When it comes to sustainable fashion, Amazon is not the first company that comes to mind. The e-commerce giant is one of the biggest purveyors of clothing in the United States, and much of what it sells, including its own private label lines like Amazon Essentials, are not known for their sustainable materials.

But Amazon wants to position itself at the center of a major effort to clean up the fashion industry. Today, The Climate Pledge, the net-zero initiative Amazon co-founded in 2019, is spinning out a new program, the Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition, alongside brands like Stella McCartney, Another Tomorrow, and Brooks Running. It also has support from the World Economic Forum and the forest-conservation nonprofit Canopy.

The coalition consists of more than 60 fashion brands, manufacturers, retailers, and material innovators, including names like Anna Sui, Selfridges, Vestiaire Collective. It also includes major players in the sustainable materials industry, like the textile recycling company Circ, the zero-waste knitting technology Unspun, and the plant-based fiber company Bananatex.

Coalition members get access to a new Fashion Coalition Lever Library, a database of more than 100 decarbonization solutions that includes guidance about how to use each fiber and a directory of suppliers. The coalition is also working with the World Economic Forum on financing models that pair financial institutions with private investors to fund promising materials.

Sally Fouts, director of The Climate Pledge at Amazon, says the team chose to focus on fashion because it is a heavy emitter and existing sustainability coalitions haven’t made much progress on their goal.

Source link