The World Retail Congress once again brought together key retail leaders in Barcelona to address some of the industry’s biggest challenges. In this context, Luis Casacuberta, CEO of Mango Woman, Kids & Home, announced on Thursday that the Spanish-based multinational is working on a kind of “passport” that should allow customers to provide details on the traceability of its products capture.
Today’s environmentally conscious and demanding consumers are constantly being bombarded with greenwashing and related marketing strategies that make it difficult for them to make purchasing decisions. “We want to be completely transparent,” emphasized Casacuberta at his presentation in Barcelona.
The initiative potentially represents another step towards a textile industry that does less harm to the planet and its inhabitants. It follows the move by the Spanish fashion group earlier this year when it released a full list of its international suppliers.
“We want to be completely transparent”
“Sustainability has become one of the cornerstones of retail, including for us,” says Casacuberta. Fashion retailers’ garments often reach stores through a long and opaque supply chain, making it difficult to see the real impact. Although progress has been made in controlling these practices in recent years, there is currently no binding legislation setting minimum standards for the use of sustainable practices.
There is also currently no legislation that clearly defines the boundaries of the definition of “sustainable branding”. This means that while it is generally easy to distinguish between what is and is not a sustainable practice, in the age of greenwashing there is often a lack of nuance that complicates this distinction.
In order to move forward in sustainability, it is important that brands participate in finding answers to the demands of consumers and of course the planet.
FashionUnited has asked Mango for details on its ‘traceability passport’, about which the Spanish company has not yet provided any further information apart from the information mentioned in this article.
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.es. Translated from English and edited by Simone Preuss.