The Spanish fashion group is advancing sustainability as one of its strategic pillars. The company continues in its desire to achieve the major goal of a more ethical and sustainable fashion industry, through initiatives that reduce its impact on the environment.

Since it signed up to the Fashion Pact in 2019, Mango has made firm commitments in areas such as the product, the reduction of emissions and waste, the circular economy, biodiversity, transparency and traceability. The use of sustainable fibres and processes makes it possible to reduce its impact on the environment and contribute to a circular economy.

As for the use of sustainable fibres, Mango has set itself the target of using 100 per cent sustainable cotton and 50 per cent recycled polyester in its collections by 2025. Mango expects 100 per cent of its cellulose fibres (for example, lyocell, viscose and modal, among others) to be of controlled origin and traceable by 2030.

“We have made the commitment to continue working to become a more sustainable company. This is why we are taking huge steps with very ambitious projects that will allow us to minimise our impact and achieve the strict sustainability targets we have set ourselves,” said Mango's CEO Toni Ruiz.

As part of the commitment it made after signing the Fashion Pact, in relation to its diversity pillar, from April Mango will start a collaboration with Asociación Vellmarí, founded in 1993 and headed by Manu San Félix. Félix is a biologist, scuba diver and National Geographic photographer and explorer, and his mission is to bring nature closer to people, to fascinate and inspire them and make them see the importance of oceans to our lives. This non-profit making organisation carries out conservation and education projects in the Posidonia Lab, a pioneering marine conservation project which integrates innovation, research, education and raising awareness on the protection of posidonia (neptune grass), an endemic plant species of the Mediterranean. In the words of Manu San Félix: “We believe that educating young children is the way to change the future for the better, so that they will learn to do well what we have done badly.”

Mango is continuing with its project to replace the plastic bags in its supply chain with paper bags. The goal of the company is, in collaboration with its suppliers, to progressively eliminate all the plastic bags it uses to distribute products throughout its production chain. Once this project is completed, this will allow Mango to cease using approximately 160 million plastic bags every year. From April this year, Mango will begin to implement this project with its suppliers in Turkey, before progressively continuing with all other countries in the coming months.

Improved energy efficiency in the design of new stores is another project the company is working on. To achieve this, the new store concept has energy-efficient lighting and temperature control systems, as well as a design which incorporates sustainable materials such as natural paint and recyclable materials, among others.

Mango collected 42 tonnes of garments during 2020 through the recycling project it is carrying out in collaboration with de Moda re-. The garments are collected in Mango stores for reuse, recycling and energy recovery. In 2020 Mango had 610 recycling points in its stores in 11 countries, and in 2021 will extend this service to countries such as Austria, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Switzerland and Russia, with more than 200 new recycling points.

Furthermore, last October Mango published on its company website a list of tier 1 production factories, fulfilling the requirements of the Transparency Pledge Standard, an initiative which is committed to transparency in the supply chains of the clothing and footwear industries. The firm aims to publish a list of tier 2 and tier 3 factories by 2022. For Beatriz Bayo, Mango’s CSR director, “the publication of this information is a powerful tool to strengthen the rights of people who work in clothing, and for promoting responsibility in global supply chains within the fashion sector.”

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)