Zara announces its latest sustainability goals

"We aspire to playing a transformational role in the industry."

Inditex, Spanish clothing company owner of brands such as Zara, Pull & Bear and Bershka, has announced that all of Zara’s collections will be officially made of 100% sustainable fabrics by 2025.

The brand accounts for 70% of Inditex’s group sales and it’s the first international high street store to make such a big commitment. The company added that its other brands, including Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear, will follow suit.

Pablo Isla, chief executive and executive chairman of Inditex, commented: “We need to be a force for change, not only in the company but in the whole sector. Sustainability is a never-ending task in which everyone here at Inditex is involved and in which we are successfully engaging all of our suppliers.”

By 2025, 80% of the energy consumed by the brand will come from renewable sources and its facilities will commit to produce zero landfill waste. By 2023, Zara promised that all the viscose used will be 100% sustainable as well as fully eliminating single-use plastics from customer sales, head offices, logistic platforms and stores.

Currently, the first milestone set for 2019, is for all of the group’s platforms and head offices to meet the highest green building certificates and for 100% of Zara stores to be eco-efficient.

In a recent article, we explored how the fashion industry produces 20 per cent of global wastewater and 10 per cent of global carbon emissions and how, if nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbon budget.

As one of the largest retailers in the world, Zara has the opportunity to lead the way into a more sustainable future. However, Friends of the Earth told the BBC that high street chains can do more to tackle the environmental problems caused by fast fashion.

They added: “Part of the problem is there are too many brands, with opaque supply chains, making a completely ridiculous amount of clothes. They rely on creating ‘trends’ so shoppers are pressured to come back to buy more stuff each season.”

Zara is definitely setting the standard for sustainability amongst fast-fashion brands. Surely though, more and more brands would be able to reach higher standards if they started selling clothes made to last and not based on daily trends.

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Alice Ierace
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Zara