I was browsing Zara’s website the other day because I wanted to get a new pair of shoes. As I was looking, I realized some item pictures have a tagline saying Join Life Sustainability, which intrigued me to click on it. As you can see from the photos below, all the items in the #joinlife collection have attached a description of its sustainable practice. For example, the black sandals were made with certification from Leather Working Group, using renewable energy and technology that reduces water use, and the t-shirt was made from 100% organic cotton that helps with biodiversity.
On their website, they list four big commitment ranging from raw material to store operation.
- Our products: our products meet the most stringent health, safety, and environmental sustainability standards.
- Our suppliers: our supply chain respects workers and the environment.
- Our stores: up to 90% of our stores are now eco-friendly.
- Green web: Zara.com’s servers and offices consume energy derived from renewable sources that respect the environment.
In order to learn more about its sustainability initiative, I dug into Zara and its parent company Inditex a bit more. Inditex is a Spanish multinational clothing company and the biggest fashion group in the world, which operates over 7,200 stores in 93 markets worldwide. Zara, as the most well-known brand in Inditex, has the highest potential to impact the system of suppliers, factories, transportation and brick-and-mortar operation in both positive and negative ways (Fernandez, 2016).
Initially, the “Join Life” collection was launched as a tactic to answer H&M’s Conscious collection, which debuted in 2011 and used organic cotton, Tencel and recycled polyesters as materials. Now, the “Join Life” initiative has gone beyond using just organic and recycled materials. All the Tencel, recycled polyesters and organic cotton have to be manufactured with one of Inditex’s “Green to Wear” technologies that include water recycling. To maximize its monitoring effort, Inditex has released the name and the address of all the factories involving in water treatment thereby attracting public scrutiny towards its monitoring protocols. On top of that, the company also has focused on “eco-efficient” stores, where brick-and-mortar stores should decrease their electricity consumption and greenhouse emissions.
The strategy that interests me the most has to be their clothes lifespan extension program. Apart from selling sustainable clothing, it also advocates clothing recycle, which is similar to what Patagonia is doing. Zara asked its customers to bring the clothes they no longer desire to wear and then they will take these clothes to non-profit organizations, who will donate the clothes to the most suitable destinations.
Sources:
- https://www.zara.com/ca/en/sustainability-l1449.html?v1=742016
- https://fashionista.com/2016/09/zara-sustainable-collection-join-life
- https://www.zara.com/ca/en/sustainability-collection-program-l1452.html
MadisonSchulte
February 22, 2019 — 3:59 pm
I thought this was a very interesting blog post about Zara’s new efforts. However, I was wondering in general what the difference is between “sustainable” leather and “unsustainable” leather. As someone who tries to eat and use vegan products whenever possible, I was questioning whether a product that comes directly from the meat production industry could be sustainable. I did a bit more research and found a cool website about sustainable fashion- https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/. The website lists some of the pros and cons of using leather in fashion. Some of the pros include that leather products last a long time, and are made from the byproducts of the meat industry (products that would likely have been wasted otherwise). However, in the typical leather industry, toxic chemicals are used, and often child labor is used to product them. But there are ways to make leather sustainable (https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/sustainable-leather) and it sounds like Zara is using many of them, which is awesome!
RachelTseng
March 12, 2019 — 12:58 am
It’s so nice to see such a huge company like Inditex, release information about the factories they use to manufacture their clothes. I think the biggest key in making sustainability in fast fashion sustainable is being transparent. I find this to be the most essential value that all companies should adhere to. Transparency allows for accountability not just within the organization but with the customers as well, and it also motivates and inspires others to follow suit in terms of becoming more sustainable. However, I’m not saying that what Zara is doing is perfect and “wow so sustainable and green and great!”, but I think it is a step forward in improving and becoming better. It’s super cool to see a massive fast fashion brand like Zara take the reigns of the sustainability chariot; it’s honestly quite risky for large corporations and brands. It also reminds me of the chat we have on whether it’s the organization’s responsibility or the customer’s responsibility to be more sustainable. Personally, I think it’s both. In this case, Zara has somewhat done its part (so to say) and has taken the first step, so now it’s up to the customers on whether or not they choose that sustainable choice or not. I’m interested to see how this “Join Life” program grows and what customers think of it/do they even know of it? Can this #JoinLife thing be marketed better so that customers are easily and conveniently educated about it?
KevinSun
March 19, 2019 — 9:21 pm
Hey Chloe!
This blog post was such an interesting read! My perceptions of fast fashion clothing companies like Zara and H&M are that they use cheap materials and have unfavorable operational practices (child labor) in order to achieve low costs for consumers. I thought that fast fashion clothing companies epitomizes the definition of unsustainable businesses. This was the main basis for why I never shop at companies that operate off of the fast fashion business model.
This is a cool initiative that Zara is taking part in. As a sustainability marketing student, I really hope that Zara’s “Join Life” campaign aren’t greenwashing tactics such as the “every drop is green” campaign by Fiji Water. I’ll give Zara the benefit of a doubt and concede that they are taking the first step in the right direction towards a more sustainable business practice.
CindyOlsson
March 30, 2019 — 1:06 pm
I liked how you talked about the ways in which Zara was becoming more sustainable. However, whenever I read about fast fashion companies coming out with a sustainable clothing line, do they actually care about the environment or is it just a way to increase revenue? Sustainability is definitely a growing trend that we are seeing, and sometimes I feel like fast fashion companies are just jumping on the trend to try to capitalize on it. Fast fashion, in general, is one of the largest contributors of pollution in our world today.
I think it’s amazing that companies are heading in the right direction and advocating for sustainable clothing and raising awareness about the harm of fast fashion – however, I don’t know if they are REALLY committed to sustainability as we still see really cheap items for sale in both Zara and H&M.
Simran Cheema
April 8, 2019 — 2:02 pm
Hey Chloe! I’ve always noticed your super dope outfits in class and so I’m not surprised to see this really insightful post about the fashion industry. I myself am also very passionate about fashion and often reflect on many of the ideas discussed in this post. I am an avid shopper at Zara and even own some of the items in your article! Although I think that Zara is definitely becoming a leader in Fast fashion with these extended care programs and certifications, I still struggle with the idea of fast fashion in general. Undeniably, I am a huge contributor to this problem; I’d say about 70% of my closet is from some form of fast fashion store. But I always think back to the wasteful and cylucal nature of fast fashion in getting us the latest trends as fast as possible. I have thought about it over and over and can never really foresee a sustianable way for this industry to continue to exist. If we want fashion as fast as we currently expect it, will wastage ever go down? What about transportation emissions? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Here is an interesting article that echoes some of these sentiments https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/29/fast-fashion-giving-way-sustainable-wardrobe
Anonymous
April 14, 2022 — 7:26 am
I’m very happy that a brand like Zara takes initiatives like this. If I would write this in my language (haha) sobrang nakakatulong to with our current problems related to climate change. I’m sure it will take time but dahan-dahan lang. 🙂