RATING
Neutral
SECTOR
Fashion
Chief Sustainability Officer
N/A
Contact Details:
N/A
Stock Exchange and Ticker
ITX – BME (Bolsa de Madrid) (Inditex)
Website
Contact
T:+34 981 185 400
E.mail: N/A
Listing
- N/A
Awards
- ‘Best Places to Work’ for LGTB+ people in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index 2022 (gained the top score, 100/100)
- Universum’s World’s Most Attractive Employers ranking in the Business category for the first time
Revenue
€17.3 B
Market Capitalisation
$78.37 B (Inditex)
Employees
75,000
Content source
- Inditex Annual Report 2021 -1-
- Zara, Zara Commitments, Zara Environmental Policies, Zara Transport Policy, Animal Welfare Policy, Fibre2fashion
- https://www.forbes.com/companies/zara/?sh=132764aa7487
- Inditex (IDEXY) – Market capitalization
- ZARA’s Competitors, Revenue, Number of Employees, Funding, Acquisitions & News – Owler Company Profile
- Zara, Primark and Asos publish gender pay gap results
Zara Sustainability Report
Evaluation of Zara
In order to evaluate ZARA’s sustainability initiatives we examined a report from its parent company, Inditex, as well as some outside sources, as Zara has no own sustainability report in spite of being a garment manufacturing empire of its own. On the bright side, their Join Life initiative is committed to using the best procedures and more environmentally friendly raw materials to produce their clothing. Zara has also listed its goals for 2023, which include using “100% more sustainable cellulose fibres” in their bag packaging in stores, banning all single-use plastics from customers, and achieving 100% zero waste production by that year. In total, they used 91% renewable energy.
However, it is impossible to track their development in terms of reducing waste and carbon emissions, making their progresses in that direction impossible to track. In other words, even though it appears that they are moving in the right direction towards sustainability, they lack sufficient transparency and are large enough to have their own sustainability management team and reporting. The company could be described as “hopefully transitioning”, yet with major shortcomings in their planning a transition to sustainability, measuring it and tracking of progress.
Sustainability Scorecard
Zara Company Activity
The clothing retailer has more nearly 3,000 stores, including its kids and home stores. It has stores in 96 countries and is the flagship brand of the Inditex Group. Zara is renowned for its ability to develop a new product and get it to stores within two weeks, while other retailers take six months. Spain is the biggest market with 547 stores (including Zara Kids and Zara Home), followed by China (229 stores), France (145), Russia (144) and Italy (134). The U.S. has 98 stores as of January 2019. Rosalia Mera, who co-founded Zara with her former husband Amancio Ortega, died in 2013 at the age of 69. She was the wealthiest self-made woman in the world with a fortune estimated at $6.1 billion at the time of her death.
Zara Sustainability Activity - As per company declarations
Inditex is committed to the environment and is taking wide-ranging measures to protect biodiversity, reduce consumption of water, energy and other resources, avoid waste, and combat climate change.
Certificate & Labels, Standards and Frameworks
N/A
Zara in the news: Press Reviews and Social Media
How Sustainable is Zara? | Eco-Stylist
With the launch of its JOIN LIFE movement, Zara has been attempting to improve the perception of its commitment to sustainability. This launch includes a product line, ethical objectives, and sustainability commitments. A 10/33 was given to Zara for maker wellbeing. Zara received a transparency rating of just under 50%. Zara’s rating for environmental sustainability was just under 50%.
Recently, Zara made a list of its environmental commitments public. Lack of transparency is the main problem with Zara’s environmental policy. For Zara to receive the points in this section, more than 50% of their materials must be produced sustainably, and producers’ human rights must be upheld. If you work hard, Zara, you might get an A. Zara’s rating for environmental sustainability was just under 50%.
https://fashionunited.uk/news/retail/zara-publishes-sustainability-manifesto/2021080957038
Zara emphasizes some of its most significant initiatives, such as politically motivated programs, integrating social and environmental sustainability, and the health and safety of its products, in bold letters under the slogan “Working toward sustainability.” Join Life-branded clothing is made with methods and materials that lessen its impact on the environment. At the end of their useful lives, its boxes, bags, hangers, and alarms are recycled and reused. By 2022, all of the energy used in the company’s headquarters, logistical hubs, and retail locations will be generated by renewable resources. Utilizing recycled polyester and European linen, as well as producing in Morocco and Tunisia, already demonstrates the company’s progress toward achieving its sustainable mission.
Clothes made from ‘carbon emissions’: Why Zara’s new line is just more greenwashing | Euronews
According to Zara, capturing and using carbon emissions from industrial processes reduces their direct release into the atmosphere and lessens the need for new fossil fuels. In 2021, as this brand-new, ground-breaking collection was being unveiled, Inditex, owner of Zara, announced that net profits had doubled to €3.2 billion. The brand’s profits are soaring as Inditex FY21 revenues increased 36% to €27.7 billion in March 2022. LanzaTech collects CO2 from waste processes in industry, agriculture, or the home. It is converted into ethanol through a fermentation process, which is a critical step in the production of materials like PET used in polyester thread.
Greenwashing can serve as a cover for more nefarious and unethical activities like modern slavery and other supply chain-based violations of human rights.
Highlights from Zara Sustainability Report
Achievements
- Gained the best score for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index 2022
Weaknesses and Setbacks
- Zara does not have its own sustainability report
Targets vs Progress Reported
| Target | Results reported |
|---|---|
| Use of paper or biodegradable plastic bags | - The Commitment to use PEFC paper and recyclable materials is extended to the materials used for customer information - Their fashion catalogues are printed on paper with the FSC/PEFP MARK (certificate guaranteeing sustainable forest management |
| Use of ecological fabrics, like organic cotton | - Zara Supports ecological agriculture and uses organic cotton in the production of selected items of clothing (100% cotton, completely free of pesticide, chemical agents and bleaches). With a distinctive lable these products can be identified very easily at the store - No petroleum derivatives or non-biodegradable materials are used in producing the footwear |
| Environmental policy in the transport | They have introduced biodiesel fuel; Zara’s fleet of Lorries transport over 200 million items of clothing annually and uses 5% biodiesel fuel. This measure enables us to reduce emission of CO2 into the atmosphere by more than 500 tones |
| Animal welfare policy | All the animal products, including fur and leather sold at Zara come exclusively from animal reared in livestock form and never from animal sacrificed for skin sale/td> |
UN SDGs Compliance Analysis
Progress made toward SDG targets
As reported by Inditex
- The Zara Tribute project represents a social initiative aligned with our commercial activity, based on the launch of limited edition collections linked to social causes. Zara’s first Tribute collection, called “Icons by Peter Lindbergh”, is a project that features iconic photographs by legendary photographer Peter Lindbergh and curated by creative director Fabien Baron. 100% of the proceeds from this collection go to the Franca Sozzani Fund for Preventive Genomics, with the aim of financing the Global Babyseq initiative, a human genome sequencing project that seeks to support research and innovation in predictive medicine in collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
- In 2021, they launched Zara Boost, a programme to discover junior talent in the areas of technology and e-commerce
- This year also saw they launch of Zara School, designed to provide ongoing training to all store staff
- The website of Zara is hosted at Inditex’s own data centres and on external servers, and 100% of the energy consumed in our online stores and at their Data Processing Centre and external servers is from renewable sources
- They have made a mobile point of sale available to our customers in stores to provide a complete shopping service for the launch of new spaces such as Zara Beauty or new collections such as Zara Origins
- In 2021, Zara presented the new Athleticz collection of sportswear designed for athletes from any sports discipline, and unveiled Zara Origins, a proposal for creating a current and timeless basic wardrobe. Towards the end of the year, the brand launched capsule collaborations with fashion brands like KASSL Editions, from the Netherlands, and Ader Error, from South Korea, with which it has developed a virtual extension of the ZEPETO digital platform, Zara’s first venture into the metaverse
- They used AMRs to automate Zara.com e-commerce stock at the Marchamalo centre. Through the design and roll-out of a Goods to Person (GTP) solution based on AMR technology, 500 autonomous robots support the operators in tasks linked to the receipt, storage, picking and auditing of the centre’s stock
- INCLUYE Project is an initiative aimed at the socio-occupational integration of people with disabilities. It consists of the incorporation of people with intellectual disabilities into their logistics teams. This programme,launched in 2021, is conducted in conjunction with local organisations such as Prodis and COGAMI that work to foster the inclusion in the workplace of people with different talents. The programme is based on adapting the job position and functions to the abilities of the participants, providing on-site support from NGOs and tutors from Inditex and implementing inclusion activities with participants and tutors. Through the INCLUYE initiative, 20 people with intellectual disabilities have joined Zara’s Logistics Platforms in Arteixo (A Coruña), Zaragoza and Meco (Madrid)
- The new Zara.com building was inaugurated in 2021. These facilities, spanning more than 67,000 m2 and featuring the latest advances in technology and sustainability, house the new Zara.com studios and the Design Centre for Zara Man. The new building is a milestone for advanced communications, with 5G and wifi 6 coverage to achieve communications up to 10 times faster and more reliable than using LTE (Long Term Evolution). Thanks to wifi 6, scope and coverage are very high, optimising the performance of all devices connected to the network
- The cardboard obtained from the recycling of Green to Pack boxes is used to manufacture boxes for Zara’s online deliveries, in addition to other uses
- In line with its Zero Waste programme, they have launched in the market a series of towels made from mechanically recycled cotton threads from leftovers of the production
- Waste already transformed into new materials is present in certain Zaravcollections in percentages that vary between a 15% a 50%
- At each of their new Zara stores worldwide they have identified the people most committed to sustainability, their Changemakers. This community ensures that sustainability reaches all their store teams
- Through the Sustainability Innovation Hub collaborative platform to boost new technologies and more sustainable materials, Zara has joined forces with the startup LanzaTech to launch a capsule collection that incorporates fabric made with carbon emissions
- Zara teamed with the start-up LanzaTech to launch a capsule collection of party dresses made with fabric from captured CO2 emissions
Sustainability Certificates, Awards and Listings
