While it’s fantastic that many niche apparel brands are popping up that make clothes in an eco-friendly manner, the toxic environmental impact that comes with fast fashion won’t be solved if bigger clothing companies don’t agree to clean up their supply chain.
That’s why it’s good to hear that Inditex, the company that owns Zara, has announced that all off its collections will be made from 100 percent sustainable fabrics before 2025. This is huge considering that Inditex is the world’s third-largest apparel company. The company also aims for 80 percent of the energy consumed in Zara’s headquarters, factories and stores to be from renewables sources by 2025. In that same time frame, all its facilities will produce zero landfill waste, the company said.
Inditex is already in the middle of a serious sustainability drive. Since 2015 it has collected more than 34,000 tonnes of used stock after it installed clothes banks in more than 800 stores in 24 regions. A service picking up used clothes from customers’ homes has proved effective in Spain, Beijing, and Shanghai and will be extended to London, Paris and New York.
The company has also partnered with charities, such as the Red Cross, on redistributing the used stock and is working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to find feasible ways of fiber recycling. It has committed to disposing of unused items responsibly and has promised that its factories will no longer discharge hazardous chemicals at any stage of the supply chain by 2020. As Zara pushes to go green, hopefully, it spurs more top brands to follow suit.
