The global fashion brands that last year committed to accelerate the transition to a circular fashion system have published their targets, with a focus on increasing the volume of used garments collected and resold, and increasing the share of garments made from recycled post-consumer textile fibres.
Led by the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), last spring 64 leading fashion companies including H&M, Target Corp, and Kering, joined the 2020 Circular Fashion System Commitment, declaring their support for a more circular fashion system, and committing to setting out a 2020 circular strategy.
Call for brands to adopt circularity pledge
To date, 143 targets have been set and published online, with a progress report due to be issued in May. There is a minimum requirement of setting a target for 2020 on one or more of four action points: Implementing design strategies for cyclability; increasing the volume of used garments collected; increasing the volume of used garments resold; and increasing the share of garments made from recycled post-consumer textile fibres.
“Since the 64 companies signed the commitment, I’ve been very curious to learn about their company targets,” says Eva Kruse, CEO of Global Fashion Agenda. “We have now reviewed all 143 of the targets, and although the focus areas and level of engagement vary from company to company, they all share a common feature by taking steps to transition to a circular fashion industry. I find that very encouraging.”
Designing for circularity is the area that has received the most attention, with a total of 55 company targets set – indicating that many signatories aim to either train their designers in circular design strategies or to implement circular design principles, such as increasing durability, repairability and/or recyclability.
H&M is one of the companies that has set a target to roll out dedicated training on sustainable materials and sustainable material use to all applicable staff and to continue to work on building circularity into the design process for all its products.
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By GlobalData“One of the goals for H&M group is to only use recycled or other sustainably sourced materials by 2030 and to become climate positive throughout our entire value chain by 2040 at the latest,” explains Anna Gedda, head of sustainability at H&M group.
Other companies include Adidas, which is rolling out a garment collection scheme in all stores in key markets including Paris, London, New York and Los Angeles.
And of the four targets Inditex has set itself, the company is investing US$3.5m in textile recycling technologies, with the goal of upscaling post-consumer mechanical fibre recycling.
