Inditex discontinues 'Join Life' sustainability indicator as it is deemed "no longer necessary"

Pre-empting compliance with new European legislation, fashion retail giant Inditex has announced the discontinuation of 'Join Life' sustainability indicator on its garments.

The Spanish company, which owns brands including Zara and Pull&Bear, revealed the discontinuation of Join life in its annual report. This means it will no longer use the Join Life label on its garments, which was applied to 61% of its products.

The decision follows in Mango’s footsteps, which dropped its environmentally-conscious 'Committed' label at the end of 2022.

The annual report noted: "We have reached a point in the development of our strategy where it is no longer necessary to differentiate the products in our collections with this label."

The 'Join Life' label was introduced in 2015 "as a tool to raise awareness among [Intidex’s] customers and [its] staff about the use of raw materials and processes that have a lower impact on the environment as compared to the more widely used practices in the industry.”

A timeline of Join Life's progression:

• 2018 -Join Life labels accounted for 9% of Inditex's garments
• 2019 - Join Life labels accounted for 19% of Inditex's garments
• 2021 - Join Life labels accounted for 19% of Inditex's garments
• 2022 - Join Life labels accounted for 61% of Inditex's garments

Despite putting an end to its Join Life label, Inditex is collaborating with the sustainability expert Quantis moving forward. This collaboration is aimed at conducting specific Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for the various raw materials used, as well as for the production processes involved in the manufacturing of the garments.

The company added: "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."

This follows the news that Inditex saw sales reach £28.77 billion (€32.6 billion) in the full year ending 31 January 2023, representing a 17.5% rise year on year.

The parent company reported that sales were positive in all key geographical areas, both in store and online. The company noted that in the financial year it had closed all 514 stores and its ecommerce in Russia, as well as 82 stores in Ukraine.