New Look to become ‘climate positive’ by 2040
New Look has today published an update to its Sustainability Strategy, including a new commitment to become a ‘climate positive’ business by 2040.
The retailer is also looking to halve the greenhouse gas emissions from its products by 2030.
The climate positive commitment will see New Look strive to reduce its environmental impact across a range of key factors. This includes the circularity of its products and packaging, and reducing emissions and water usage.
New Look already classes 55% of its products as “Kind”, meaning that they are sourced with environmental impacts in mind, including the amount of cotton sourced through the Better Cotton Initiative.
The retailer is now aiming to ensure that 100% of its cotton is either recycled, organic or from the initiative by 2022. Additionally, New Look has put a target in place to use 100% sustainable viscose by 2023.
The company said the new goals build on its previous commitment to set science-based emissions targets, which was made late last year. New Look now expects to confirm specific emissions targets and a roadmap for reaching them by 2023, before then securing independent approval from the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in 2024.
SBTi has recently strengthened its guidelines for companies setting emissions targets through the introduction of a new net zero standard, which not only requires firms to set short and long term emissions reduction goals in line with a 1.5C warming trajectory but also aims to minimise the use of carbon offsets to meet net zero goals.
“Environmental and social responsibility has been a part of our business for over 20 years,” said Nigel Oddy, CEO. “Now, as a leading womenswear retailer with a global footprint, acting sustainably has never been more important to us. We are proud of our achievements to date, but our strategy refresh commits to going further and outlines our ambitions for the future.
“At New Look, we have a responsibility to our people, employees, and wider society to embrace and accelerate the change needed to reduce our environmental impact. By ensuring that our business is ‘Kind to Our Core’ we are also building a brand that is fit for cultural evolution and global challenges, creating a sustainable future for New Look.”
His comments were echoed by Sue Fairley, head of sustainability at the company, who said: “we are thrilled to be launching the next stage of our sustainability strategy. We have extended the reach of our pledges and have committed to becoming climate positive by 2040, which is a key milestone for New Look. We’re pleased to be making progress in an area which has been crucial to our business and the commitments build on the last 20 years of work in this area. This strategy will help us to shift our priorities, ensure best practice and improve transparency within our overall supply chain.”
Earlier this month the Competition and Markets Authority announced that its plans to crackdown on ‘greenwash‘ marketing claims would initially focus on the fashion industry, in response to widespread fears that parts of the sector are guilty of exaggerating its environmental performance.
