Sustainable Procurement News

Ikea’s parent company is to invest an additional €200m (£171m) in green energy and forest planting as part of a plan by the world’s largest furniture retailer to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Tech giant Amazon, in aid of its pledge to use 80% renewable energy across its operations by 2024 and 100% by 2030, has unveiled plans for three new renewable energy projects to be based in the US and Spain.

Tesco Lotus will stop giving out plastic bags in its 2,000 stores in January 2020. When it announced the decision, there was an uproar among customers. Retailers around the region will empathise as they grapple with their responsibility to respond to the plastic crisis.

The sports retailer, one of the biggest in the world, announced its new commitment to science-based targets in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement on Tuesday. The new goals have been approved by the Science Based Target (SBT) initiative.

The commerce and industry ministry has advised e-commerce companies to gradually slash single-use plastic in packaging of products being sold through their platforms, in line with the government's commitment to reduce use of such material, an official said. The companies have also been advised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to develop sustainable packaging material which will contribute to reducing India's plastic footprint globally.

A meeting between representatives from the world's largest retail brands and leading figures from Bangladesh's ready-made garment (RMG) sector has highlighted the importance of a sustainability vision for the South Asian country's apparel industry.  

Twelve major own-label suppliers of Tesco Ireland have pledged to substantially cut food waste, as part of a scheme run by the retailer to halve its food waste by 2030 in line with United Nations targets.

The dozen companies have pledged to measure their food waste and publish the data regularly, beginning next year.

They have also committed to adopt measures to reduce wastage, as part of Tesco’s promise to implement its own 50 per cent cut. Tesco has adopted UN sustainable development goal 12.3, which calls for a reduction by half in farm-to-fork food waste over the next decade.

Several of the world’s largest food retailers have signed on to a new initiative in the fight against food waste. Called 10x20x30, the initiative brings together 10 of the world’s biggest food retailers and providers to engage with 20 of their priority suppliers to halve rates of food waste by 2030. This private sector commitment is designed to be a significant advancement toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 12.3.

Fashion giant Levi Strauss Co. has launched two new supply chain initiatives - one focused on protecting female supply chain workers, and the other centred around water stewardship - after an investigation uncovered systemic gender-based harassment at supplier facilities.

John Lewis & Partners has become the first UK retailer to apply for a water self-supply licence, in a bid to reduce water use and deliver savings. John Lewis has not yet set a time-bound, numerical target for water efficiency. However, it committed to reaching net-zero by 2050 ahead of the UK Government’s national legislation and has aligned its CSR strategy with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 6, Clean Water & Sanitation and SDG 14, Life Below Water. Moreover, its existing array of low-carbon activities have seen the retailer reduce its operational carbon footprint by 70% against a 2010 baseline.

Future Group, Aditya Birla Retail and Arvind Brands are among 16 of India's top apparel firms that have committed to use more sustainable raw materials and processes by 2025. 

With 4,968 stores in more than 70 markets, the H&M Group is not known as a boutique retailer. The company, with nine brands including flagship H&M, works with 2,383 supplier factories worldwide. Stores in the largest brand, H&M, rack up 800 million annual transactions. Yet, this high-volume retailer is focused on sustainability in all things, including textiles, a seeming contradiction in the fast fashion business.

Singapore-based Eachmile Technologies has developed Fishcoin, a blockchain-based traceability system that it believes can increase the stability and security of the seafood industry.
Asia accounts for 90% of the global production of seafood, with most harvested in developing nations by small scale fishers and farmers. Yet, of all the wild fish catch, more than 30% are said to be caught by illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishers.

While some buyers and retailers are already tracing their products, the firm thinks the start of the supply chain is lacking in this area.

Brands and retailers need to redouble their efforts to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in their global supply chains if they are to meet the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to a new report.

The 2019 Supply Chain Climate Action SCTI Evaluation report was released by the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) in China and the CDP non-profit which works to reduce GHG emissions.

The CDP says that companies' global supply chain emissions are on average 5.5 times greater than their direct emissions and indirect emissions from energy consumption combined.

At the Textiles Exchange event being held here in Canada, the two retail giants told delegates how they ran over 8,000 tests on cotton textiles that were randomly collected from recyclers in Europe, finding that over 20 per cent of post-consumer samples contained APEO’s, around 10 per cent of the these samples also contained formaldehydes, with detectable levels of heavy metals, organotins, PAH (polyaromatic hydrocarbons) and phthalates also present. Actual detection rates were not disclosed.

“Recycled materials are key elements in a circular economy. However, increasing the use of recycled materials whilst ensuring that we keep these textiles free of toxic chemicals presents a challenge for the industry,” noted Anna Biverstål, Global Business Expert on Materials at H&M Group.

The two companies hope that other brands and retailers will join their efforts and say that the results will be disclosed freely for the industry to use as they branch out investigations into polyester and wool-rich textiles. 

Workers on farms and plantations that supply big UK supermarkets are being subjected to poverty and human rights abuses, according to Oxfam.

Textile manufacturer Birla Cellulose claims to have achieved a breakthrough in manufacturing viscose fibre using pre-consumer cotton fabric waste. The company, part of the Aditya Birla Group, says the new line of viscose is already being adopted and is available for sale to interested brands and retailers. Birla Cellulose says the product has been verified by the Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) programme and marks its commitment to a more circular economy.

Soya used in animal feed and sold to UK farmers has been linked to deforestation in Argentina. Retailers including Tesco, Marks and Spencer (M&S), Asda and Morrisons have been revealed as buying meat products from UK farmers who use animal feed containing Argentinian soya, an investigation by The Guardian has found.  Around 14% of soya produced in Argentina stems from the Gran Chaco forest, an area that has been significantly impacted by deforestation. According to WWF, soya is the second-largest driver of deforestation behind beef. 

A discount giant is continuing its efforts to ensure sustainable sourcing for its private label coffee brands. All coffee sourced for Walmart’s U.S. private label brands is now certified sustainable through the third-party groups Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance Certified, or UTZ. Walmart initially committed in 2017 to reach this goal by 2020.

Global specialty retailer American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) has unveiled a series of new sustainability goals, including a plan to be carbon neutral by 2030 and a 30% reduction of water usage in its jeans production by 2023. 

Kohl’s has made a commitment to sustainable sourcing, announcing today that it plans to achieve 100% sustainably sourced cotton in its proprietary brands by 2025 and that of its propriety brands that use polyester, 50% will be made with recycled materials.

Other goals include:
1) Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Kohl’s-owned operations by 50% versus 2014 baseline by 2025;
2) Further reducing energy consumption by 10% at Kohl’s facilities by 2025, building off the company’s existing 20% reduction against 2008 baseline;
3) Expand renewable energy platforms by building off the company’s existing 161 solar and wind locations;
4) Support the transition to a low-carbon transportation system, building off the company’s existing 96 locations offering electrical vehicle charging.
Kohl’s says it goals align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and plans to monitor and report progress against the goals annually.

Three-quarters of leading fashion, retail and luxury executives surveyed for executive search firm Odgers Berndtson’s leadership poll said that real sustainability change would only be achieved with greater regulation. Meanwhile, four out of ten said commercial pressures, including sales growth and competitive pricing, are the biggest obstacle to building a sustainable business. Although 70% said a more sustainable approach was “mission critical”, only 32% cited their main motivation as company ethos. Almost 40% of those surveyed said the change to a sustainable business model a result of consumer expectations. 

Value fashion chain Primark is preparing for a five-fold increase in the number of farmers enrolled in its Sustainable Cotton Programme by the end of 2022, including expanding the initiative to China for the first time.