Levi’s lesson for fashion is a net-zero strategy that’s all in the details
The jeans giant is an early mover with an explicit climate transition plan. Executives say it's not 'foolproof" — and that's a good thing. Read More
Nearly half of apparel businesses have designed ambitious net zero goals. Yet vanishingly few have explained yet, stitch by stitch, how they plan to reshape operations and engage with suppliers to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Among the few forerunners is Levi Strauss. Its climate transition plan, released Oct. 16, spells out short- and long-term activities that support its decarbonization target for 2050. In addition to tackling its emissions — 3.7 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2023 — the company is also emphasizing action around biodiversity, climate justice, water and materials.
The $6.2 billion-a-year denim brand sees the activities of its suppliers and customers as the biggest opportunity to reach net zero, as they make up 99 percent of overall emissions associated with the company.
“Compiling all that data, working with really credible consultants, we literally looked at thousands of data points and opportunities to identify 10 interventions that we believed would be the most impactful,” said Levi’s Senior Director of Sustainability Jennifer Dubuisson.
Among Levi’s major objectives:
- A 90 percent absolute greenhouse gas reduction across Scopes 1 and 2 by 2025 over a 2016 base year. As of 2023, Levi’s had achieved 77 percent.
- A 42 percent Scope 3 reduction from purchased goods and services by 2030 from a 2022 base year. By 2022, there was an 8 percent reduction.
- 100 percent renewable energy in Levi’s plants by 2025. The year 2022 saw a 97 percent reduction.
- A 50 percent drop in plants’ freshwater use in areas of high-water stressby 2025 against a 2018 base year. Levi’s counted a 27 reduction in 2023.
Climate transition action plans, so-called CTAPs, are a relatively new way for companies to communicate to the world the incremental steps they plan to take to reach net zero. If setting a net zero target is like putting a stake in the ground, a CTAP is something like the blueprint for the new structure being built. More specifically, it’s more like a to-do list for the builders.
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Levi Strauss, which trades as LEVI on the New York Stock Exchange, is among one of the world’s oldest continuing fashion brands, founded in 1853 in San Francisco during the California Gold Rush. That place in history and its global recognition are why the apparel indusry is watching closely.
“They are one of only a handful of brands that made the effort,” said Ken Pucker, who teaches business at Dartmouth College and Tufts University, of the uniqueness of Levi’s effort in its industry. “In addition, Levi’s targets are consistent with science and planetary boundaries and their work includes some scenario planning.”
Take on challenges head first
Levi’s identified the greatest areas for impact as operational change, diversifying materials, facilitating investment for emerging technologies and fostering partnerships.
“It’s not a foolproof plan, and we are identifying what those challenges are, and this is an opportunity to take those challenges on head first,” Dubuisson said.
The work follows Levi’s completion of a climate scenario analysis in 2022 and the original validation of climate targets in 2018 by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The blue jeans giant’s 46-page report is in line with its latest emissions net zero targets, reworked around Scope 3 strategies and newly approved in May by the SBTi. That evolution provided an opportunity to sharpen Levi’s focus, according to Dubuisson.
“There are so many things you can do, particularly across all Scope 1, 2 and 3. And as we reset our targets recently and created this climate transition plan, we knew that we needed to get super sharp, not only about identifying the most impactful and turnkey opportunities that we felt we could deliver towards 2030 but also really doing that in such close concert with the business.”
“Areas that we’re super excited about [include] all of the modeling work that went into showing how we would get to our 42 percent,” Dubuisson said of the Scope 3 reduction target for 2030. “That’s one of the first that we’ve really seen from an apparel company, to put forward a path of how they think that they can get there.”
Supporting suppliers
Levi’s provides support to suppliers in the form of technical assessments (it pays for the consultants), energy audits, capability building and collaboratively setting and monitoring targets, Dubuisson said. For example, the company will help suppliers with advice on how to build coal transition road maps to meet its supply chain’s low-carbon fuel transition policy, announced in January. It requires suppliers to stop using coal by 2030.
Levi’s also has longtime partnerships with the International Finance Corporation and HSBC bank to provide supplier financing programs, she added. “The opportunity for creating more access to renewables is something that we’re really excited about and definitely working on in the years to come,” Dubuisson said, naming biomass as a focus area.
Fashion brands in the global north should offer more direct support to suppliers in the global south to make ambitious climate-transition changes, according to Kavita Sarin Dass, head of sustainability at fabric wholesaler Poeticgem in London. Instead, garment makers, fabric mills, fiber spinners and other suppliers bear much of the burden, she added. “This will only break the back of the suppliers and the supply chain.”
Dass is a steering committee member of the Apparel Suppliers Guide, which advocates for the interests of suppliers in satisfying new legislative frameworks, including the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires transition plan disclosure in 2025.
Collaboration required
Dubuisson pointed out that Levi’s work, both internally and within industry alliances, is advancing help for suppliers. More than 70 percent of Levi’s supply chain is shared with a handful of other brands, which requires collaboration, Dubuisson said. “When we moved our target to 2030, a lot of it was about aligning with our peers, so we were all saying the same message to our suppliers in terms of expectations and the investment needed.”
The clothier signed on relatively early to collaborations pledging to reach net zero by 2050, including the UNFCCC Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action in 2018. Suppliers are getting a consistent message from brands about a 2030 timeline to ditch coal, Dubuisson said of the UN commitment.
Levi’s also engages with the Apparel Impact Institute, based in San Francisco. That nonprofit’s mission includes providing funding to clothing and footwear manufacturers to shrink their emissions.
“Sometimes collaboration speeds things up,” Dubuisson said. “Sometimes it slows it down.” Brands need to speak up if they see duplication happening in a particular region or area, and work with others to really drive an opportunity forward, she added.
The sausage making
About 30 people work on sustainability at Levi’s, many in the field with suppliers, according to Dubuisson. Climate, biodiversity loss, water stress and other problems they tackle in discrete roles are interrelated and require constant contact, she added.
“I often say, ‘You don’t own anything in sustainability,’” Dubuisson said. “I don’t own sourcing or planning or material choices. We have to work closely with the business, and so we are meeting really, on a daily basis with those teams to understand the direction they’re headed and making sure that we are raising opportunities and impacts of those decisions.”
Those in sustainability report to operations. Levi’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Liz O’Neill then reports to CEO Michelle Gass.
“And then twice a year, have a much more detailed conversation, like the one we had in advance of releasing this transition plan, to make sure that the board was in alignment and approving of this plan,” Dubuisson said.
Early apparel movers with transition plans
Global giants as varied as General Mills, Unilever and Glencore have issued CTAPs. As far as fashion goes, H&M has a CTAP, as do Puma and PVH Corporation, owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. Shoemaker Allbirds released its “flight plan” in 2021.
- As of July, 5,500 companies have decarbonization targets validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative.
- Among them are 47 percent of the world’s 250 biggest apparel companies, according to an August report by London-based Fashion Revolution.
- And that’s up from from 34 percent in 2022.
- However, nearly a quarter are sharing no details about their decarbonization plans.
Several nonprofit groups have created guidance for businesses toiling on climate transition action plans (CTAPs), including the Transform to Net Zero alliance, EDF and Ceres. Dubuisson was an external reviewer of Ceres’ blueprint, released in June.
Levi’s support for decarbonization for 100 percent of suppliers, its compensation of executives for climate-related activities and its embrace of water and biodiversity stand out in its plan, said Jenny Ahlen, managing director of the We Mean Business coalition. Its member businesses, including Levi’s, pledge to reach net zero by 2050.
“Levi’s plan is strong, and while they recognize these are iterative strategy documents, we commend them in specific areas: validated emissions targets, decarbonization, commitment to stakeholder dialogue, explicit focus on just transition and worker well-being, and identifying emissions gaps with a unique call to action,” said Tyler McCullough, Ceres manager for Corporate Climate Action.
Dubuisson urged other fashion brands not to wait for the “foolproof” plan.
“We could have come up with this plan six months earlier, but we wanted to do some more modeling. I could still be working on this for another six months. It will never be perfect, and you have to be brave enough to put that out there and show that you’re taking a positive step forward.”
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