Top model Freja Beha Erichsen fronts Zara’s latest ‘Join Life’ collection

Launched in fall 2016, #JoinLife “embraces a woman who looks into a more sustainable future.” To many, Zara’s challenge of being a fast fashion queen determined to persuade consumers to purchase a new fashion item weekly is the antithesis of the heart and soul of the sustainability movement.

What sustainability programs has Zara’s parent company Inditex initiated?

Called Closing the Loop. The program offers customers the opportunity to drop off their used garments in-store or through the post in order for their clothes to gain a second life. One of Inditex’s goals is that, by 2023, they will no longer send anything to landfills from their own headquarters, logistics centres, stores and factories.

They use the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to guide the measurement and reporting of their carbon emissions and have set an intensity target to reduce emissions from their own operations by 15% by 2023. However, they have no set target for the supply chain. Despite this, reports have actually shown moderate increases in electricity and energy consumption. Whilst Inditex have stated they have water reduction initiatives, and there’s talk of how the company plans to reduce their water footprint through a “Master Action Plan”, there is no evidence of set targets to reduce water wastage.