Sustainability is sometimes an ambiguous term with each company defining it differently but the results of sustainable and responsible design are proving to be win-wins for both the environment and the denim industry.

In 2019, major players across all tiers of fashion made ambitious sustainable pledges. Inditex announced that all of the cotton, linen and polyester used by fast fashion retailer Zara will be organic, sustainable or recycled by 2025. Gap Inc. laid out plans to accelerate sustainable product innovation for its Old Navy and Banana Republic brands, including using new wash processes for denim that reduce water usage by 20 percent and procuring its cotton from more sustainable sources. Levi Strauss & Co. said it intends to achieve a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and use 100 percent renewable energy throughout its facilities by 2025.

And in large part, sustainability is being led by the global denim industry’s laborious effort to undo the century’s worth of damage it has done to the environment. Sustainable innovation begins with the supply chain, which Rivet has seen embrace the challenge as the new way forward.

Read the Jean Therapy report to get up to speed on:

• How mills are scaling responsible raw materials across production
• How laser technologies are driving brands to rethink their finishing processes
• Why even indigo is being reconsidered through a green lens
• What’s driving the industry’s movement toward circularity—and what’s holding it back
• How denim companies are reaping the financial benefits of re-commerce business models

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