Inditex discontinues sustainability label ‘Join Life’

The Inditex group, currently run by Marta Ortega, has discontinued its “Join Life” sustainability “indicator,” as indicated by the company in the publishing of its annual report 2022. This decision, which attempts to avoid compliance with European legislation, is being made in the same vein as that of the Spanish firm Mango, which also lost its sustainable “Committed” label at the end of last year.

The organization, led by Oscar Garca Maceiras stated in its annual report that “they have reached a point in the development of their strategy where it is no longer required to differentiate the products in their collections with this mark. The environmental effect indication has reportedly vanished from all of the shop chains owned by the business.

The ‘Join Life’ label was introduced in 2015 as a tool to create awareness among their consumers and their staff about the use of raw materials and procedures that have a lower impact on the environment as compared to the more generally used practices in the industry.

Since then, there have been more “Join Life” goods released onto the market. In 2018, they accounted for 9% of the 528,797 tonnes of goods produced by Inditex; a year later, that number had risen to 19%. ‘Sustainable’ apparel was already on track to meet the target of 50% of output with 47% of total goods in 2021. Moreover, this figure rose to 61 per cent of the 621,244 tonnes of goods sold.

Inditex explains in the report how it evaluates and measures growth in the number of sustainable articles by using criteria related to the use of “more sustainable raw materials” like cotton, linen, polyester, and cellulosic fibers, as well as the previously mentioned presence of clothing with the “Join Life” sustainability label.

In the past year, 50% of the fibers used by Inditex (which made up 88% of production) were of natural origin (i.e., naturally sourced filaments that can be spun into yarns, threads, or cordage), 40% of the remainder were synthetic (made from polymers that are not produced naturally but are completely produced in a chemical plant or laboratory, almost always from petroleum or natural gas by-products), and 10% were man-made) (formed from a natural component as a raw material that undergoes different transformations in a chemical plant or laboratory).

The company will also be able to benefit from recycling by bringing up to 78,675 tonnes of recovered materials to market in 2022—a 90% increase from 2021.

The company stated in its annual report regarding the discontinuation of the label, “To further advance our goals, our sales teams will continue to apply stringent product sustainability criteria and targets as a tool to extend best practices – both in raw materials and processes – to all our collections, and we will continue to use Join Life as an internal standard.”

Inditex is collaborating with the sustainability expert Quantis in order to advance its environmentally friendly strategy. This cooperation aims to conduct comprehensive Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for the various raw materials and industrial processes used in the clothing-creation process.