Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine February Issue 2019 | Page 59

SUSTAINABLE BD
J. Crew goes green with denim buyback programme
J. Crew has launched a new
programme in partnership with
Habitat for Humanity in which it
will buy back old pairs of jeans and
recycle it into insulation material
for the housing company.
So far, J. Crew has only dabbled
in denim recycling. Since 2014,
the company has offered a limited
denim recycling programme with
a company called Blue Jeans Go
Green, which recycles the material.
The new effort brings in Habitat for
Humanity, which will help ensure
that all of the recycled denim are
put to good use. To incentivise
customers to recycle their denim
with J. Crew, the brand is offering
US $ 20 towards a new pair of jeans
for every pair brought in.
This is a big swing for J. Crew,
which has continued to live in the
shadow of its far-more-successful
sister brand Madewell. In the
second quarter of fiscal 2018,
the brand’s sales dropped by
5 per cent, while Madewell’s
grew by 29 per cent.
“Our denim recycling programme
allows us to help our customers
dispose of waste responsibly by
giving their jeans a new life in the
form of housing insulation and
keeping them out of landfills,”
maintained Gonzalo Pertile,
Director, Corporate Social
Responsibility, J. Crew.
The brand’s denim recycling efforts
are in line with a trend running
through the fashion industry
toward minimising the amount
of waste and excess material
introduced into circulation. most meaningful impact,” observed
Gonzalo Pertile.
“This is one of the steps we’re
taking as we embark in our
sustainability journey. We believe
that some challenges require
strong partnerships to make the Ever since the Burberry clothes-
burning scandal in July, fashion
consumers have become aware
of the problem of wasted excess
clothing.
Levi Strauss, Nike, H&M and C&A join
hands for textile chemical management
Four leading apparel brands
including Levi Strauss, Nike, H&M
and C&A have collaborated to align
and donate their screened chemistry
programmes to the ZDHC. It is a
step taken forward by the brands
for the harmonisation of textile
chemical management.
Many sectors of the textile industry
are opting for greater harmonisation
of chemical management in supply
chains. The move has accelerated
ZDHC’s long-term strategy to
implement a transparent process
that promotes better chemistry
with prior focus on evaluating safer
alternatives and driving innovations.
Screened Chemistry is the concept
of identifying safer alternatives to
existing formulations, while phasing
out hazardous chemicals that are
sometimes replaced with regrettable
substitutions.
the elimination of hazardous
chemicals requires a clear process
for distinguishing and evaluating
alternatives so as to make sure
they are less harmful. Collaboration
across stakeholder group is required
since some chemicals require
innovation to enable elimination.
“Although the efforts of Levi Strauss,
Nike, H&M and C&A were not
initiated together, the core elements
of their different screened chemistry
methodologies are very similar
both in terms of their approach and
ultimate goals,” maintained ZDHC.
Furthermore, to develop and scale
screened chemistry, ZDHC has
constituted a dedicated ‘Roadmap
to Zero Programme’ task team for
screened chemistry. ZDHC now
starts on the work of convergence
with the existing elements of the
ZDHC Programme.
Being aligned with the ZDHC MRSL
(ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted
Substance List) approach,
screened chemistry intends to
go much further by noting that
“Converging these initiatives and
doing so within the ZDHC Roadmap
to Zero Programme facilitates a
significantly broader engagement
and provides a clearer business case
to drive innovation,” said ZDHC.
Moreover, in recognition for their
noble initiative so far, the four
brands will form the core of new
ZDHC Roadmap to Zero
Programme Task Team and thus
invite contributors from other
brands and partners to continue to
drive this initiative.
www.apparelresources.com | FEBRUARY 2019 | Apparel Online Bangladesh
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