Beatriz Bayo, Deputy Manager of CSR, Mango
Mango started its operations in Barcelona, Spain. It is one of the most successful retail stores in the textile and apparel industry today, with stores and offices all over the world.
It has played a major role in bringing sustainability to high street fashion.Can you explain a bit about the sustainable activities carried out by you in textiles and fashion sector, especially the projects and programmes?
Along the last year, we have been improving many of our internal procedures and at the same time, we have enrolled in new projects. To sum up and to highlight some of the most important facts, we have enlarged our chemical control on final product adapting our Mango Chemical Standard to the new regulations and market demands. Nowadays, Mango Chemical Standard is one of the most restrictive in textile sector, all with the aim of offering to our customers a product which is free of hazardous substances with respect to health and also with respect to environment. This was the base to involve in the DETOX project with Greenpeace organization. On the other hand, we also signed the Bangladesh Accord after the tragedy in April and the group progress is very positive. We hope that the result of the joint work of all brands involved will be effective very soon.
How important do you think is sustainability in the global textile and fashion industry?
We live in a very competitive world, especially in the textile and fashion industry. Every day there are new challenges, more and more ambitious and demanding. Of course, we are conscious that we have our business goals, but at least in our company we have in mind that inside fashion world, the necessity of being more sustainable is evident. This is also a challenge for the sector and the companies themselves: being competitive and at the same time being respectful with the environment. Fortunately, we have new technologies and tools to achieve it: new raw materials, alternative fibres (recycled fibers, organic cotton, etc), alternative products to eliminate chemicals, better management of all kind of wastes coming from production, etc.
The mentality of customers, companies and society is moving towards this thought, and only joining in the efforts will be possible.
How has the textile and fashion industry affected the environment? Can you cite some examples?
Industrialization grew in the twentieth century providing the means to increase the production of all consumer goods. The production and consumption of many products, including clothing, grew widely and continues to expand to this day. When it comes to clothing, the rate of purchase and disposal has increased dramatically.
On one hand, we have pollution associated to the materials used. With the increase of production in the fashion industry, demand for synthetic fibers, for example polyester, has nearly doubled in the past 20 years, according to figures. The manufacture of polyester and other synthetic fabrics is an energy intensive process that requires large quantities of crude oil and the release of some emissions.
On the other hand, the production of the items, obviously not only in our sector, result in big emissions of gases such as CO2 and nitrogen oxides that companies should reduce and look for compensation programs or optimized procedures, etc.
There are also many cases of pollution by dyes and other chemical discharges into surface water and groundwater. Greenpeace recently reported large concentrations of toxic substances on the water and made a worldwide call through the DETOX project, to push companies to seek alternatives to chemicals currently used for zero discharge in a few years.
Is sustainability only about the environment today or does it encompass more to it?
Of course, sustainability encompasses more aspects or at least it should! Even in our personal life we should try to be more conscious with our daily habits, and also as consumers we can be more sustainable. We have to be more exigent to companies, and companies must answer to these requirements.
As a company like ours, sustainability means also caring about the tradability of our product and caring about his impact in all senses: environmental but also social, financial, etc. Sustainability must be a global concept to be finally successful.
