Global fashion retailer to tackle sustainability at the World Retail Congress

This week, international fashion retailers are meeting in Barcelona to explore how to deal with calls from consumers and regulators to switch to greener models while recovering sagging sales in Europe.

Attending the World Retail Congress, one of the sector’s largest annual conferences, were executives from organizations including China’s Shein, Spain’s Mango and Ireland’s Primark.

They will talk about the difficulties their companies are facing as consumers reduce their purchases in Europe and internationally due to inflation. More stringent European regulations will also be present.

New regulations on textile waste are being developed by the European Commission, which will hold businesses accountable for managing the waste generated by their goods.

According to Valerie Boiten, senior policy officer at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a non-governmental organization that works closely with H&M, Inditex, Mango, Primark, and Zalando, “There is increasing pressure from regulators on the fast fashion model, which is based on high volume and affordable prices.”

Consumers in the European Union throw away around 5.8 million tons of textiles every year, according to the European Environment Agency.

“Current models are set up to fail when you consider climate change and resource scarcity,” Boiten said.

The European Union is working towards a transition to a ‘circular’ economy, in which businesses recycle and reuse materials rather than spending limited resources making new goods.

In some of their stores, companies such as H&M, Zara and Uniqlo now offer garment repair services. As well as selling new clothes, Uniqlo also sells used jeans and shirts that have been patched with Japanese ‘sashiko’ embroidery at its Battersea Power Station location in London.

This month, Circ, the US business in which Inditex and Bill Gates have invested, presented Zara with its first line of women’s products. Circ is the owner of a technology that can produce new fabrics by separating polyester and cotton in used clothing.