New Sustainable Fashion Report: Clothing Giant Unrivaled
The report’s authors found that in 2023, H&M’s operations emitted half the greenhouse gases produced by its industry rivals – Spain’s Zara and China’s Shein. As it was emphasized, although the Chinese have improved their score, they are still, along with six other brands, at the bottom of the ranking with the lowest “F” score.
The Spanish company Iniditex, the owner of Zara, also advanced – from 20th place, which it occupied in 2023, to ninth, obtaining the rank of "C". Nevertheless, Inditex and Shein are among the companies that increased their greenhouse gas emissions during this period.
Sustainable Fashion: Which Brands Are Doing It Best?The overall conclusions of the report are not encouraging and show increasing differences in the practices of individual companies. The increasing production of clothing using fossil fuels means that the clothing industry is responsible for at least four percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and the pace of decarbonization is, according to the authors of the publication, too slow.
Just 14, or 33 percent, of the brands in the report have reduced their emissions by 10 percent over the past two years. Eighteen, or 45 percent, have made progress in the past year. Meanwhile, only three brands are aligned with the 1.5 degrees Celsius target, while 17 have increased their emissions.
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The report shows that almost a third of companies are already using renewable energy sources – a significant increase. In contrast, almost half of them are not adequately implementing their 2030 decarbonisation plan .
One positive that analysts have noted is the large percentage of brands (95 percent) that in some way implement the principles of circular fashion. For example, they offer repairs to their products and organize second-hand sales.
