA’s Social Value Award 2025

Christmas campaign 2025

London Marathon official clothing collector

Social & Environment Impact Report

TRUST winners of

Social Value Award 2025 and Outstanding Charity Retailer of the Year 2026

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