Leading Irish apparel retailer Primark has said that it will ensure all its clothes are made using recycled or more sustainably sourced materials. It will ensure to design its clothes so that they can be recycled and their durability can be strengthened.
The company will halve carbon emissions across its value chain and pursue a living wage for workers in its supply chain.
The retailer unveiled a wide-reaching sustainability strategy, designed to reduce fashion waste, halve carbon emissions across its value chain and improve the lives of the people who make Primark products.
The new strategy commits the international fashion retailer to change the way its clothes are made without changing its affordable prices, enabling everyone to make more sustainable choices when shopping.
Paul Marchant, CEO, Primark commented on the global strategy launch, “This is a new and exciting chapter in the Primark story. Our ambition is to offer customers the affordable prices they know and love us for, but with products that are made in a way that is better for the planet and the people who make them. We know that’s what our customers, and our colleagues, want and expect from us.”
He further added that we’ve been working to become a more sustainable and ethical business for over 10 years. One in four of all the clothes we sell already come from our Primark Cares range of products made from recycled or more sustainably sourced materials. Our new commitments mark a significant acceleration in the pace and scale of change, requiring us to think differently about how we do business. Right from how our clothes are designed and manufactured, through to how we sell them in stores.
The new strategy builds on the work Primark has undertaken over the last ten years. Informed by experts from across the industry, it covers Primark’s own operations, as well as its global supply chain. The strategy expands on commitments the business has already made as a signatory to major industry initiatives. These include Textiles 2030, the WRAP initiative to accelerate the fashion and textile industry’s move towards circularity and system change in the UK. The business is also a partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to inform its journey towards circularity, including making all its clothes recyclable by design.
Primark will use its 397 stores across 14 countries to share more information with customers about the changes it is making with its ‘How Change Looks’ campaign.
It will also make it easier for customers to make changes themselves with initiatives ranging from expanding the number of recycling bins in stores to collect and recycle clothing at the end of its life, to educating consumers on techniques to lengthen the lifespan of their wardrobe – from sewing skills to guidance on washing practices.
