Fashion Brands Lagging in Fossil Fuel Reduction Efforts

A report from Fashion Revolution, titled What Fuels Fashion, reveals the fashion industry's persistent environmental impact. The industry remains a major polluter, with fossil fuels being used at every stage of production.

Key findings of the report

The What Fuels Fashion report, a special edition of Fashion Revolution’s annual Fashion Transparency Index, evaluates 250 leading fashion brands and retailers with turnovers exceeding US$400m. It assesses their public disclosure on climate and energy-related actions, covering areas like accountability, decarbonisation, energy procurement, financing decarbonisation, just transition and advocacy over 70 data points.

Fashion's significant environmental impact persists due to continuous fossil fuel usage in production. Despite the urgent climate crisis, major brands’ reduction targets fall short of the global aim to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Big brands are shifting the costs of transitioning to renewable energy onto their factories, overburdening workers and communities. Only 3% of brands (seven in total) disclose efforts to financially support workers affected by the climate crisis.

This support is crucial in garment-producing countries with weak social protections, poverty wage  and high debt levels. Frequent climate events such as monsoons, heatwaves and droughts severely impact workers’ livelihoods.

Maeve Galvin, Global Policy and Campaigns Director at Fashion Revolution, urges brands to invest in order to tackle the climate crisis: “By investing at least 2% of their revenue into clean, renewable energy and upskilling and supporting workers, fashion could simultaneously curb the impacts of the climate crisis and reduce poverty and inequality within their supply chains."

Decarbonising fashion’s supply chain

Transparency is lacking among brands regarding energy procurement. Only 43% of brands are open about their operational-level energy procurement and a mere 10% are transparent at the supply chain level.

There is a pressing need for supplier funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with 94% of major fashion brands failing to disclose their investments in supply chain decarbonisation.

Just 6% of brands reveal their contributions, typically to joint climate funds like the Fashion Climate Fund and Future Supplier Initiative, which offer supplier loans for infrastructure such as solar panels. This approach is unfair, perpetuating power imbalances between fashion brands, suppliers and workers.

Long-term investments are essential to decarbonise fashion’s supply chains. This transition must be driven by fashion brands adopting long-term supplier relationships and financial investments through fair purchasing practices.

Integrated brands and specialised segments like sportswear perform better due to their greater leverage and commitment to long-term improvements. The renewable energy transition in fashion depends on systemic changes prioritising collective brand action, responsible purchasing and investment in a stable supply base.

Other vital findings

Many of the world's largest fashion brands disclose nothing about their decarbonisation efforts, with only four out of 250 having ambitious emissions reduction targets aligned with the United Nations' call. Among 117 brands with decarbonisation targets, 105 disclose progress updates, yet 42 report increased Scope 3 emissions against their baseline year. With the 2030 deadline to limit global warming to 1.5°C approaching, the industry faces a critical challenge.

Additionally, 86% of companies lack a public coal phase-out target, 94% lack a public renewable energy target and 92% lack a public renewable electricity target for their supply chains.

No major fashion brand discloses hourly matched supply chain electricity use, potentially creating a false sense of progress against climate targets.

A significant portion of brands (89%) do not disclose how many clothes they produce annually. Nearly half (45%) fail to disclose their production volumes or the raw material emissions footprint.

While 58% of brands reveal sustainable material targets, only 11% disclose their supply chain’s energy sources, meaning that 'sustainable' clothes might still be manufactured in fossil fuel-powered factories.

The overall average brand score is 18%, with the highest-scoring brands in 2024 being Puma (75%), Gucci (74%), H&M (61%), Champion (58%), Hanes (58%), Calzedonia (52%), Intimissimi (52%), Tezenis (52%), Decathlon (51%), ASICS (50%), lululemon (50%), Hermès (49%) and Adidas (49%).

"Much more needs to be done"

Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA, believes the report should work as a wider wake up call to the industry: “While we feel honoured that Fashion Revolution has ranked us as the best performer among the companies it examined, we know there is still a lot of work to do in our decarbonisation journey.

"We believe that the report should also be seen as a wake-up call. Much more needs to be done to get all stakeholders to work together to decarbonise our industry and our supply chains. We need to come together to find the solutions needed to achieve our climate goals.”

In 2023, PUMA set new greenhouse gas reduction targets, approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), after achieving its previous goals seven years ahead of schedule.

By 2030, PUMA aims to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 90% from a 2017 baseline year and has also committed to cutting absolute Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain and logistics by 33% compared to 2017.

******

Make sure you check out the latest edition of Sustainability Magazine and also sign up to our global conference series - Sustainability LIVE 2024

******

Sustainability Magazine is a BizClik brand

******