Fast-fashion retailer Zara is going green. All of the cotton, linen and polyester used by Zara will be organic, sustainable or recycled by 2025, parent company Inditex announced this week.
The Spanish retail conglomerate said the goal will extend to its other brands, including Zara Home, Pull & Bear and Bershka.
Inditex made the sustainability pledge at its annual meeting this week. The use of those fibers, plus a semi-synthetic fiber called viscose, account for 90% of the raw materials used by the brands. Inditex said it will use all sustainable viscose by 2023.
Added up, Inditex chairman and CEO Pablo Isla said, it’s “fair to say it’s 100% of the raw materials that we use which will be fully sustainable.”
“We need to be a force for change, not only in the company but in the whole sector,” Isla said at the annual meeting. “Sustainability is a never-ending task in which everyone here at Inditex is involved and in which we are successfully engaging all of our suppliers.”
The company has other green goals, too, including making all of Zara’s stores “eco-efficient” by the end of 2019, which Inditex says allows it to reduce carbon emissions, save energy and minimize waste.
It also wants 80% of the energy from its stores, distribution centers and offices to be clean in 2025.
This isn’t Inditex’s first sustainability push. Customers can already drop off used clothing, footwear and accessories in more than 1,300 stores to tackle fashion’s waste problem.
Inditex sells products in more than 200 markets online, and in more than 7,000 stores in 96 markets. Zara stores comprise more than 2,000 of those locations.
Sustainable fashion is also a trend within the industry. Other fast fashion retailers like H&M and Uniqlo have introduced their own green initiatives, for example.
