Brands and suppliers should collaborate on climate
The world is a frightening place right now. In the past few weeks we have seen out of control bushfires ravaging huge parts of Australia, wrecking land and homes and killing many people and animals in the process. Many are linking these incidents to man-made global warming, as well as suggesting that Australia has long-since failed to heed warnings that it would be one of the first and most susceptible countries to climate impacts.
Bangladesh will be following these events closely, as it should. Scientists believe it is one of the countries with the highest vulnerability to climate change. Indeed, some estimates go as far as suggesting that 20 percent of our surface may disappear with rising sea levels in the next 30 years.
This is very much our problem—but it is also a problem we share with the global apparel industry, an industry upon whom so many our livelihoods depend. Allow me to elaborate.
In recent months, many leading global apparel brands have made commitments to reduce carbon emissions—in some cases to become climate neutral—often based on Science Based Targets. For instance, last year, climate was the central focus of the G7 Summit. There, 32 major fashion brands revealed the Fashion Pact, an industry wide movement aimed at aligning the fashion industry with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
These pledges are in addition to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action which contains the vision to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The Fashion Industry Charter was launched at COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018 and is aiming to be adopted by 20 percent of the global fashion industry. Brands such as H&M, Levi's and Inditex have also made their own, individual climate pledges.
The challenge that brands have is that their carbon emissions nearly all occur in their supply chains. This is where the energy, water and resource-intensive process of clothing production takes places, primarily using non-renewable energy sources.
Some estimates suggest more than 90 percent of climate impacts for apparel brands take place in their supply chains, and only a tiny percent in their own retail stores. Brands can address the latter quite easily by introducing renewable energy into their stores and operations.
Supply chains is where the challenges start because, in many cases, factories have very poor track records in terms of carbon emissions, often relying on "old" fuel types and inefficient machinery.
My point is that in order to meet these hugely challenging climate pledges, apparel brands need to collaborate with their suppliers. This is where RMG factories in Bangladesh come in. It is also where our country's leaders come in. Why not use the pledges being made by brands to synergise climate reduction actions across our country and its apparel supply chains? Why not begin an open dialogue with heads of brands and talk about how we can all work together to provide them with the kind of supply chain they want?
All of us—brands and retailers, RMG factories and our government—have a vested interest to act decisively on climate change. There is no point in us working in isolation on these issues which impact us all. Collaboration could be crucial here.
There are a few things we can all agree on from the outset. We need to move away from coal-fired power and other "dirty" fuels with high carbon emissions. We need to radically scale up renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. And I also believe we need set clear targets for all of the above, with ambitious time-frames.
Can the above goals be met at an individual factory level? There is no doubt some RMG factories are making efforts to tackle these issues and setting their own goals, but large swathes of the industry are still seriously lagging. That is why we perhaps need our government to step into this space to lead and coordinate on this issue.
Could we, as an industry, have our own climate initiative? And if so, what shape would this take? Could brands and retailers get involved to lend their experiences and expertise and tell us precisely what they want from suppliers in terms of energy mix, use of technology and so on? Could they share best practices from some of their more progressive suppliers?
I hear much talk about "who will pay for greening supply chains" and while this is doubtless a question we cannot ignore, I think the climate issue is simply too important to be discussed along adversarial lines. It is in all our interests to get this right and take decisive, meaningful action.
Brands have made these impressive climate pledges but they need us, their suppliers in Bangladesh, to turn them into reality.
It's time for us all to start talking about how we make this happen.
Mostafiz Uddin is the Managing Director of Denim Expert Limited. He is also the Founder and CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo and Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE). Email mostafiz@denimexpert.com
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