The impact of fast fashion

Fast fashion depends on high production rates, rapid collection turnovers, low quality and low costs. The result is garments with a short lifetime, increased waste and exploitative labour practices. In 2020, allegations of poor factory conditions and low wages in online brand Boohoo’s Leicester factory highlighted the widespread structural issues in the industry.

As a responsible investor, Triodos Investment Management selects companies for investment based on a set of strict criteria. In terms of the fashion industry, Triodos Investment Management only invests in companies who are embracing - or clearly transitioning towards - sustainable fashion, evidenced by valuable products, durable processes and long-term purpose.

Applying best practice

Fashion houses in the Kering group make clothing in highly specialised manufacturing sites, and production is mainly carried out on a small scale by suppliers based in Italy. Kering has exceptional cooperation with unions, which helps ensure good working conditions for its employees.

When it comes to the issue of waste, Kering uses raw materials with a low environmental impact, such as organic cotton, recycled polyester and regenerated cashmere from wool scraps. The group’s Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L) account measures carbon emissions, water consumption, air and water pollution, land use, and waste production along the entire supply chain.

In 2013, Kering created the Materials Innovation Lab (MIL), which is dedicated to the sourcing of sustainable materials. Based in Milan, the MIL works closely with the fashion houses in the Kering Group to support them in integrating sustainable materials into their products. The company is also a co-founder of the Organic Cotton Accelerator, an organisation which champions organic cotton with a vision of prosperity for all.

Looking to the future

Kering has outlined a clear sustainability roadmap to 2025, which centres on three pillars – care, collaborate, and create. The ‘care’ pillar focuses on environmental impact, and Kering has targets to reduce the Group’s total environmental footprint by 40% by 2025. The ‘collaborate’ pillar outlines Kering’s commitment to engage with stakeholders to ensure the wellbeing of its employees, suppliers and customers. The final pillar, ‘create’, relates to Kering’s research into sustainable materials, which it plans to share throughout the industry following an open-source model.

How does Kering align with Triodos’ mission?

Kering has a good fit with Triodos’ Prosperous and Healthy People theme. Triodos takes a holistic approach to the concept of ‘prosperity’, and organisations included in this theme include healthcare, lifestyle and leisure, and household products.