Target’s 2025 may be remembered as a year marked by consumer backlash, leadership changes and declining sales, driven in part by the retailer’s retreat from its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Yet amid the turbulence, Target made some progress on sustainability, offering a rare bright spot in an otherwise challenging year.
In the 2025 Sustainability and Governance Report, Target describes how its making denim products more accessible and less harmful to the environment.
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At the factory level, Target continued to partner with ZDHC to set and apply requirements for factory wastewater discharge and to reduce harmful chemicals in the manufacturing of owned brand textiles. The retailer’s denim wash recipes were a focus area for reductions. In FY2024, Target reduced water usages by 64 percent and reduced CO2 emissions by 70 percent.
Target also made progress “designing out” potassium permanganate (PP) in all owned brand denim products, meeting its 2025 goal.
“At the product level, advancements in chemistry have enabled us to consolidate several denim wash steps into one process. This has enabled us to improve supply chain efficiency and significantly reduce water and energy consumption,” Target stated in the report.
Universal Thread, Target’s owned brand of women’s denim, is proving to be a springboard for several of the company’s sustainability initiatives.
Starting in FY2025, Target reports that 20 percent (by weight) of Universal Thread’s denim items is now made with recycled cotton. The brand also continued its partnership with Accelerating Circularity to launch ’80s Slim-Fit Ankle Jeans, which combine cotton scraps and post-consumer recycled cotton with conventional cotton and lyocell.
Additionally, Universal Thread is one of two brands that have become Target’s first owned brands designed for a circular future. Target defines this by taking steps to eliminate waste, keep products and materials in use longer, and decrease its dependency on natural resources to develop and manufacture products. Everspring, Target’s cleaning supplies brand, is the second.
Part of Target’s circular approach is collecting unwanted denim. The report states that Target collected over 65,000 lbs. of denim through its first chain-wide Denim Take Back Event in July 2024. Target incentivized consumers to recycle their denim with a Target Circle 20 percent off discount code to use toward a new denim apparel purchase.
“The event responded to growing interest in products and programs that help reduce waste to landfill. It also served as an opportunity to learn about the viability of the collected material for recycling, and the potential expansion of our guest engagement programs into other product categories,” Target stated in the report.
As of February 2025, all of Universal Thread’s apparel items are enabled with Target’s first EON Digital Product Passports (DPPs). Accessible through QR codes on clothing tags, Target emphasized how the DDPs can enhance the consumer experience through a “shop the look” feature and a “seamless resale” feature, which enables consumers to resell products on Poshmark through EON’s 1-Click Resale to auto-populate resale listings into the marketplace.
With Universal Thread as a testing vehicle, Target said it “will be able to gain valuable insights into guest reception and the revenue potential of peer-to-peer resale of owned brand products.”
Function and accessibility are guiding Target’s design ethos. The report states that out of nearly 45,000 owned brand products, 70 percent incorporate “inclusive attributes spanning style and size breadth, cultural relevance, allergen-friendly formulations, adaptive and accessible features and our Color For ALL palette system.” One example of this in denim is the extra soft denim used for children’s Cat & Jack jean shorts, designed to be stylish and sensory-friendly.
