Greenpeace has praised Inditex, Benetton and H&M for leading the industry towards a toxic-free future” in its third Detox Catwalk campaign to eliminate hazardous chemicals by 2020. The three apparel firms topped the online ranking of 19 fashion and sportswear companies, with Greenpeace stating that they were the only avant-garde companies that were on track to clean up their chains as promised by 2020, due to them all having “credible timelines, concrete actions and on-the-ground implementation” in place.
Greenpeace says the global partnership with WWF work with other brands within the Swedish Textile Water Initiative (STWI), which aims to improve industry standards on water and chemical management and energy use, are some examples of that.
The other 12 brands, including Adidas, Burberry, Levi’s, Primark and Puma, have found themselves in the middle evolution mode, as they all have made commitments to detox and Greenpeace can see that progress to implement plans has been made, however, they believe that they need to “evolve faster” to achieve the 2020 Detox goal.
With Greenpeace adding that each brand is not banning enough hazardous chemicals and rely on flawed chemical list from the industry group Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC). This list is missing important substances like PFCs and solvents like Dimethylformamide (DMF).
