FUTURE FORWARD™: Leveraging Brand Power to Drive Sustainability

In 2021, our Milwaukee Australia Business unit partnered with local recycling partner Envirostream to launch FUTURE FORWARD™. Going beyond simply making battery recycling available to users, the new initiative involves a targeted campaign that seeks to leverage our Milwaukee Australia brand and embed sustainability into our identity.

We chose to work with Envirostream as it had established a first-of-its kind in Australia, environmentally safe lithium-ion battery recycling facility. By processing onshore, Envirostream is adding value back into the Australian manufacturing sector and growing the local sustainability industry by creating jobs — a factor that was identified as important to our users.

Following state-level pilot programs tested in the previous year, Milwaukee launched nationwide retail collection units in June 2021. We also identified key clients and executed several pick-ups at job sites. At the nationwide launch in June, the campaign collected 20 kg of batteries. The volume continued to increase month on month and by November, monthly collections reached 76 kgs of lithium-ion. Currently, the team is using collection data to gauge market reception of the program. Looking forward, the FUTURE FORWARD™ team aims to tailor the next phase of marketing and communications about the project to be more targeted towards different facets of the market. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to fully integrate FUTURE FORWARD™ into the Milwaukee brand and cement battery recycling as part of our central value proposition to users.