Green Fashion Leaders Strip Carbon and Water From Operations

Published on by in Business

Green Fashion Leaders Strip Carbon and Water From Operations

Members of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan report positive progress on attempts to give fashion industry a green makeover.

A coalition of major fashion retailers are making progress against promises to cut their environmental impact, with the results of a new report suggesting the group is on track to meet 2020 targets to slash the waste, carbon, and water footprint of clothing.

By Madeleine Cuff

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Retailers need to focus on 'priority garments' like womens ' jeans and jumpers to cut environmental impact, says WRAP

Signatories to the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) will announce today that they have cut water use per tonne of clothing by 13.5 per cent, putting them on track to meet a 2020 target of 15 per cent.

Meanwhile, carbon emissions have been cut 10.6 per cent against a target of 15 per cent by 2020 and waste per tonne of clothing has been cut by 0.8 per cent, against a target of 3.5 per cent, the group said.

The SCAP membership has also swelled substantially since its launch in 2013, when it represented just over a third of the UK clothing sales, to more than 60 per cent today. Signatories include high profile chains such as Asos, Next, Primark and Whistles. Charities, government departments, and recyclers are also involved in the scheme.

"I am delighted by how well SCAP signatories are doing," Steve Creed, director of business programmes at WRAP, the waste advisory body that runs SCAP, said in a statement.

"At this stage of the agreement they are not only well on the way to achieving the targets, but continue to outperform the sector as a whole - particularly in sustainable cotton," he added. "It's amazing that 20 per cent more cotton is now sustainably sourced by signatories than when we began. And having high-street names like M&S, Tesco and Sainsbury's setting ambitious sustainable cotton targets will help ease the pressure on some of the world's most water-sensitive countries."

However, WRAP wants to see faster progress in some areas, highlighting a number of "priority garments" which have the highest environmental costs in manufacturing and sell in the highest numbers. These include women's dresses, jumpers and jeans, and mens' t-shirts. In particular womens' jeans were singled out for their high levels of water consumption during manufacturing, while dresses, jumpers and t-shirts must address waste and carbon issues, WRAP said. 

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