A raft of international fashion labels have joined environmental organisation Canopy’s campaign to reduce the industry’s impact on forest ecosystems, propelling the roster of brands beyond a symbolic 400 mark.
CanopyStyle was created to raise awareness of the plight of carbon-rich forest ecosystems. More than 200 million trees are cut down every year to produce fashion fabrics like viscose and rayon.
Canopy is committed to protecting the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests and ensuring they continue to grow. Its CanopyStyle and Pack4Good initiatives aim to transform fashion and packaging supply chains by helping them source more sustainability and become advocates for forest conservation.
“This is exactly the pace and scale of change that we need to see across all supply chains,” said Nicole Rycroft, Canopy’s executive director. “We’re confident that with the ‘CanopyStyle 400’ we can make the next decade one of solutions and preservation of the world’s forests. There is urgent work to be done.”
Already, 52 per cent of global production is now documented to Canopy’s “green shirt” criteria – in other words, these viscose manufacturers have taken action to be at low risk for sourcing from Ancient and Endangered Forests.
As a result of CanopyStyle, several major global producers are now manufacturing man-made cellulosic fibre (MMCF) with low-impact alternative fibre such as recycled textiles – the most significant production shift in this supply chain over the past 50 years.
LVMH, Puma, Flipkart sign up
Just during the past few months, CanopyStyle has attracted LVMH and its 75 luxury Maisons, sportswear brand Puma, Chinese sourcing and logistics group Li & Fung, Indian marketplace FlipKart, and India’s House of Anita Dongre to its ranks of supporters. Fourteen more joined just in the past few days.
Luis Coloma, head of environmental sustainability at Zara’s parent Inditex, one of the first fashion labels to join the initiative, says Inditex is proud to see more organisations join CanopyStyle to achieve ever greater environmental gains for the benefit of the climate and Earth’s species.
“This collective and pre-competitive effort is bringing a great value to protect the environment at a global scale.”
Rycroft says CanopyStyle is making a real-world impact. To date, producers responsible for 90 per cent of global viscose supply have committed to stop sourcing from the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests in response to the CanopyStyle initiative.
