VF Corp. announced on Tuesday that it has closed a new green bond offering valued at 500 million euros, or $529 million at current exchange rate.
According to the Denver-based company — which owns Vans, Timberland and The North Face — the amount has been dedicated to advance programs within the company’s sustainability and responsibility strategy, and drive progress toward achievement of its science-based targets (SBTs).
VF added that the funding will go toward projects that will support its commitment to source 100% of its top nine materials from regenerative, recyclable or renewable sources by 2030. These include renewable energy installations, zero-waste distribution centers, reforestation conservation projects and investments in regenerative agriculture practices.
“Elevating our focus on, and investment in, circular and sustainability projects allows us to leverage our scale for good and achieve our ambitious SBTs,” Jeannie Renné-Malone, VP of global sustainability at VF Corp., said in a statement. “The overwhelming interest in this offering serves as an endorsement from the investor community for our sustainability agenda.”
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VF CFO Matt Puckett added that this new green bond issuance is “another important step” in building stronger connections between the company’s environmental stewardship initiatives and new sustainable financing opportunities. “It’s also a testament to how much this synergy is part of our business culture and provides investors with additional metrics by which to measure our environmental commitments,” Puckett added.
This is the second green bond offering from the company, with the inaugural round issued in February 2020 for the same amount. Since then, VF has made several strides in improving its environmental impact, including endorsing two initiatives that further the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals later that same year. In December 2020, VF committed to the UN Global Compact — an initiative that encourages businesses to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies as well as report on their implementation.
Fast forward to this past November, VF continued to communicate its progress in becoming a more sustainable business in the company’s fifth “Made for Change” report. In the report, VF said it used 34% renewable energy across its direct operations in fiscal year 2022, which marked a 7% improvement from the prior year. Overall, VF is aiming to utilize 100% renewable energy across all of its owned and operated facilities by fiscal year 2026.
