PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 19, 2023
Since September, Rixon and a group of fellow retirees have been standing with signs outside L.L. Bean’s sprawling downtown Freeport campus as well as its corporate headquarters just down the road. They have been calling for the retailer to reconsider its relationship with Citibank due to its investments in fossil fuel companies. Rixon got a surprise response Tuesday morning a little before 8 a.m. when L.L. Bean CEO Stephen Smith. Smith explained how L.L. Bean had accomplished a long list of environmental initiatives and listened to Rixon’s point of view. Smith recently wrote, “The card is a significant source of revenue for the company, helping to fund millions of dollars in investments in sustainability and conservation efforts such as renewing our $3 million commitment to the National Park Foundation and endowing a postdoctoral research program at the University of Maine to identify PFAS remediation solutions.”