Category: Corporate Responsibility

Zara Announces 100% Sustainable Fabrics and Eco-Efficient Stores

Zara has announced that it will commit to making collections from 100% sustainable fabrics by 2025 in a list of green initiatives outlined by the high street label today. Speaking with its shareholders, Zara stated that its portfolio of 7,500 stores will be eco-efficient by the end of 2019, and that it has committed to zero waste in landfills from Zara facilities.

Today, only 20% of Zara’s collections are made from sustainable fabrics. To increase this, alongside other sustainable initiatives, Zara has brought in a new board of directors who are solely focused on these future-proofing goals. It aims for 80% renewable energy consumption in its headquarters, logistics plants and stores by 2025 as well.

This announcement follows in the footsteps of brands including UNIQLO and its owner Fast Retailing, which recently said it would reduce single-use plastic by 85% by 2020, as well as Burberry, which recently revealed its plans to be carbon neutral by 2022.

Similarly to UNIQLO, Zara will begin to eliminate single-use plastic supplied to its clients. The company has already begun managing its waste by reusing recycled cardboard shipping boxes up to six times, using recycled plastics internally and the company has started working on a way to re-circulate clothes hangers.

For Zara, sustainability can be implemented everywhere. 90% of its website is run by renewable energy and its design studio pattern cutters create one sleeve or a single lapel instead of the conventional two and unstitch patterns to then be repurposed.

Pablo Isla, executive chairman and chief executive officer of Zara owner Inditex told WWD, “We need to be a force for change, not only in the company but in the whole sector… We are the ones establishing these targets: The strength and impulse for change is coming from the commercial team, the people who are working with our suppliers, the people working with fabrics. It is something that’s happening inside our company.”

In case you missed it, check out the sustainable adidas by Stella McCartney collection which makes products from liquified, repurposed cotton.

REFS

This article was published on hypebeast.com

Nestle Waters Teams up with Ocean Legacy for Plastic Waste Cleanup

PARIS (Reuters) – Nestle’s (NESN.S) bottled water division Nestle Waters, owner of Perrier and Vittel, said it would team up with Canada’s Ocean Legacy Foundation to help to clean up plastic pollution.

Consumer goods companies, such as Nestle, are under pressure to do more to reduce the waste their business generates as consumers become increasingly aware of the damaging impact of plastic that ends up in landfill and oceans.

Many of them, including Nestle and French peer Danone (DANO.PA), have made voluntary pledges to make all of their plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

But environmental groups say the key to reducing plastic pollution is prevention, notably through the introduction of bottle deposits.

Non-profit group Ocean Legacy Foundation fights plastic ocean pollution with clean-up expeditions, land-based plastic collection, recycling, education and pollution hot-spot mapping.

Paris-based Nestle Waters will work with Ocean Legacy to support clean-up projects for communities around the world, including education and infrastructure, Nestle Waters Head of Sustainability Carlo Galli said in a statement.

But Thibault Turchet, with environmental campaigning group Zero Waste France, said of the Nestle alliance with Ocean Legacy that it would be better for Nestle and other large plastic waste producers to return to bottling drinks in glass and cut down on plastic packaging that is unrecyclable.

“They send organisations to work on beach cleaning and education, but they don’t work on prevention and waste production,” Thibault said.

Nestle Waters said that 20% of the water it sells globally is already packaged in returnable and refillable bottles and that a further 2% is sold in returnable and refillable glass for the hotel and restaurant trade.

“We are continually testing and developing viable alternatives, such as biodegradable and bio-based materials, glass, aluminum and carton packaging,” a Nestle Waters spokeswoman said.

In early 2020, Nestle Waters will also launch new high-tech water dispensers, allowing consumers to fill their own reusable bottles. It also works with local governments and communities to develop PET (plastic) collection adapted to each country.

The Nestle Waters partnership with Ocean Legacy involves an undisclosed yearly funding agreement, initially for five years.

The program will also include tools and education materials to help communities in creating new products and value from the waste collected during the cleanups.

REFS

This article was published reuters.com

Nestle Waters teams up with Ocean Legacy for plastic waste cleanup