Meet Alicia Chin, Director of Sustainability and Social Impact at VF Corporation, who discusses activewear brand and retailer icebreaker's open admission of falling short in their 100% plastic-free ambition. We delve into the challenges, the progress made, and how their transparency sets a precedent for retail industry-wide sustainability efforts. Hear about icebreaker's innovative approaches and their pledge to ongoing improvement in this episode that is perfect for the times. 

About Alicia

Alicia Chin is Director of Sustainability and Social Impact for emerging brands at VF Corporation—Altra, icebreaker and Smartwool. Alicia has spent more than 15 years working with Fortune 500 companies to develop their sustainability strategies. At Smartwool, Alicia led development of the brand’s 10-year roadmap aimed at protecting the outdoors and making outdoor recreation more accessible. Before joining Smartwool, she managed sustainability and social responsibility at Heineken USA and the NHL. 

LINKS:

• Icebreaker Instagram: @icebreakernz
• Icebreaker Transparency Report: https://www.icebreaker.com/en-ca/our-story/transparency-2024.html?selectLocale=true
• Icebreaker ‘Keep It Real’ Campaign: https://www.icebreaker.com/en-ca/our-story/choose-real.html
• Icebreaker Website: https://www.icebreaker.com/en-ca/home
• Alicia Chin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciac123/

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.