Optimizing resources in our operations and supply chain
To achieve a circular economy in fashion, the challenges related to waste must be addressed at significant scale and in collaboration across the industry. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that a garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second somewhere in the world. It is estimated that aggregate textile waste will increase by about 57 million additional tons of waste annually by 2030.
At LS&Co., we are committed to doing our part to address these challenges by reducing waste in our supply chain and our own operations; making it more convenient for consumers to change their own consumption and recycling patterns; working with the industry to solve the challenges that currently limit the scale of collection, sorting and recycling technologies; and minimizing the use of plastics. This also includes our focus on developing more circular product designs that use recycled inputs and are recyclable, while using recycled and recyclable packaging for our e-commerce shipments and product packaging. These and other strategies will move us closer to our vision of zero waste.
In 2021, we continued this journey by developing detailed roadmaps to achieve two new zero-waste goals.
Zero Waste Goals
Goal:
Zero-waste-to-landfill from company-operated facilities and 50% waste diversion across strategic suppliers*
Target Year:
2030
Goal:
Zero-waste-to-landfill from company-operated facilities and 50% waste diversion across strategic suppliers*
Target Year:
2030
Goal:
Eliminate single-use plastics in consumer-facing packaging by shifting to 100% reusable, recyclable or home compostable plastics
Target Year:
2030
Goal:
Eliminate single-use plastics in consumer-facing packaging by shifting to 100% reusable, recyclable or home compostable plastics
Target Year:
2030
*In alignment with the Zero Waste International Alliance and TRUE Zero Waste certification, facilities that reach the 90% threshold will be designated as zero waste. We are committed to sharing our waste diversion progress.
Our Products
We are working to make even more products with safe, recycled and renewable inputs that contribute to circularity. This includes making sure suppliers adhere to Screened Chemistry protocols, an important step in ensuring safely compostable materials at the end of our products’ useful lives. We use responsibly sourced fibers like organic cotton and responsible manmade cellulosic fibers as recognized by Canopy. We have incorporated state-of-the-art fibers made from post-consumer recycled jeans and other responsible components, and we have extended some of our WellThread® design innovations to our mainline collections, such as with the circular Levi’s® 501® jeans.
For more about our use of recycled and renewable raw materials, read Sustainable Fibers.
For more about the ways we are becoming circular ready, read Circular Economy.
Shrinking Care Labels and Hangtags
In 2021, we reduced the width of our care labels by 25%. For care labels on our tops, we switched to using recycled raw materials. Our primary supplier estimates that the smaller labels reduce related fabric waste by about 30% for bottoms and by about 70% for tops. We also reduced the size of a number of the paper hangtags on Levi’s® bottoms. As just one example, moving away from our large matchbook-style tag to a much smaller tag on Levi’s® 541 jeans reduced the overall size by 62%.
Shrinking Care Labels and Hangtags
In 2021, we reduced the width of our care labels by 25%. For care labels on our tops, we switched to using recycled raw materials. Our primary supplier estimates that the smaller labels reduce related fabric waste by about 30% for bottoms and by about 70% for tops. We also reduced the size of a number of the paper hangtags on Levi’s® bottoms. As just one example, moving away from our large matchbook-style tag to a much smaller tag on Levi’s® 541 jeans reduced the overall size by 62%.
Predictive Forecasting, Smart Buying
Most apparel companies — and we are no exception — carry more units of apparel than they end up selling to be prepared to satisfy consumer demand across a variety of styles, colors and sizes. With this practice comes waste in the form of excess and obsolete inventory. Optimizing this inventory could reduce environmental impacts, from production, to shipping, to energy use in distribution.
Driving higher accuracy in our demand forecasting process by digitizing and infusing artificial intelligence predictions is a priority in addressing this opportunity. We have opportunities to use digitization for product prototyping, eliminating the need to manufacture physical prototypes and samples. We will continue working toward a digitally powered organization to increase efficiency and eliminate waste wherever possible.
E-Commerce and Third-Party Retail
Shipping packages to our customers and receiving returned packages generates a lot of waste. From paper to polybags, we are working to reduce the amount of packaging our online customers receive. Over the last two years, we have collaborated with a variety of third-party retailers to reduce or eliminate the polybags used to protect our garments during transport to their distribution centers and stores.
The LS&Co. Retail Sustainability Playbook includes operational guidelines for reducing waste generated in our retail stores. It provides guidance for reducing our environmental footprint by minimizing store waste and increasing recycling and reuse rates at all LS&Co. store locations. Among other guidance, the playbook advises retail store managers to:
Partner with waste haulers to ensure all waste is sent to the proper location, such as a recycling center.
Ensure all waste is separated at the store level for proper recycling, including cardboard boxes and polybags from shipments.
Implement a recycle or reuse program for common store items, including clothes hangers, display features and other recyclable materials.
Establish in-store recycling programs for customer clothing, along with a local partner for proper donation or recycling of all used clothing.
Pre-fabricated fitting room walls allow us to take the walls with us should we move to a new location, eliminating the waste associated with disposing of the old ones and using resources to build new ones. In 2021, we began implementing this approach at our stores in India, and we aim to expand use of pre-fabricated fitting room walls to other regions in 2022.
All company-operated U.S. and Canadian Levi’s® retail locations and all U.S. wholesale locations use 100% post-consumer waste stock for their print materials. What’s more, the newest mannequins we use are made from 100% recycled base stock that blends both post-industrial and post-consumer materials. The material has an unlimited shelf life and the mannequins themselves use a universal base, which means stores will not have to discard a base because it doesn’t fit. Printed imagery is made from upcycled plastics that can be recycled again into more graphics.
Other features include wallpaper made of plant-based reed fiber and cotton paper pulp applied to the walls with glue that has a potato or rice starch base. Wool rugs have been made from sustainably and humanely raised sheep, the wool has been colored with natural dyes, and rug backings are made of sisal, a plant material. In 2021, we applied these and other innovative features to Levi’s® store upgrades, including stores designed to our “indigo concept,” which reflects a unique brand experience through ambient lighting, an open and airy feel, and sustainability attributes throughout the store and its fixtures.
Reducing Waste in Construction
To improve efficiency and reduce waste in building out our retail stores, we have begun using a master set of plans and specifications for construction that incorporates sustainability features from our Retail Sustainability Playbook. The set includes metadata and dashboards to make it as easy as possible for construction teams to use, with the aim of minimizing change orders that are inherently inefficient and potentially wasteful. We anticipate the new plans and specs, as well as a new digital collaboration platform, will cut construction waste once fully implemented.
Reducing Waste in Construction
To improve efficiency and reduce waste in building out our retail stores, we have begun using a master set of plans and specifications for construction that incorporates sustainability features from our Retail Sustainability Playbook. The set includes metadata and dashboards to make it as easy as possible for construction teams to use, with the aim of minimizing change orders that are inherently inefficient and potentially wasteful. We anticipate the new plans and specs, as well as a new digital collaboration platform, will cut construction waste once fully implemented.
Company-Operated Factories
Our manufacturing facility in Plock, Poland, is working toward zero waste to landfill through a waste segregation and recycling program — including a waste management and recycling campaign for employees — and collection of denim material scraps for reuse in the household industry. During 2021, an estimated 400 metric tons of fabric scraps were collected and sent for recycling or recovery. The facility has also provided employees with reusable water bottles, eliminating the use of plastic cups.
Our plant in Epping, South Africa, aims to achieve zero waste to landfill through a robust waste segregation and recycling program for paper and plastic, along with denim material waste collection for reuse in the automotive industry. In 2021, the facility began repurposing some fabric waste into products for use by charitable organizations.
Eliminating Pumice Stone Waste in the Apparel Supply Chain
Pumice has been used for many years in processes commonly referred to as stone washing to give denim garments a worn-in, authentic look. And while pumice is natural, it also creates a lot of waste, both from upstream mining and from its use in factories, which then ultimately ends up in landfills. In fact, each pumice stone can be used just two or three times before it degrades into sand. We’ve been encouraging some of our suppliers to switch to enzyme-based softening powders and synthetic stones to reduce waste.
Shifting away from pumice avoids the water pollution impacts from mining and the climate impacts associated with shipping pumice from Turkey and Indonesia, the two countries that export it. Synthetic stones can be used about 3,000 times before they are ultimately recycled and replaced and so they also offer cost savings to our suppliers.
As of early 2022, more than 5,400 metric tons of pumice stone waste have been avoided by LS&Co. suppliers who have switched to non-pumice fabric softening methods. This is equivalent to approximately half the weight of the Eiffel Tower.
Eliminating Pumice Stone Waste in the Apparel Supply Chain
Pumice has been used for many years in processes commonly referred to as stone washing to give denim garments a worn-in, authentic look. And while pumice is natural, it also creates a lot of waste, both from upstream mining and from its use in factories, which then ultimately ends up in landfills. In fact, each pumice stone can be used just two or three times before it degrades into sand. We’ve been encouraging some of our suppliers to switch to enzyme-based softening powders and synthetic stones to reduce waste.
Shifting away from pumice avoids the water pollution impacts from mining and the climate impacts associated with shipping pumice from Turkey and Indonesia, the two countries that export it. Synthetic stones can be used about 3,000 times before they are ultimately recycled and replaced and so they also offer cost savings to our suppliers.
As of early 2022, more than 5,400 metric tons of pumice stone waste have been avoided by LS&Co. suppliers who have switched to non-pumice fabric softening methods. This is equivalent to approximately half the weight of the Eiffel Tower.
Distribution Centers
Our 12 company-operated distribution centers handle about 65% of our total volume globally and about 5% of our global e-commerce volume. We have opportunities to make efficiency changes that reduce waste in logistics and shipping at these locations. To gain even more control over efficiency and waste, we have brought some e-commerce operations in-house, including bringing our U.S. e-commerce logistics operations to our LEED Platinum-certified distribution center in Henderson, Nevada. A new system in Henderson eliminates the addition of polybags and saves other plastic packaging, while also reducing transportation needs — all of which will add up to environmental improvements. Our company-operated distribution centers have recycling programs that allow them to reduce waste.
Eliminating Poly Liners and Reusing Cartons
Before being placed into a shipping container, our garments are packed into boxes of various sizes. Different boxes are used across the world, which reduces loading efficiency and leaves wasted space inside the containers. Our shipping experts continue working hard to optimize the size of boxes and match box size and durability to the product, but we have not yet resolved the issue of multiple box sizes being used around the world.
We have strengthened the boxes in which our products ship so they can remain intact when they reach distribution centers. This has included improving their moisture-resistant coatings to eliminate some of the polybags used by suppliers to protect our products during shipment and to eliminate the internal poly liners that used to be necessary to protect our products from humidity and wet weather. The stronger, coated boxes also allow our distribution centers to reuse a majority of the cartons that come into the facilities from suppliers, repack them and ship products out to large retail customers.
Eliminating Poly Liners and Reusing Cartons
Before being placed into a shipping container, our garments are packed into boxes of various sizes. Different boxes are used across the world, which reduces loading efficiency and leaves wasted space inside the containers. Our shipping experts continue working hard to optimize the size of boxes and match box size and durability to the product, but we have not yet resolved the issue of multiple box sizes being used around the world.
We have strengthened the boxes in which our products ship so they can remain intact when they reach distribution centers. This has included improving their moisture-resistant coatings to eliminate some of the polybags used by suppliers to protect our products during shipment and to eliminate the internal poly liners that used to be necessary to protect our products from humidity and wet weather. The stronger, coated boxes also allow our distribution centers to reuse a majority of the cartons that come into the facilities from suppliers, repack them and ship products out to large retail customers.
Eliminating Single-Use Plastics
Soft plastic packaging bags, or polybags, and other plastics are ubiquitous in the apparel industry, with an estimated 180 billion polybags produced for the industry every year and a small percentage collected for recycling. Polybags are the clear plastic bags commonly used to protect garments, footwear, and accessories during storage and shipping. Other forms of plastics used in the apparel industry include a range of items, from small hooks, clips and shirt collar supports to large shipping carton liners — which we have begun eliminating in concert with suppliers. Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, has been banned from use with any LS&Co. products, so all polybags used for our products are non-PVC, industrially compostable or made with recycled content. Even so, we are working to find ways to reduce their use in our supply chain, distribution centers and stores. To meet our goal of eliminating single-use plastics in consumer-facing packaging by 2030, we are working to shift to 100% reusable, recyclable or home compostable plastics.
Reducing Polybags
In the LS&Co. value chain, our suppliers wrap light-colored t-shirts, tops and bottoms in polybags to keep them clean and folded. Over the past few years, we have carefully examined our polybag use practices to determine whether we can replace them with biodegradable options and use different folding techniques to minimize the need for a polybag. In 2021, we began collecting data to establish a polybag use baseline for our products associated with Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, representing the majority of our product volume. This cross-functional step is fundamental to tracking future polybag reduction progress.
Once our North American e-commerce operations moved to the LS&Co. Henderson, Nevada, distribution center, we began eliminating polybags from e-commerce shipments departing that facility. If a product arrives in a polybag, it stays in one, but we do not add polybags to products that arrive without one. We have begun discussions with third-party retailers about ways they can remove polybags from their e-commerce shipments of our products as well, especially with products like dark blue or black jeans. In 2021, our company-operated distribution centers tested the use of paper bags instead of polybags with some WellThread® products and discovered that the paper’s brittleness made them unsuitable for use with conveyor belts, so our search for sustainable polybag alternatives continues.
Pre-Packing Our Products to Eliminate Polybags
Simply eliminating a polybag can cause a product to un-fold and the hangtag to tangle, so we are exploring reduction alternatives like pre-packing. This would allow us to have suppliers pack a specific size range and quantity of garments into a box that does not get opened until it has reached its retail store destination. In 2021, we began collecting data to better understand how many of our products are already getting pre-packed and where the additional opportunities lie.
Pre-Packing Our Products to Eliminate Polybags
Simply eliminating a polybag can cause a product to un-fold and the hangtag to tangle, so we are exploring reduction alternatives like pre-packing. This would allow us to have suppliers pack a specific size range and quantity of garments into a box that does not get opened until it has reached its retail store destination. In 2021, we began collecting data to better understand how many of our products are already getting pre-packed and where the additional opportunities lie.
Ongoing Challenges
There is a reason polybags are so common in our industry — they work well to protect folds and keep clothing clean. Finding alternatives that work as well is a challenge. Some of our third-party retail partners require product shipments from us to be pre-packed. This means these items do not get opened and repackaged at a distribution center and must be in a polybag to protect them.
What’s Next – Toward Zero Waste
In 2021, we began accelerating our waste strategy, setting two new goals and identifying immediate and longer-term actions to meet them. Although we are making progress, we want to do much more, especially when it comes to addressing the systemic issue of polybags. In our own operations, we have begun developing a waste sampling approach for our company-operated retail stores to identify and begin quantifying our waste streams and the existence of infrastructure that would allow our stores to recycle. We plan to pilot polybag takeback for recycling at retail locations. As part of our commitment to become circular ready and support the emerging concept of extended producer responsibility, we also aim to upgrade in-store takeback of used garments globally, targeting our company-operated stores in all major markets. And of course, we will continue seeking ways to incorporate more recycled fibers into our products, as we have done with our circular Levi’s® 501® jeans.
In the supply chain, we plan to develop and implement Higg FEM training for key suppliers to better equip them to report waste using the FEM tool. We are participating in a Fashion for Good circularity sorting project in Europe that aims to create solutions to match textile waste with recyclers, as well as a sorting project in India to research the volume and use of pre- and post-consumer textile waste. We will also participate in a Fashion for Good project to test bio-based polybag alternatives, and will continue working with industrially compostable bags and recyclable polybags made from recycled content. And a baseline for waste in our supply chain, which we anticipate will be in place before the end of 2022, will support monitoring and accountability going forward.
