Sports brand PUMA topped the list of 250 major fashion brands and retailers featured in the “What Fuels Fashion?” report by the fashion activism group Fashion Revolution, assessing companies in the fashion industry addressing greenhouse gas emissions.
It reviewed the public disclosures of brands regarding their decarbonisation efforts in their operations and supply chains. Fashion Revolution assigned scores across five categories: accountability, decarbonisation, energy procurement, financing decarbonisation, and just transition and advocacy.
PUMA received an overall score of 75%, making it the company with the highest overall score. The report warns that the fashion industry as a whole is lagging significantly in achieving climate targets and reducing emissions. Puma was closely followed by Gucci at 74%, H&M at 61%, and Champion and Hanes at 58%. The overall average score across 250 brand reviews was 18%.
The report found that 47% of major fashion brands and retailers are now disclosing emissions reduction targets verified by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a 13% increase from the previous year.
The report also showed that 60 fashion brands disclosed nothing about decarbonisation, implying that climate crisis is not a priority for these companies. Also, 86% of fashion brands lack a public, time-bound and measurable coal phase-out target while 95% of major fashion brands and retailers are not upfront about what fuels are used in their supply chains.
“While we feel honoured that Fashion Revolution has ranked us as the best performer among the companies it examined, we know there is still a lot of work to do in our decarbonization journey,” said Anne-Laure Descours, Chief Sourcing Officer at PUMA.
She added, “We believe that the report should also be seen as a wakeup call. Much more needs to be done to get all stakeholders to work together to decarbonize our industry and our supply chains. We need to come together to find the solutions needed to achieve our climate goals.”
Leyla Ertur, Sustainability Director H&M Group said, “We’re pleased to be recognised for our transparency, but we know the work doesn’t stop there. Transparency is crucial for the industry, and at H&M Group we remain committed to increasing our public disclosure across all our sustainability work. If all brands shared more about their decarbonisation approach and what they’ve learned along the way, we can make better progress. We need to be brave to test, learn and innovate together.”
