RAVE: Zara's Seasonal Green

Greenpeace announced yesterday that Spanish fashion giant Zara had finally relented to pressure by the eco-activist group to commit to cutting down on its hazardous chemicals used in the making of its garments and supply chain.


 Courtesy of Greenpeace International

As reported on the Greenpeace site:

Zara, the world’s largest clothing retailer, today announced a commitment to go toxic-free following nine days of intense public pressure. This win belongs to the fashion-lovers, activists, bloggers and denizens of social media. This is people power in action.

Greenpeace campaigners began a dialogue with Zara (a brand within the Inditex group) in 2011 about eliminating releases of hazardous chemicals from its supply chain and clothes. But it wasn't until this week that the fast-fashion giant caught on to the urgent need to solve its toxic pollution problem.

Zara has now committed to eliminate all discharge of hazardous chemicals from its supply chain and products by 2020. And they're going to get rid of some of the worst chemicals, such as PFCs, even sooner. As a significant user of PFCs, Zara's commitment to eliminate this chemical group by the end of 2015 is a breakthrough.

The Detox commitment announced today covers Zara and the seven other brands in the Inditex group: Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe.

I was just one of the many, many thousands of people who signed the online petition sent to me by Greenpeace, and I was really happy to see the outcome of this global petition targeted at Zara be so swift and so positive. 

I get one of these online petitions almost every other day, whether it be from or through the likes of Common Dreams, Greenpeace International, Greenpeace Africa, Avaaz and others. I diligently sign up to most of them, adding my name to the countless others from around the world. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes wonders: do all these online digital signatures and letters en masse really work??

Well, it seems that they do work. As Greenpeace pointed out in their press release about their victory with Zara:

Last Tuesday we launched the Detox campaign globally with a fashion show and press conference in Beijing. Related images and comments began to rise like a spring tide on social networks within hours of the story breaking. Zara's Facebook Page quickly filled with comments from fans calling on the company to Detox. Thousands of people began to share their desire for “fashion without pollution!” and demands for Zara to Detox on Twitter and Sina Weibo, China's leading microblogging site.

You can see who's commenting about the campaign on Twitter and Weibo in one place – people around the world speaking out in a dozen languages to a combined reach of more than 7.1m followers. On Twitter alone there were at least 43,800 mentions of Zara and the Detox campaign this week. More than 300,000 people signed up to join the campaign to Detox Zara, and many tens of thousands of people emailed and tweeted directly to the company for an ambitious Detox commitment.

Well, I for one am glad that not only were Greenpeace so successful in this Zara campaign, but that 'people power' in its most digital guise really can work...at least sometimes. 

And I will take every such victory, however small it may seem, as a major step forward for all of us....and for all the right reasons.

Do you get my point?