Zara, Shein Singled Out as Fast-Fashion’s High-Flying Air Freight Offenders
As consumers and brands grow more cognizant of sustainability and their impact on the environment, fast fashion has seen a backlash for its disposability and contribution to the garment waste accumulating in landfills. Now Zara, Shein and other fast-fashion companies are coming under fire for air cargo emissions in a report from Swiss advocacy group Public Eye.
The report focuses on Spanish fashion giant Inditex, which owns and operates Zara and Zara Home, as well as Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Oysho and Stradivarius. Due to its fast fashion model, which allows Zara to design, produce and deliver new items in three to four weeks, Inditex heavily relies on air cargo rather than ocean or rail freight.
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“We want our customers to realize that they have to buy something they like immediately because it may not be available next week,” the report quoted a former Inditex manager saying of Zara’s sales strategy. “The in-store stock must always be in short supply so that it always seems the right opportunity to buy.”
A study by Swiss environmental consultancy Quantis found that transportation accounts for an average of around 3 percent of the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, with raw material production and processing accounting for the bulk of clothing’s carbon footprint.
However, those numbers don’t take air transport of fully assembled garments into account. According to a study German environmental consultancy Systain, transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions produced by the air transport of a long-sleeved shirt is 14 times higher than those of an item transported by sea.
With that in mind, Public Eye says Zara’s greenhouse gas emissions clock in significantly higher than the remainder of the fashion industry, at 10.6 percent in 2021 and now above 8 percent after the company discontinued its business in Russia.
And Zara isn’t the only culprit. In 2022, the European Union imported 387,009 tons of clothing, textiles and footwear and exported 346,778 tons by air. Public Eye also identified Calzedonia, Lululemon, Next, Uniqlo and Urban Outfitters among the companies relying on air freight for their products, but none of them came close to Inditex in total volume.
Inditex operates multiple distribution centers around Zaragoza Airport in Spain, where Zara garments are packed to be sent via plane around the globe on about 32 flights weekly each towing about 100 tons of apparel, according to the report. And much of that clothing is produced in other regions, such as Turkey, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, meaning it has already been transported by at least one plane before it arrives at the Zaragoza distribution centers.
Meanwhile, like many other fast fashion brands, Zara has recently made commitments to improve its sustainability and reduce its climate impact. The company has added more environmentally friendly clothing to its assortment and set the goal to halve emissions by 2030 before reaching zero net emissions by 2040, offsetting via carbon absorption initiatives. Inditex has said it would focus on shorter routes, maximizing loading efficiency and running a new, lower-emission fleet.
An Inditex spokesperson said the Renewcell partner resorts to air shipping products over “intercontinental distances where other alternatives such as train and road transport are not an option, and sea freight is not time efficient.” Instead of simply securing dedicated air cargo carriers, it flies “most” of its airborne freight on passenger flights, according to the rep. Inditex has trimmed transport emissions by 13 percent since 2018, and last year’s air freight usage declined 25 percent, the spokesperson noted.
But Oliver Classen, Public Eye media director, takes issue with Inditex’s framing of the facts.
Though the 2022 air freight decline “would be a first step if sustained,” Classen believes much of the reduction “more likely” came from the Zara parent’s exit from the Russian market after the erstwhile superpower invaded neighboring Ukraine.
Plus, he continued, air freight still generates greenhouse gas emissions whether it’s carried on passenger planes or aircraft dedicated to cargo.
Classen called on Inditex to do more, do better and build off last year’s forward momentum.
“Is Inditex ready to turn this exceptional [25 percent] reduction rate into a strategy and phase out air cargo in the next [three] years? That would indeed be a surprise,” he said. “Because today, Inditex is not even transparent about its current quantities of airborne fashion.”
Classen added, “We expect from Inditex a clear roadmap for the reduction and eventual stop of their climate-damaging fashion flights.”
Shein also came under fire in the Public Eye report. Last year it sealed a deal to have the logistics wing of Asia’s biggest carrier, China Southern Airlines, fly tons of $10 jeans, $7.69 sweatshirts and other goods from a production hub in Guangzhou to Amsterdam and Los Angeles on planes dedicated to the ultra-fast-fashion e-tailer. But Shein’s rapid rise has also translated to an evolving supply chain strategy. It’s already ocean freighted at least 6.8 million pounds of fashion into the U.S. as of September, up from zero prior to 2020, to fill warehouses springing up across America.
Shein is also putting big money behind close-to-market manufacturing. A company spokesperson said the Temu rival and friend of Forever 21 is curbing air freight usage by localizing production in or near large consumer bases, such as Brazil, “while taking other steps to help us achieve our emissions reduction goals.” These include looking at how sustainable aviation fuels could further chip away at carbon emissions.
Public Eye called for all fashion companies to phase out their use of air freight and readjust their business model to reduce their impact on the climate crisis.
“It would be much more expedient to drastically reduce the volume of air freight and only transport by plane really important items, such as medicines, express airmail, spare parts etc. Fashion is definitely not included among these items,” the report said. “And it would continue to be available in stores even without the use of air freight. Only fast fashion trends would take a few weeks longer to appear in shop windows. This kind of slow-down would not produce a loss, but an opportunity for more conscious consumption and more sustainable designs.”
