With ‘sustainability strengthening brands’, UK clothing retailers have signed a pledge to measure and report the environmental footprint of clothing and to take action to reduce its impact. Retailers such as ASOS, British Retail Consortium, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Clothes Aid, Defra, I&G Cohen, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Next, Sainsbury’s, Salvation Army Trading Company, Tesco and the Textile Recycling Association are amongst the first to sign up to reduce waste, carbon and water footprints by 2020.
“The fact that 22 organizations have already signed a commitment that explicitly sets out their determination to reduce the carbon, water and waste footprints of clothing is very encouraging,” says Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive, The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
In order to facilitate the organizations to measure their overall environmental footprints, WRAP, on behalf of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), has developed for the first time a spreadsheet-based footprint calculator which will enable companies to quantify and report the total global impact of the clothes they make in a consistent manner.
