ZDHC has launched the Detox Fashion Radar to benchmark brands that are on its Roadmap to Zero journey to detox fashion based on engagement level and implementation progress.
From all of ZDHC’s contributor brands, five achieved the highest level of implementation performance in 2021. They are H&M Group and its brand subsidiaries H&M, Cos, Arket, Monki, & Other Stories and Weekday; Levi Strauss & Co and its brands Levi’s, Dockers, Signature, Denizen and Beyond Yoga; Victoria’s Secret & Co. its brands Victoria’s Secret and Pink; Burberry Group and its brand Burberry, and C&A Group and its brand C&A.
“This journey is not a race and it’s not a competition,” said Frank Michel, executive director of the ZDHC Foundation. “However, such journeys can feel like running a marathon with low visibility on your own position. The Detox Fashion Radar [intends] to provide a simple benchmarking and motivation for brands to share implementation progress with the interested audience.”
With the launch of the Detox Fashion Radar, ZDHC offers a simple navigation tool showing how individual fashion brands and retailers are engaging in the program and progressing on their journey toward eliminating the use of harmful chemicals across their entire value chain. The radar’s intent is to present sustainable chemical management at a glance, to show fashion brands’ level of progress in implementing ZDHC’s Roadmap to Zero Program across their value chains.
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By visualizing the progress made so far, the radar also acts as a catalyst for transparency. With the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Program as a leading and credible industry guidance for sustainable chemical management worldwide, ZDHC wants to be transparent in how fashion brands’ are making program implementation progress needed for a sustainable future for fashion.
ZDHC contributor brands enroll into the leader program “Brands to Zero,” undergo an annual assessment of their implementation performance, and are held accountable to take corrective action plans as part of their commitment to ZDHC.
“We’d like to invite more and more…brands to focus on the input chemistry because by securing the safety of the chemicals that enter our productions, we will secure the outcomes and better management within the facilities,” Mia Gunawan, global sustainability program manager for chemicals at H&M, said. “Given the size and scale of our value chain, we have an opportunity to influence the industry and with ZDHC an opportunity to accelerate and scale the impact even further.”
Gunawan said by implementing ZDHC programs, the company knows its supply chain partners are managing their chemicals properly and H&M can build the foundations on other forefront areas such as demanding more transparency on chemicals and relating to circularity.
As part of Brands to Zero, brands and retailers harmonize expectations toward suppliers and remove obstacles to allow responsible chemical management to thrive throughout their value chains. While all ZDHC contributor brands are recognized for their leadership within the industry, ZDHC measures and benchmarks the implementation performance within the Brands to Zero by using metrics centered around the Roadmap to Zero Program, sustainable chemical management and supply chain management practices.
For the annual Brands to Zero assessment, ZDHC worked with KPMG, which offers a professional, transparent, and credible evaluation of brand performance resulting in a neutral report.
Brands that are not yet on the radar are invited to share individual progress on their journey according to the radar’s echo trail criteria. Additionally, brands that work with other comparable sustainable chemical management programs and tools also qualify to feature in the Detox Fashion Radar.