Attire investigates the fast fashion giant’s sustainability commitments, production methods, transparency, and more.
By Ashley Chana
It is more likely than not that you have seen a Zara store before. With thousands of retail outlets across the globe, Zara has established itself as a heavyweight in the fast fashion industry, and is one of eight brands owned by Spanish clothing conglomerate Inditex.Popular website Good On You gives Zara a rating of “Not Good” overall, and 2 out of 5 in the three main areas of Planet, People, and Animals. This calls into question the fast fashion brand’s ethical and environmental practices in a number of crucial areas of sustainability.
Pledges and Commitments
Clearly, the negative connotation associated with being a fast fashion brand is something Zara has taken to heart. This can be seen by the numerous pledges and commitments it has made to sustainability over the past few years. In 2012, Zara made a pledge to ensure that all hazardous chemicals would be removed from its operations by 2020. 2016 included the release of the brand’s “eco-friendly” collection called “Join Life”, featuring what it claims to be eco-friendly fabrics. Most recently, in 2019, Zara’s parent company announced a mission to use only sustainable materials by 2025. However, how much of a difference will this actually make when the brand produces more than 800 million garments a year? Regardless of how “sustainable” a material is, it is inevitable that a significant portion of these garments will end up as unnecessary waste. Furthermore, when prominent fast fashion brands such as Zara have such significant output, other brands may feel pressured to increase their own production to keep up with competitors, whether they are similar fast fashion brands or even luxury retailers.
Unfortunately, it does not seem that Zara has lived up to its previous pledges, so it is uncertain whether it will successfully implement its most recent pledge. For example, taking a look at Zara’s FY 2020 Statement on Non-Financial Information, there is no tangible information detailing any results or progress on the commitment it made to remove hazardous chemicals from its supply chain in partnership with Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals. While diving deeper into this report does shed some light on Zara’s partnerships, commitments, and progress in the right direction, some major problems still remain: namely, the sheer amount of products Zara produces and the fact that these items are generally produced in the Global South where garment workers are paid meager wages and work in dangerous conditions.
Mass Production
One of Zara’s main strengths is its agility in churning out new products based on consumer demand. It can take just a few weeks for consumer feedback to reach designers and for the product to then make its way to the retail floor. As trends change faster than ever with the prominence of social media and fashion influencers, fast fashion companies like Zara are forced to speed up its turnaround in order to keep up with ever-changing demand. As a result, the number of times a clothing item is worn before it is thrown out has decreased by 36%, in turn leading to a doubling of clothing production in the past couple of decades.
The promotion of over-production and mass consumption leads to environmental damage. For example, Zara uses viscose in its production: a material made of wood pulp from sometimes endangered trees. It has been found that viscose production in countries like India has led to water contamination from untreated waste and air pollution. Other plants in China used by Zara have been found to pollute nearby residential communities at three times the permitted level. Zara’s desire to churn out thousands of designs a year directly translates into excessive water usage, energy usage, air pollution, and more. These effects are disproportionately felt in the Global South, where plants are generally located in order to exploit cheaper labour compared to the countries in Global North.
Garment Workers
Another important aspect to consider is the garment workers who produce millions of products for Zara each year. Sustainability is not just a narrow focus on environmental protection: it includes the people that make up the operations of a business.
As mentioned above, some of the factories Zara uses have been proven to release toxic chemicals and waste. Not only does this harm the environment, but it also harms the people working in clothing production facilities. Furthermore, employees often have to work under high-pressure situations. In Tunisia, some workers are timed to the minute to ensure they are fulfilling nearly impossible requirements, like producing 150 pieces in an hour. If this goal is accomplished, workers are “rewarded” with a meager bonus. In 2011, it was found that the contractor responsible for most of Zara’s production in Brazil subcontracted to factories employing migrant workers in sweatshop facilities. Conditions in these facilities were described as slave-like, with some of these migrant workers even being teenagers. Zara disclaimed responsibility by saying it was not responsible for “unauthorized outsourcing”.
In addition to being offered meager wages with barely any benefits, workers are often left unpaid for their work. In 2018, articles of Zara clothing were found stuffed with notes from disgruntled factory workers who were not paid their wages and severance when their factory was shut down. Ethical fashion activists have called out Zara, saying that the company cannot simply pass the blame on to its contractors: it should instead perform due diligence to partner with ethical suppliers and protect the garment workers on whom it relies. With its ever-increasing sales revenues and high profit margins, Zara can afford to make its supplier decisions with more care while also paying living wages. This is one of Zara’s priority goals according to its 2020 Report, but it has yet to be seen how Zara will actually be taking action on these goals.
Transparency
Zara scored in the 11% to 20% range on the 2020 Fashion Transparency Index in the category of traceability. This relates to the amount of information published regarding suppliers and raw material sourcing. This information is crucial because it can shed light on the working conditions of garment workers, depending on the factory location. Knowing where raw materials come from can also help gauge Zara’s commitment to only using sustainable materials by 2025. Similarly, Zara scored between 31%-40% in the Know, Show, and Fix category and between 41%-50% in the Spotlight Issues category. The first category relates to how companies assess their suppliers for human rights and environmental issues, and how much information they publish related to this. The second category covers Fashion Revolution’s 4 C’s for 2020: conditions, consumption, composition, and climate. These scores seem to conflict with Zara’s score of 81%-90% in Policy and Commitments. While they may be successful in implementing policies and procedures, the results do not seem to be proportionately reflected in the categories that matter.
Greenwashing
The aforementioned environmental and ethical practices shed doubt on Zara’s “eco-friendly” “Join Life” line, which is supposedly sustainable because of the fabrics it uses. It is great to see Zara making an effort, but tackling just one aspect of its multifaceted issues is not enough. What about the garment workers? The local pollution in developing countries? The thousands of clothes that will still end up in landfills? Zara also continues to use materials such as wool, leather, and down in its regular collection, which indicates that it also has progress to make with animal welfare. One line that uses sustainable materials is not a band-aid solution that can cover up Zara’s deep-rooted issues in numerous aspects of its business model. This type of greenwashing covers up other issues that are highly prevalent, and consumers need to understand that one “eco-friendly” line is not a proper solution. There is a lot more Zara can and should do to follow up on its various pledges and commitments.
While Zara has taken sustainability issues to heart in recent years, as demonstrated by its commitments and targets, partnerships with various organizations such as Closing the Loop, and increased reporting, it still remains to be seen whether these programs will result in true sustainable change or are just a greenwashing tactic.
Until true action is taken, the countless initiatives Zara implements are, unfortunately, not completely impactful. It is difficult not to see these programs as greenwashing when Zara is not inclined to change the most harmful aspects of its business. Until then, consumers should beware of its sustainability claims, monitor Zara’s progress over the next few years, and push for accountability and transparency.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashley Chana is a fourth-year student at the University of British Columbia. She is passionate about both the fashion industry and sustainable living: Ashley writes about the intersection of these topics and how we can implement change in our day-to-day lives. She also profiles sustainable brands and designers to raise awareness about environmentally conscious options, and brings light to the issues in the fashion industry.
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