Levi Strauss committed to achieve climate goals by 2025
By 2025, Levi Strauss &Co (LS&Co), one of world’s largest apparel companies, is committed to achieving a 90 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in its owned-and-operated facilities, 100 per cent renewable energy in its owned-and-operated facilities and a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across its entire global supply chain.
As part of its efforts to reach the goal, the company has signed a $2.3 million cooperation agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to help it meet its corporate sustainability objectives to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and water use in its supply chain.
Under the agreement, which follows IFC’s Partnership for Cleaner Textiles (PaCT) approach, IFC will work with 42 designated LS&Co suppliers and mills to reduce GHG emissions by helping suppliers identify and implement appropriate renewable energy and water saving interventions across 10 countries – Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Mexico, Lesotho, Colombia, Turkey, Egypt, and Vietnam. The project follows the success of a 2017 pilot cooperation between the two organisations that helped six LS&Co suppliers in four countries reduce their emissions by 20 per cent and decreased their operating costs by more than $1 million, collectively.
“Across the corporate world, people are waking up to the fact that better sustainability performance drives better business performance,” said Michael Kobori, LS&Co’s VP of sustainability. “Vendors in resource-stressed countries have shown the ability to innovate based on conditions on the ground, but in some cases, they need some assistance to make it work. This programme provides that assistance, which benefits not just those companies, but also people living in those communities, as well as LS&Co.”
“We are thrilled to be partnering with the IFC to help achieve our science-based climate targets and benefit our vendors and their communities,” said Liz O’Neill, executive vice president, global product and supply chain. “We hope this programme can also benefit others in the apparel industry and help reduce our collective footprint.”
Source: fibre2fashion
