Zalando makes sustainability assessments mandatory

Fashion etailer Zalando has confirmed it will be the first retailer signed up to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to use a new module that will make sustainability assessments mandatory for its labels and partner brands sold on the platform.

Zalando will collaborate with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to use the Higg Brand & Retail Module, a tool that provides retailers and brands with measures to assess performance around indicators such as carbon emissions, human rights and environmental parameters.

The retailer hopes to provide a standardised approach to measuring sustainability across its brands and the industry. 

Kate Heiny, Director of Sustainability at Zalando, said in a statement: “As Europe’s leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle, we want to raise the bar, act first and bring our partners on the journey to address today’s most important issues: climate change, use of resources and worker rights.

"As part of our sustainability strategy, do.MORE, we have made assessments around ethical and sustainable parameters for our brand partners mandatory. The Higg BRM will help us achieve our goal to continuously increase our ethical standards and by 2023 only work with partners who align with them.” 

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is a sustainability association for the apparel, footwear and textile industry featuring over 250 members have collaborated to develop the Higg Index - a set of five sustainability tools that asses social and environmental sustainability performance, areas for improvement and enable environmental and social transparency.