ADVISORY: 8AM PST Thursday: New report fails fashion industry’s climate commitments

Research shows most companies don’t meet pollution reduction standards called for by UN Paris Agreement

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A new investigative report to be released at 8 a.m. PST / 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, October 17, by international environmental organization Stand.earth ranks the fashion industry’s climate commitments and shows how the sustainability and climate pledges from most top fashion companies fail to meet the climate pollution reduction standards called for by the U.N. Paris Agreement — because they lack key commitments to transition factories and supply chains away from coal and other fossil fuels and on to renewable energy.

The report, titled “Filthy Fashion Scorecard: Which brands are leading on climate and which are still wearing last season’s greenwash?” ranks the climate commitments of 45 top fashion companies who have joined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, or the G7 Fashion Pact — including Levi’s, American Eagle, Burberry, H&M and Gap. The report shows how nearly all of these companies’ pledges fail to reach the 40% emissions reduction needed to align with the UN Paris Climate Agreement’s pathway to 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming – the level of action needed to avert the worst consequences of climate change.  

WHO: International environmental organization Stand.earth releases its report, “Filthy Fashion Scorecard: Which brands are leading on climate and which are still wearing last season’s greenwash?”

WHAT: The report ranks the climate commitments of top fashion companies and shows how companies’ pledges fail to meet the climate pollution reduction standards called for by the U.N. Paris Agreement.

REPORT: The report will be posted on Stand.earth’s website, where it will be a living document with rankings that are regularly updated as companies make climate commitments.

WHY: If the fashion industry was a country, it would be the fourth largest polluter on the planet. This multi-billion dollar sector of the economy is responsible for a massive 8.1% of the world’s total carbon emissions – and this number is expected to dramatically increase. In order to tackle global climate change and keep the world below a catastrophic level of warming, major companies must lead the way in transforming the entire fashion industry, including a key commitment to transform the factories in the industry’s global supply chains away from coal and other fossil fuels and on to renewable energy. This is especially important in countries like China, Turkey, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, which are all considering significant coal expansion.

WHEN: Stand.earth will release its report at 8 a.m. PST / 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, October 17. 

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Media contacts: 
Virginia Cleaveland, Stand.earth, media@stand.earth, +1 510 858 9902 (US), +1 778 984 3994 (Canada)
Madison Donzis, Unbendable Media, madison@unbendablemedia.com, +1 210 488 6220 (US)