The rapidly-growing Chinese giant recently ranked among the worst fast fashion companies for emissions reduction and sustainability efforts and as the top polluting retailer.
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Fast fashion retail giant Shein’s carbon footprint increased significantly in 2024, according to the company’s sustainability report.
Published Friday, the report indicated that emissions across all levels of its operations rose compared to 2023.
Supply chain emissions represented the largest share of the company’s emissions at 11,201,419 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mtCO2e), a 9.7% jump compared to 2023. They comprise emissions that come from Shein’s supply chain activities (manufacturing clothing, sourcing materials, dyeing fabrics, and garment assembly), the production and transportation of operational consumables (office supplies, packaging, and equipment), and the energy use of its digital infrastructure (data centers, cloud computing, and software services).
The second-largest source of emissions came from the transportation and distribution of products to and between Shein facilities, to customers, as well as of returns. These rose 13.7% to 8,519,829 mtCO2e last year – the equivalent of nearly 2 million gas-powered vehicles driven for one year.
Contrary to many of its competitors, which ship most of their products on container vessels, Shein mainly relies on air freight to send cheap clothes from its suppliers in China to over 150 markets worldwide.
Currently valued at $30 billion, Shein has long been at the center of criticism regarding its labor practices and environmental impact. The company has become a prominent example of the fast fashion model, known for its rapid manufacturing and distribution cycle of clothing, low prices, and extensive use of social media marketing strategies.
According to Yale Climate Connections estimates, a new Shein design may take as little as 10 days to become a garment, with up to 10,000 items added to the site each day and as many as 600,000 items for sale at any given time at an average price tag of $10.
Shein’s fast-to-market strategy is “alarming”, according to a report by environmental organization Stand.earth published earlier this month. The Singapore-headquartered company ranked among the worst fast fashion retailers for emissions reduction and sustainability efforts and as the top polluter. “If SHEIN were a country, it would be the 100th biggest emitter in the world, almost as much pollution as the entire country of Lebanon, having increased Scope 3 emissions by over 170% in just two years,” the report said.
The fast fashion industry is responsible for 10% of total global CO2 emissions, as much as the emissions generated by the European Union and more than the aviation and shipping industries combined. It is also a major source of water consumption and pollution as well as textile waste, with some 92 millions tons of textiles ending up in landfills every year – the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of clothes being incinerated or send to landfill sites every second.
Featured image: Dick Thomas Johnson/Flickr.
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