Stella McCartney marching ahead towards its 2040 net-zero target

Conscious luxury brand Stella McCartney reaffirms its commitments towards building a sustainable future through a series of initiatives at the ongoing COP28 summit. The brand is hosting the ‘Stella McCartney’s Sustainable Market: Innovating Tomorrow’s Solutions’ running until December 12 to be enriched with a speaker series and workshops hosted by next-gen pioneers.

Stella McCartney’s Sustainable Market: Innovating Tomorrow’s Solutions aims to inspire and educate on the possibilities of current cutting-edge or soon-to-be-available technologies. The brand is hosting a groundbreaking exhibition at COP28 platforming the future of material innovation – showcasing over 15 next-gen pioneers alongside breakthroughs in regenerative agriculture, bio- and plant-based alternatives to plastic, animal leather and fur and traditional fibres. Among them are a grape-based alternative to animal leather innovated in partnership with Veuve Clicquot, as well as the debut of the world’s first garments crafted from Protein Evolution’s biologically recycled, infinitely recyclable polyester. The Sustainable Market concept was launched at Stella McCartney’s Summer 2024 runway show during Paris Fashion Week, with the installation continuing to evolve and travel over the coming year.

In addition, Stella McCartney released its 2023 Impact Report detailing a wide range of achievements made in the 2022 calendar year.

• Renewed commitments to innovation and fossil fuel reduction across materials and processes throughout the production, sale and end of life of all Stella McCartney products.
• Announced strategic partnerships with Mango Materials and Air Carbon to develop new innovations and materials from global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
• Released a 2024 Circular Design Guide to openly share sustainable circular design and materials knowledge, principles and guidelines across industries.
• Launched an innovation campaign with PETA to emphasise alternative and innovative materials for leathers, furs, feathers and fills.

In fact, Stella McCartney has been a trailblazer in sustainability and environmentally conscious fashion for over two decades. The brand is the world’s first luxury house to never use animal leather, feathers, fur or skins and adopted extensive sustainability principles following the Livestock’s Long Shadow Report in 2006, which correlated animal agriculture with climate harms. Stella McCartney has since led as fashion’s conscience through a range of efforts including investing in cruelty-free alternatives, material and process innovations, strategic partnerships across industries, regenerative and nature-restoring practices, circular ambitions, transparency around impacts and communities and much more.

Notably, the fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for up to 8% of GHG emissions. Adding to the challenge of reducing its GHG footprint is the expectation that the industry will continue to grow as a result of increased population and consumption patterns. The responsibility is on fashion brands, in collaboration with private and public leaders, to increase the speed of decarbonisation.

As such Stella McCartney’s delegation will be focused on three key goals – advocating for policy and regulatory change to incentivise sustainable business and the decarbonisation of the industry; continuing a decades-long mission built around human and animal protection and welfare; and building a coalition of global government and business leaders to support and scale investment in a wide range of material and process innovations.

In addition to advocating and collaborating to transform the fashion industry, Stella McCartney will continue to lead with bold sustainability ambitions – including a 2040 net-zero target. This includes cutting emissions across its supply chain by 46.2% by 2030 and developing projects that support supply chain partners, innovators and global communities in their climate-resilient journeys.