Your Prada belt is sick. Your Adidas shoes are fire. Your Coach bag is killer. And the new jacket you bought at Banana Republic is so bomb it might as well explode. The fashion brands that look great on your body, however, might not look as flattering on your conscience, suggests a new report produced by environmental research firm Stand in partnership with Slow Factory, a nonprofit that promotes socially and environmentally responsible design.
“The fashion industry is known for deliberately [obscuring] supply chains that hide massive human rights and environmental abuses,” Colin Vernon, co-founder of Slow Factory, said in a statement, according to climate newsroom Grist. “Given the very lax standards and enforcement on the part of the Brazilian government, we are calling on global brands to make sure that they can prove that their supply chains are clean, without relying on the word of their suppliers or standards that have massive loopholes.”
Along with Prada, Adidas, Coach and Banana Republic, brands and retailers thought to source questionable Brazilian leather include American Eagle, Asics, Calvin Klein, Cole Haan, Columbia, DKNY, Dr. Martens, Esprit, Fila, Fossil, Gap, Giorgio Armani, Guess, H&M, Jansport, Kate Space, K-Swiss, Lacoste, Michael Kors, New Balance, Nike, Puma, Ralph Lauren, Reebok, Skechers, Target, Ted Baker, The North Face, Timberland, Toms, Tommy Hilfiger, Under Armour, Vans, Walmart, Wolverine, and Zara, among many others.
While they may have connections to irresponsible suppliers, the report is quick to point out that those connections in and of themselves are not proof of wrongdoing.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that some brands have made sustainability claims that are contrary to their supply chains. Out of 74 parent companies, for example, 22 are potentially breaching their own policies against sourcing leather from deforestation. At 30%, that’s nearly a third of all fashion companies. The other two-thirds have no such policies at all.
Also questionable are brands’ membership in the Leather Working Group (LWG), an industry group that promotes transparency and sustainability in leather supply chains.
“While the LWG claims that it will address deforestation in the future, they currently only rate tanneries on their ability to trace leather back to slaughterhouses, not back to farms, nor do they provide any information on whether or not the slaughterhouses are linked to deforestation,” reads the report, which notes that JBS itself is an LWG member. “In other words, relying on LWG certification does not guarantee deforestation-free leather supply chains.”
“The current legal and policy landscape, as well as assurance systems, trace cattle only back to the slaughterhouse, not from the birth farm. This is a big part of the problem, since most deforestation occurs on farms where the cattle spend the earlier part of their lives—a fact that is obscured when cattle changes hands multiple times before reaching slaughter,” Slow Factory explains.
Because it’s equally problematic for the environment, one solution that Stand and Slow Factory are not advocating is vegan leather. Most vegan leather, or “pleather,” is made from plastic, which does not biodegrade, leaches chemicals into the environment, and feeds the fossil-fuel industry.
Concludes Slow Factory, “The real solution is a combination of responsibly produced leather at much smaller volumes and investment in biodegradable and natural leather alternatives. This is a burgeoning area of innovation that fashion companies can and should support.”
