Mango Steps Up Sustainability Strategy
Mango, the Barcelona-based global fashion retailer, is escalating its sustainability strategy on several fronts and setting new goals.
Currently, 79 percent of the Mango assortment is the “Committed” collection of men’s, women’s and kids’ garments that are recycled or have sustainable characteristics. But by 2022, Committed is expected to represent 100 percent of the assortment.
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In addition, Mango has targeted using 100 percent sustainable cotton and 50 percent recycled polyester in its collections by 2025. The Spanish retailer expects 100 percent of its cellulose fibers (for example, lyocell, viscose and modal, among others) to be of controlled origin and traceable by 2030.
“We have made the commitment to continue working to become a more sustainable company,” said Toni Ruiz, Mango’s chief executive officer. “This is why we are taking huge steps with very ambitious projects that will allow us to minimize our impact and achieve the strict sustainability targets we have set ourselves.”
As part of the commitment it made after signing the Fashion Pact, in relation to its diversity pillar, Mango will support the Asociación Vellmarí, founded in 1993 and headed by Manu San Félix, a biologist, scuba diver and National Geographic photographer and explorer. The nonprofit organization carries out conservation and education projects in the Posidonia Lab, a marine conservation project helping to protect posidonia (neptune grass), a plant species of the Mediterranean. “We believe that educating young children is the way to change the future for the better, so that they will learn to do well what we have done badly,” said San Félix.
Additionally, Mango is continuing to replace plastic bags with paper ones, which are already banned in several countries or cities globally. The goal is to “progressively eliminate all the plastic bags it uses to distribute products throughout its production chain” in collaboration with its suppliers, the company said in its announcement Tuesday on sustainability. The result will be that Mango will cease using about 160 million plastic bags every year. Mango will start the project in April with suppliers in Turkey, before progressively continuing with suppliers in other countries in the coming months.
In other initiatives:
• Mango’s stores are being designed with energy-efficient lighting and temperature control systems and sustainable materials such as natural paint and recyclable materials.
• The retailer collected 42 tons of garments in 2020 through a recycling project with Moda, a recycling program based in Spain for the fashion industry. The garments are collected in Mango stores for reuse, recycling and energy recovery. In 2020, Mango had 610 recycling points in stores in 11 countries. In 2021, the program will extend to six more countries adding more than 200 recycling points.
• In October Mango published on its website a list of Tier 1 production factories fulfilling the requirements of the Transparency Pledge Standard, an initiative committed to transparency in clothing and apparel supply chains. The firm aims to publish a list of Tier 2 and Tier 3 factories by 2022. “The publication of this information is a powerful tool to strengthen the rights of people who work in clothing, and for promoting responsibility in global supply chains within the fashion sector,” said Beatriz Bayo, Mango’s director of corporate social responsibility.
• The new Committed campaign highlights the relaxed silhouettes, natural fabrics such as linen and cotton in terracotta and ecru tones. It features models Felice Noordhoff and Hamid Onifade, and was photographed by Ronan Gallagher and captured on video by Manson in Betlem, Mallorca.
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