At this year’s annual general meeting, the Spanish fashion group Inditex announced a number of new sustainability goals on Tuesday. With the help of various measures, the company aims to reduce its emissions by more than 50 percent by 2030 and achieve zero net emissions by 2040.
“Innovation and collaboration are the cornerstones of Inditex on the way to an increasingly sustainable value chain. We have set several priorities to reduce our emissions by more than 50 percent by 2030 and achieve zero net emissions by 2040: we want to use fewer polluting raw materials, transform our supply chain, expand circular economy projects and contribute to improving biodiversity ‘ explains Javier Losada, Head of Sustainability at Inditex, in the company’s new sustainability dossier.
Goals
“Among other things, by 2030 we will only use materials that have less impact on the environment for 100 percent of our textile products. In addition, in line with our commitment to biodiversity, we will fund projects to protect, restore or regenerate up to five million hectares by 2030,” adds Losada.
That means the company aims to reduce 90 percent of its carbon footprint compared to 2018 to achieve net-zero emissions by 2024. With regard to circular economy services such as Zara Pre-Owned, these are to be expanded to “important markets”. It aims to reach three million people along the supply chain and promote progress in the areas of social dialogue, living wages, health, respect and resilience.
materials
In terms of using fibers with a lower environmental impact, Inditex estimates “about 25 percent of this will be newly developed fibers that are not currently available on an industrial scale. That’s why we invest heavily in their development,” says the group.
He also wants to ensure that 40 percent of the textile fibers he uses come from conventional recycling and a further 25 percent from organic or regenerative agriculture. “The remaining 10 percent are other preferred options according to the criteria set by the reference organizations,” says Inditex.
The company works with more than 200 start-ups and leading companies in the chemical industry, among other things, to “use new materials, improve production processes or recyclability or traceability,” it says.
As good as the commitments may sound, they don’t address the real industry problem that Inditex contributes to with its various fast fashion brands: overproduction.
overproduction
According to Bloomberg estimates, the group produces more than 450 million items every year for the main brand Zara alone – it would therefore be more effective than all the measures mentioned above to drastically reduce this number and come up with a really good end-of-life strategy for the remaining items to think.
But that can never be part of a business model that relies on ever more and ever faster consumption in order to boost sales and thus company growth: “The new sustainability goals that we announced today are an important step on our way to a profitable one and responsible growth,” says Inditex Managing Director Óscar García Maceiras truthfully in the dossier.
“This update will undoubtedly help to transform and strengthen the textile sector and the textile industry – as we have done in all areas of the company in recent years,” adds Maceiras. Strengths undoubtedly, economically, but do not really change, which means that even the best sustainability dossier must remain pure marketing and thus greenwashing.