®Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) has made a commitment to protect and preserve the planet so everyone can live in safe and healthy communities. Our partnerships and initiatives have helped reduce waste, protect natural resources, and preserve our natural spaces.
We’re also proud of the progress we made in 2023 to further the electrification of our vehicles, which includes hybrid and plug-in cars, by the mid-2030s. Check out our Safety and Quality section to learn more about our journey.
We believe our sustainable actions today help protect our national parks for future generations. In fact, Subaru is the largest corporate donor to the National Park Foundation (NPF), helping conserve America's over 400 national parks. Through the Don't Feed the Landfills initiative, Subaru shared its waste reduction expertise with Denali National Park & Preserve, Grand Teton National Park, and Yosemite National Park. The successful pilot program helped develop innovative solutions and sustainability best management practices that can be applied at parks nationwide.
Subaru is also committed to supporting the NPF's Outdoor Exploration, Parks of the Future, and Resilience and Sustainability initiatives. For more information, visit the NPF's corporate partnerships website.
26 million pounds of waste diverted
from landfills through recycling, composting, and educational initiatives at national parks since 2015.
That’s equivalent to
867 dump trucks
with an average weight of 30,000 pounds.
In October 2023, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) honored Subaru with the Centennial Leadership Award at its New York Gala for our ongoing commitment and support for the national parks. The award highlights the work we’ve done to keep millions of pounds of waste out of our national parks and preserve natural spaces for future generations.
Subaru first partnered with NPCA in 2015 to help three national parks reduce their waste as part of the Don’t Feed the Landfills Initiative. Through this partnership, Subaru has helped recycle or compost 22 million pounds of waste that otherwise would have gone to landfills, including more than 2.5 million pounds of food waste.
Subaru Park, home of the Philadelphia Union, became Major League Soccer’s first zero landfill stadium in 2021 through expertise and support from Subaru.
In 2023, Subaru Park avoided
131.93 tons of carbon dioxide
Unveiling a soccer ball
structure made from
12,000 upcycled pieces of waste
from the stadium
As an extension of our love of the earth, we created the Subaru Park Garden for Good. In 2023, a total of 73 Subaru colleagues volunteered to plant, till, and grow produce for local food banks. This donation, harvested by our committed team members, helped provide 7,116 servings of fruits and vegetables for families in need in Chester, PA which equated to 1,779 pounds of food.
We launched the Subaru Eco-Friendly program 13 years ago and have certified one-third of our retailers in that time. The Eco-Friendly Certification recognizes Subaru retailers for achieving requirements across energy efficiency, water conservation, recycling, waste management, and efforts in environmental community involvement. This involves the use of light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs and solar panels, rainwater harvest, and water recycling.
In 2023, our retailers continued collecting used cabin air filters and plastic film from service areas for recycling to help Subaru further align with its strategic low-carbon goals. Eco-Friendly Subaru retailers are also giving back to their communities through tree planting, river cleanups, trail building, trail cleanups, and sponsorship of green education programs.
Subaru retailers diverted hard-to-recycle waste from landfills with the TerraCycle® Zero Waste Box™ program. Subaru and its retailers have collected and recycled 12.5 million pieces of trash that have been repurposed into useful goods for the community. In 2023, Subaru filled 4,569 zero waste boxes, collected 3,671,245 pieces of waste, and recycled 46,060 pounds of waste.
In partnership with Staples Corporate, Staples Promotional Products offers Subaru-branded, eco-friendly clothing and products for people and pets. This line of merchandise has been hand-selected to include brands that embrace the Subaru Love Promise and practice zero-waste-to-landfill operations.
In 2023, Staples Promotional products continued its partnership with EcoVadis, a sustainability rating agency, and maintained Silver Status, putting their operations in the top 25% of companies and industries assessed. Staples Promotional also launched a green light responsible sourcing program, which makes them the only brand merchandiser to collect the independently verified data necessary to drive and transparently report continuous improvement in their supply chain. In 2023, additional eco-friendly products were added, accounting for over 40% of the entire offering.
Subaru Gear is continuing to live out the promise it made in 2021 to reduce carbon emissions from production by 2030. Actions on this commitment include:
500 barrels of oil saved annually
by manufacturing apparel polybags that use 100% recycled post-industrial waste.
100% recyclable shipping boxes
made from recycled post-consumer waste. 84% of all U.S. shipments are carbon neutral.
32,936 kg of CO2 reduced
along with more than 8.5 million gallons of water and 5,809 pounds of plastic recycled with our sustainable tri-blend T-shirts from AllMade®.
98.8% of all waste materials recycled
from our decoration and distribution operations, with the remainder incinerated for energy. The decoration and fulfillment facility runs on 100% renewable energy.
Subaru has made a commitment to use Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper when possible. This certification helps ensure we are doing our part to protect our forests, such as ensuring that carbon stocks in forests remain stable or improve over time. Our goal is to certify all forms of printing we do for our projects. We are also aiming to use EAGLECELL™, an eco-friendly, reliable all-paper honeycomb board with 100% fully recyclable paper core and surface papers, on all of our larger-style printing jobs in the future.
The Subaru accessory team is continuing to explore new opportunities to use post-consumer recycled materials. This includes expanding carpeted floor mats with post-consumer materials on 2024 Crosstrek and Impreza models. In 2023, we added 164,000 post-consumer recycled material floor mats in our vehicles. We have also added post-consumer recycled materials to cargo trays and rear seatback protectors for all 2024 Crosstrek models, incorporating 90,000 pounds of materials that would have otherwise been sent to a landfill.
Subaru is coordinating the recycling of hard-to-recycle glass that has been warehoused for more than five years. This glass is not recycled at traditional centers due to laminated film layers that require a specialized approach. To help limit these items from making their way into landfills, Subaru has partnered with a company that recycles windshield glass by removing the film layer. They use this glass in their own products, including in paint and industrial carpet. Subaru is proud to be a part of this breakthrough process that will make our windshields more sustainable, while also reducing disposal fees.
In 2023, Subaru supplied the recycling company with 94.69 tons of glass materials. For each ton of glass recycled, we helped save 42 kWh of energy, equal to 3,621 charged cellphones. Our partnership equated to two cubic yards of waste per ton of recycled glass from entering landfills. We look forward to continuing this impact in 2024.
