This series of posts aims at showing how fashion companies are changing the way they conduct business to make it a better business. We will look at the achievements of these businesses in terms of innovation and sustainability and, possibly, how these achievements affect their business.
“Sustainability is much more than an idea or a project at Levi Strauss & Co. Sustainability is deeply embedded into our products, our culture, and our business. We want to reach far beyond the boundaries of our company to influence not only what people wear but the way people think and act.”
Levi Strauss was the very first apparel brand to establish and publish a code of conduct in its industry in 1991. It was also the very first company to determine global guidelines for water quality standards for their suppliers in 1992.
Further, in 2005, the company released the global list of their suppliers, something that, at that time, was considered unthinkable to most of apparel businesses. As an example, in the same year, Adidas refused to release the list of their suppliers and decided to do so only two years later in 2007.
The turning point of their approach to sustainability came the same year, in 2007, when the company decided to do the first Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) of two of their main products and found out that most of the environmental impact was out of their control: at raw material and consumer levels. The raw material and consumption phases are responsible for the usage of 94% of water and 58% of energy. The decisions taken to tackle sustainability issues, particularly the environmental ones, are the result of the awareness generated within the company by the LCA.
Better Design
WasteLess products include a minimum of 20 percent post-consumer recycled content, or, on average, eight 12 to 20-ounce plastic bottles per jean.
In 2012, they produced 29 million products made with the WaterLess process saving more than 360 million litres of water.
E-valuate is Levi’s proprietary tool that helps designers assess fabrics and make decisions based also on the environmental performances of materials. Examples of elements considered by the tool are: contribution to climate change, energy use, percent of renewable energy used, water consumption, land occupation etc..
Both an animal welfare policy and the list of restricted substances are publicly available.
Better and Alternative materials
Since 2011, the company decided to include a blend of Better Cotton in more than 25 million pairs of jeans and khakis.
In 2009 they created a line of jeans and tops made of 100% organic cotton.
Better manufacturing
This is the area where the company seems to be lagging behind. Their Terms of Engagement, launched in 1991, has remained untouched until recently when the company has decided to go beyond a compliance approach. The main aim is to raise wages across the industry going towards living wages and improve workers’ lives.
They are members of Fair Factories Clearinghouse and support ILO’s Better Work programmes.
Resource efficiency
In 2011 they achieved 13% reduction of their global climate footprint (based on the 2007 baseline data).
The same year, 11% of the energy the company used came from renewable sources.
Transparency
After releasing their suppliers list, they also shared the LCA of 11 products.They also share a full list of their partners.
However, not enough information is shared about the progress of the work to improve working conditions in their factories. No statistics about the audits performed are published.
Consumer engagement
More than half of Levi’s product’s impact occurs after it is purchased. As a result, Levi’s has worked actively to change consumer behaviour. The Care for Our Planet campaign is their main initiative in this field. This included:
Their store in Munster, Germany, offer a recycling station where consumers can bring any brand of used denim for recycling.
The future: main commitments
