Which brand comes to your mind when you think of clothing fashion? Zara surely has crossed your mind if you are a chic style lover. Known for its designer collections and operating mechanism, Zara is the flagship brand of the Inditex group. With time the brand has focused on several factors to maintain an edge over its rivals. The company came up with the ‘Join Life’ movement, which aims to stand by the commitments for the environment.
As the parent company, Inditex has made efforts to strengthen sustainable fashion through the idea of Zara green dress. The fact is the sustainability team has developed this idea at Inditex to mark the importance of eco-friendly clothing apparel.
Based in Spain, the brand has been striving to deliver the latest, unique yet affordable range of clothing and accessories since its inception. Indeed it’s a challenge for many to keep up with the rapidly changing world, and Zara has served the fast fashion industry up to the mark.
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HOW IS THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY A THREAT TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Times have changed, and there is an enormous shift in consumer behaviour. People used to buy stuff with long-term durability, but now, the willingness to stay up-to-date with the fashion trends has taken over it. This shift is the major reason for the growing number of fast fashion manufacturers globally. Companies focus on altering the clothing designs slightly and then launch the product in the market, generating demand for it by creating exigency using the “limited edition” tags which results in huge mass production of the product, compromising the quality of inventory used. The use of deteriorated synthetic fabrics that have lethal effects on the environment.
Besides that, the dumping of unsold clothes leads to gigantic wastage, which further gives birth to contamination in the environment, degrading it. According to a McKinsey report, clothes worth $140 to $160 remained as excess unsold inventory globally due to sales dip resulting from the adverse effects of Covid-19.
The textile industry is one of the largest consumers and polluters when talking about water. The dyeing process involves enormous amounts of water that later gets dumped into various small and large water bodies. This chemical mix from dumping affects the plant and animal life inside and outside the water bodies.
The effect is not only limited to water bodies, but other scarce resources like electric power and petroleum are also in danger. The rise in fast fashion supply chains has made the percentage degradation of the environment go upwards since forever. The alarming fact is that now the situation is getting more serious.
Not just the manufacturers but consumers have a role to play here as well. People need to understand the increasing effect and burden on the environment due to rising demands. Wastage of clothes needs to be reduced, and recycling has to take place in order to counter these effects diligently.
In this scenario, brands are renewing their policies to align with their social responsibilities. So when we say Zara green dress, you don’t have to take it literally.
JOIN LIFE CAMPAIGN: A STEP TO ZARA GREEN DRESS
With its ‘Join Life’ collection, Zara aims to bring up the use of sustainable materials for production and recycle the textile waste following such a strategy which will reduce the waste generation.
The Forbes listed clothing apparel, Inditex, stated that the clothes launched with the ‘Join Life’ tag are prepared under the proper internal system, the primary fabric has to be approved by Better Cotton Initiative, and the manufacturing has to be done as per Inditex’s ‘Green to Wear’ technologies. The company’s wet process takes into account water recycling and testing with chemicals to make sure the product is safe for the environment as per the set criteria. It is commendable how the company is emphasizing the act of “responsible production.” The ‘Join Life’ campaign started in 2015. However, it gained popularity in the next following year.
To make Zara green dress a realistic idea, the company joined hands with its suppliers to escalate the availability of materials such as modals and viscose for the production process, and in order to serve the textile recycling idea, the company has trained its workers as well. Hauling the slogan of “Working Towards Sustainability,” the Inditex flagship brand has the aim to make sure that 50% of its production is labelled under the ‘Join Life’ standard in the current year. The buyer gets the following information tagged to the product- manufacturing material used, required care, and origin to get an actual check on how green, Zara green dress is.
ADDITIONAL EFFORTS IN THIS DIRECTION
Zara has achieved several milestones in accomplishing its mission.
- Apart from its ‘Join Life’ Initiative, Zara has also been practicing the use of paper bags (or PEPC bags) or biodegradable plastic bags, which come with the “d2w” logo.
- The company’s animal welfare policy supports the use of fur and leather through animal rearing instead of killing them.
- The introduction of biodiesel fuel has reduced the effects of CO2 emissions.
- With the use of 100% organic cotton (grown without pesticides and harmful bleaches), Zara claims to maintain ecological balance.
ABOUT INDITEX & ITS FUTURE PLANS TO STAND OUT AS A SUSTAINABLE FASHION GIANT
Inditex is a multinational clothing conglomerate with its headquarters in Spain. Handling 7200 stores across 93 markets globally, it manages several brands, namely Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, and a few others, and has become the biggest player in the apparel industry. Zara being its flagship store has earned quite a share in the market.
Inditex has made several efforts in the direction of sustainability and has been working on the idea of “eco-efficient stores.” To achieve the target of Zero Landfill Waste in 2020, the company started off with the practices of recycling packaging supplies back in 2015. Another plan launched in 2016 highlighted the idea of collaboration with social organizations to foster the reuse and recycling of products.
With growing concerns, Inditex took to the internet platforms sharing its future plan for combating environmental problems due to the textile industry. It mentioned the dependency on renewable energy resources and stated that it had met the target of using 80% renewable energy resources in the past year, long before 2025 (what they actually thought of).
It looks forward to making such arrangements that assist them in being committed to making use of 100% eco-friendly cotton for production by 2023 and reducing water employment by 25% by the year 2025.
