Join Life, which is a line introduced by Zara, a big fast fashion player, to introduce sustainability into its product lines, to the extent that, it has taken steps. Yet there are questions about whether these efforts are really doing the trick, or whether they’re just greenwashing. This article explores the progress of the Zara sustainable line, examines the materials used, the production process and ultimately asks whether consumer can shop at Zara with a clear conscience.
Zara’s Sustainable Vision
Under its parent company Inditex, Zara has pushed the envelope with claims to its commitment to sustainability. In an effort to create a positive change, the company practices eco-friendly with more sustainable fabric and circular economy by recycling and pre owned clothing platform. These efforts are elevated by the flagship — the ‘Join Life’ collection — described as an eco sustainable line created from organic cotton, TENCEL™ and recycled polyester.
But critics contend that Zara’s business model is itself inherently at odds with its sustainability claim. Rapidly producing high quantities of trendy, low priced garments is called fast fashion which results in a lot of waste and short clothing life spans. Zara puts out up to 24 collections a year and has up to 450 million garments in stock every year. Environmentalists say that this scale of production is truly unsustainable.
The Join Life Collection: A Closer Look
In fact, the Join Life collection from Zara’s is considered the heart and soul of the company’s sustainability efforts. It is introduced with the promise of more sustainable materials and that the garments meet at least certain environmental and social standards. Life says what sets them apart is the usage of organic, eco-friendly materials (like TENCEL™ and organic cotton), as well as practices aimed at lowering both water and greenhouse gas emissions.
However, 90 per cent of Zara’s collection reportedly meets Join Life standards, but this is leaving most of Zara’s garments made using conventional, non-eco friendly materials. In other words, even the ‘more sustainable’ materials in Join Life have problems. For example, recycled polyester still releases microplastics, and thus can’t be recycled further, which would also have its own environmental footprint. A marginal improvement is what the critical word ‘more’ in the word ‘more sustainable’ suggests – and not solution.
Greenwashing Accusations and Criticism
Zara’s Join Life collection may have been done to try and combat greenwashing, but many environmentalists argue the company lacks any real commitment to going green. Zara’s sheer volume of production and its fast fashion business model go against Zara’s sustainability rhetoric by contributing to overconsumption. The critics say that although Zara claims it is on its way to becoming more responsible in sourcing and eco friendly, the scale of its operation and lack of specificity around Zara’s specific goals and achievements for sustainability simply don’t match the claims.
Moreover, numerous suggestions have emerged for examining the ethical dimensions of sustainability, and investigations of Zara’s labor practices have indicated a significant level of worker exploitation in the company’s supply chain. The reporting has uncovered unsafe working conditions, wage theft and forced labour, especially from South Asia. The company has set future goals for improvements in these practices, but few believe they will succeed.
Sustainable Materials: The Reality Behind Eco-Friendly Fabrics
It runs mostly with organic cotton, TENCEL™, and recycled polyester. Growing organic cotton naturally excludes harmful pesticides and takes less water than traditional cotton. TENCEL™ is a more environmentally friendly fabric—made from sustainably responsible natural wood pulp. Recycled polyester is taken from plastic waste instead of from virgin petroleum based fibers.
Nevertheless, each of these materials has its own limitation. Better than conventional cotton, but still, organic cotton still needs a lot of water and land resources. While TENCEL™ is an improvement over synthetic fabrics, it still consumes a lot of chemical and energy during its production. But what is touted as eco-friendly, recycled polyester, can still be down and out for the environment, shedding microplastics when washed, polluting the oceans.
Zara’s Pre-Owned Initiative and Circular Fashion
In November of 2022, Zara launched its Pre-Owned platform in the UK so that customers can buy, sell, donate pre-owned garments. This is a first in the effort towards circular fashion, reducing waste by repurposing, recycling or reusing clothing itself. Sustainability is circular fashion because it reduces the waste created by the production of clothing and decreases the amount of waste sent to landfills.
But Zara’s Pre-Owned program has some limits with regards to its role within the company’s sustainability strategy. Zara’s business model is based on high turnover and consumer demand for new products which are available in faster clothing, from cosmetic goods, to home and garden items. Pre-Owned platforms are pushed as a vehicle of a circular economy but do not solve the fundamental problem of over production and over consumption.
The Consumer Dilemma: Can You Shop Sustainably at Zara?
Zara’s sustainable line is such an attractive option for consumers hoping to spend ethically, but disposable fashion should always be a red flag post its inception. To be fair, there’s no denying that the brand’s made strides: it’s committed to using 100 per cent sustainable cotton and linen by 2025, and is switching to renewable energy in all its stores. Zara’s core business model of fast fashion, however, is a huge barrier to true sustainability.
While shopping at Zara’s Join Life collection might be more sustainable than shopping at other fast fashion brands, it’s not completely flawless. At a time when consumers should strive to understand how it creates clothing, and more importantly, on whom the devastating environmental and social impacts are, they must balance the environmental and social burdens of the clothes they buy and ask themselves whether it fits with their core set of beliefs.
Conclusion
While Zara’s sustainable line is a step in the right direction, it still doesn’t measure up to perfect eco conscious fashion. The Join Life collection contains more sustainable materials and processes, but its fast fashion model ultimately does not allow the impact of these to have the same reach. At large scale production and with the standstill of labor questions and disposable fashion problems Zara’s long term sustainability is facing.
Zara, in order to achieve a truly sustainable brand would have to massively reduce its production volumes, improve supply chain transparency, and concentrate on designing garments that last longer and are recyclable at the end of their life cycle. Zara’s sustainable line is still new to the consumers, so for now consumer should be a little critical about the line and look for the alternatives which will provide better ethical and environmental benefits.
