Zara owner pledges to stop using endangered and ancient forests in paper packaging | Fashion Dive

The initiative builds on Inditex’s previous commitment to remove those materials from textiles.

The fashion industry is a major consumer of paper packaging for shipping boxes, e-commerce envelopes, paper bags, hang tags and paperboard boxes, according to Canopy. With the addition of Inditex, the Pack4Good initiative now includes nearly 450 brands.

The news builds on Inditex’s existing efforts to reduce paper use. The company previously launched Green to Pack, a program in which Inditex reuses warehouse-to-retail paper boxes up to five times before recycling them, per the release. Inditex also launched a “bring your own bag” initiative, which charges customers a fee for using paper bags and envelopes in certain markets. Canopy said that initiative incentivized customers to reduce paper bag consumption by 47%.

“Inditex has worked hard to keep endangered forests out of our textile supply chain,” Javier Losada, Inditex chief sustainability officer, said in the release. “Now we will extend that work to our packaging, where we have already taken steps towards reduction, reuse and increase of recycled content. We look forward to continuing this work with Canopy to bring it to a new level, including the development of Next Gen alternatives that both reduce waste and help keep forests standing.”

Inditex, which in addition to Zara owns Berksha and Massimo Dutti, recently deepened its relationship with Conservation International. It donated 3 million euros, or about $3.2 million at current exchange rates, to the Great People's Forest initiative, which looks to restore and conserve the Eastern Himalayan region. In other sustainability work, Inditex entered a three-year agreement with Ambercycle for recycled polyester.

Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Canopy, said in the release that a company with the significance of Inditex “sends a signal to paper packaging suppliers that it’s time to give forests a break and to invest in and scale lower impact alternatives.”

Canopy has previously partnered with H&M Group and LVMH to remove pulp-based materials such as viscose from the supply chain to protect ancient and endangered forests. It launched its fashion initiative, CanopyStyle, in 2013.