Many fashion brands talk about their environmental friendliness, but in
practice, such claims may turn out to be false or at least misleading. Companies
position every small step—such as refusing to provide free plastic bags—as if it
were saving the planet. What should you really pay attention to in order to
understand how environmentally friendly a brand is? Katerina Nikitina, co-founder
of the climate community 1.5ºC DAO and author of the guide “How Eco-Friendly
Are Popular Fashion Brands,” explains.
The fashion industry has dirty secrets that it is in no hurry to reveal. These
include the huge carbon footprint generated during the life cycle of clothing.
According to various sources, this accounts for 8–10% of total carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions, which contribute to climate change. For comparison, aviation is
responsible for about 2% of CO2 in the atmosphere, and all road transport,
including private cars and trucks, for 15%.
What does the clothing life cycle consist of?
Where do these figures come from? What is so terrible about making
clothes? Let's try to trace the entire chain. Let's start with the production of
materials. If it is synthetic, the first step is oil extraction, for example in Saudi
Arabia. From there, the fuel is transported to a country where it can be processed,
such as South Korea. A synthetic polymer is extracted from the oil, from which
polyester, acrylic, and nylon can then be obtained. The finished fabric is sent to a
factory, most often in one of the Asian countries with cheap labor. The resulting
product is delivered to stores in the US, Europe, and other countries.
Each stage of this process releases large amounts of CO2—during oil
extraction and processing, during factory operations, and during the transportation
of raw materials and finished goods. Natural materials are better in this sense,
although their production also releases carbon dioxide. To obtain natural leather,
animals must be kept and fed somewhere. Very often, this necessity leads to the
clearing of forests, the main CO2 absorber, for pasture. Leather also needs to be
processed, dyed, and transported. The same applies to cotton—forests are cut down
and ecosystems are destroyed for its sake.
The operation of company offices and stores that sell clothing requires
electricity and heating, which also leads to CO2 emissions, but these are relatively
small compared to the other stages of the clothing life cycle. However, online
orders and returns significantly increase these emissions, primarily due to the use
of packaging and transportation for delivery.
The last, but extremely important, stage is the end of the life cycle of a
purchased item. Clothing made from natural materials can rot in landfills over
time, but in the process, methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, is
released. Synthetic items will never decompose, so they must be incinerated,
which, in addition to environmental problems, leads to additional CO2 emissions.
Finding information
Understanding the life cycle of clothing and footwear is half the battle when
it comes to assessing their environmental impact. All that remains is to obtain
information about each stage of their production, sale, and disposal, and to assess
the brand's overall emissions. Large public companies publish annual and ESG
reports, which, in addition to financial indicators, have recently begun to disclose
data on CO2 emissions, materials, and supply chains. These reports can be found
on company websites, often in the “For Investors” or “Sustainability” sections.
It is important to note that we can only study the parent company: individual
brands do not publish such information. For example, Zara is owned by the
Spanish conglomerate Inditex. It also includes the brands Massimo Dutti, Bershka,
Stradivarius, and others. Inditex's report includes information on all of its brands at
once, without providing a separate breakdown. So everything stated in the report
applies not only to Zara, but to all other brands as well.
Let's look at the volume of emissions
Zara's emissions in 2022 amounted to 17.6 million tons of CO2 — roughly
the same amount emitted by four million cars on the road per year. But the figures
themselves still seem rather abstract to us — so it is important to compare the
company with others and look at the trend. Inditex's emissions are among the
highest in the fashion industry, but what's worse is that the trend is growing. Since
2021, the company's emissions have increased. Although this increase is relatively
small, it has a very negative impact on the company's green image, as it promised
in its statements to reduce emissions.
It is important to note that companies will not boast about increases in CO2
emissions and will most often modestly remove these figures. Therefore, it is
important to understand the terminology and be able to calculate this trend. The
key words for this are: scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3. Many companies report
reductions in scope 1 and 2 emissions and do not mention scope 3. The fact is that
scope 1 and 2 refer to the actual operation of stores and offices, and it is not
difficult to reduce emissions there — it is often enough to switch to energy-saving
light bulbs and connect to an electricity provider that uses renewable sources.
Scope 3 is much more complicated. It includes everything mentioned above,
from the extraction of materials to the disposal of finished products. These
emissions are difficult for companies to calculate and reduce — this often requires
changing the supply chain, switching to new materials, and extending the life of
products. However, if you want to see a company's total emissions, you need to
add up all three scopes.
High emissions may indicate not only environmentally unfriendly
production, but also a large volume of clothing produced. It is logical that a large
company will have higher emissions than a small one. In this case, you can assess
how environmentally friendly each item is produced by calculating the intensity of
emissions — to do this, divide the total amount of CO2 by the number of items
produced. But this is in an ideal world. In practice, this is almost impossible to do,
as very few fashion companies disclose their production volumes.
Studying the emissions reduction plan
Companies often announce plans to reduce CO2 emissions, but
unfortunately, they limit themselves to just a nice-sounding figure—for example,
reducing them to zero by 2040. At the same time, the company does not provide
information on how exactly it intends to do this, using general terms such as
energy-efficient production or the development of new materials.
It is important to understand what the company means by these concepts.
Will it change the factories where its clothes are made? Is it investing in innovative
fabrics, and if so, what percentage of its total investment? Without these details,
the plan cannot be considered effective. And, most likely, the goal of reducing
emissions will not be achieved.
Let's look at the materials
As mentioned above, synthetics are not environmentally friendly. A high
percentage of synthetic materials, especially virgin ones, suggests that the
company is not particularly concerned about its carbon footprint. Recycled
synthetics are better in this sense. They are made from plastic waste, usually PET
bottles, which would otherwise be incinerated or left to decompose in landfills.
However, recycled polyester is not a solution to all problems. It cannot be recycled
a second time. A jacket made from recycled polyester will not be turned into a new
jacket — it will also end up in a landfill or break down into microplastics.
Therefore, it is important to wear items made from recycled materials for as long
as possible.
Eco-friendly brands try to use organic cotton instead of conventional cotton
(among them are Veja and Patagonia). It is indeed much better for the
environment, as it is grown without chemicals and its production uses practices
that support soil fertility. The organic nature of cotton must be confirmed by
appropriate certificates.
Finally, you need to look very carefully at a material such as leather.
Companies should know how it is produced and disclose their supply chain. There
should also be a policy on the treatment of animals. If this is not the case, there is
reason to believe that the leather is obtained unethically and that animals suffer
throughout their lives.
What to do if a company does not publish reports
Private companies are not required to publish annual reports, but their
websites usually have a section dedicated to sustainable development where you
can find information. Brands that do not have such a section are most likely not
doing anything to make their clothing more environmentally friendly — in this
sense, the very absence of information tells us a lot. There are initiatives that study
the environmental friendliness and ethics of brands, such as the Good On You
project, on whose website you can check both large companies and some local
brands.
When you're in a store, study the labels and remember what the life cycle of
clothing consists of. If it is made of synthetics and delivered from far away, its
carbon footprint will be high. If it is made of natural materials directly in your
country, such clothing is safer for nature. The main thing is to wear it for a long
time and dispose of it properly.
December 26, 2023
ForbesLife. Sustainable Development
Katerina Nikitina, Author