Online retailers About You, YOOX Net-a-Porter and Zalando have teamed up to reduce carbon emissions in their value chain by creating an online platform designed to help their brand partners set climate targets and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Each of the three retailers have already set their own emissions reduction targets, but between 70% to 90% of fashion’s carbon footprint comes from upstream supply chain activities such as material production, preparation and processing.
“Our commitment to climate action can only be realized through innovative partnership,” said Geoffroy Lefebvre, CEO at YOOX Net-a-Porter in a statement. “This next step prioritizes investing in brand partners at different stages in their climate journeys, supporting them to set their science-based targets. By collaborating with About You and Zalando, together we can drive a more consistent approach in our efforts towards reducing the emissions of luxury and fashion.”
The online platform that the partners have developed will be available to all three platforms’ brand partners for free and is designed to explain the value and process behind setting climate targets. It will provide step-by step learning on how to measure emissions, set targets that align with climate science and submit them for approval to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). It also will provide a dedicated space for fashion brands to engage with one another and sustainability experts.
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The initiative is being run in collaboration with environmental sustainability consultancy Quantis and will launch as a pilot with select brand partners this fall. Then in 2023 it will become available to all eligible brand partners. The retailers also see the potential for the platform to become an industry-wide initiative open to all interested fashion brands and retailers further in the future.
“Decarbonizing supply chains in partnership with suppliers, brands, logistics, packaging partners and now also our competitors is a powerful lever for driving meaningful change in the fashion industry,” said David Schneider, Co-CEO at Zalando in a statement. “We aim for 90% of our partners (by emissions) to set science-based targets by 2025, and the new learning platform is a key initiative towards realizing this ambitious goal.”
