The new challenge between Zara and environmental sustainability

Zara is an international company that designs, manufactures, distributes and resells clothing and accessories. It has also established itself in Italy, with 340 physical stores throughout the country.

The company is famous, known worldwide for its low-priced but still trendy clothes.

How did Zara offer so much clothing in a short time? The strategy is simple: it is based on fast fashion .

The fast fashion (ie the "fast") fashion is the ability of a company to produce new collections of clothes in no time. Production concerns all branches of the supply chain: from conception to design, to mass production up to the shelves of physical stores.

Zara was a colossus of this strategy, so much so that it was able to bring new collections in less than 6 weeks . Like? Looking at the catwalks of high fashion, Zara was inspired by new clothing items, and its 300 designers would set the production chain in motion, churning out over 12,000 models a year.

But fast fashion has achieved international resonance for another darker reason: environmental sustainability .

Well, this style of making clothes is by no means sustainable. To do everything faster, in fact, companies like Zara (but also Pull & Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius and others) have taken unsustainable shortcuts on an environmental level.

However, the revolution: Zara has announced, together with other Inditex brands , that its production (together with that of the other brands) will be more sustainable , while maintaining the criteria of fast fashion!

Let's take a closer look at these interesting news.

The news for Zara and the Inditex brands

The project is ambitious and aims to reduce the polluting impact of the entire textile sector.

This program begins with the replacement of all currently used textile materials: the linen, polyester and cotton used will be entirely of organic origin and recycled by 2025.

Furthermore, the Inditex brands will undertake to invest in technologies that favor this environmental transition , also collaborating with the MIT institute in Massachusetts, always with the aim of encouraging the recycling of materials already used. They also undertake to collect used garments around the world and reuse them.

Finally, Zara will phase out single-use plastics by 2023 and will use at least 80% renewable energy for its warehouses and stores.

The goals are ambitious, it is true, but it seems that Zara is already working hard and has already achieved some results. If it continues in this direction, it could really reduce the environmental impact considerably, while continuing in its fast fashion.

How long will it be sustainable?

For a few years for sure. After that, perhaps it will be necessary to reduce the speed of fashion and not make it so “fast”.

And for the offers? The problems aren't that big: people will be able to continue buying clothes at great prices , for example by taking advantage of initiatives like Zara Black Friday . Discounts and sustainable fashion can still go hand in hand.

However, one must still be aware. Our consumption and purchasing habits can also influence the development of the story. Companies don't produce that much if we don't buy excessively and beyond our needs.

However, the future will reserve us some changes. Planet Earth has already asked us to stop certain unsustainable practices, and we must do our part . By doing so, we would help Zara and the Inditex brand companies to be truly more sustainable.

Furthermore, it is certain that fashion will also evolve in favor of a more sustainable model . The question is only of a temporal nature: how long will it take before we need to change?

Conclusions

While it is relatively easy for Zara and the other Inditex brands to change their production impact, it is good to keep in mind that certain things first of all require time and, above all, also a commitment on our part.

Taking discount clothes , stocking up throughout the year, might be a good strategy. Buying without exaggerating could be even better. If you live in a family of 3, buy enough clothes for 3 people.

The responsibility is ours too! Let's always remember that. If everyone bought wisely, waiting for offers and buying no more than necessary, we could all do our part in improving environmental sustainability.

To leave a better world for our children and grandchildren, we must all do our part.

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The article The new challenge between Zara and environmental sustainability comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-nuova-sfida-tra-zara-e-la-sostenibilita-ambientale/ on Sat, 23 Oct 2021 20:38:44 +0000.