Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Demand that denim giants clean up their act and their supply chains


Photographer: Lu Guang/Greenpeace
Pollution from the world’s largest denim companies like Wrangler, American Eagle Outfitters, and Calvin Klein is contributing to the terrible air quality that’s killing 4,400 people every single day in China.

And worst yet, these companies won’t tell us how much toxic carbon they’re spewing into the atmosphere from burning coal — one of the key contributors to both climate change and deadly air pollution.

If we want to get serious about stopping climate change, we have to hold corporations accountable for all the pollution they’re responsible for—not just the pollution they’re willing to tell us about.

Tell these denim giants to come clean about their carbon emissions and stop contributing to life-threatening air pollution: Calvin Klein, Wrangler, Tommy Hilfiger, American Eagle, Lee, Guess, and Express.

This is how corporate executives line their pockets with bigger profits by disguising the pollution they pump into our air and water: they outsource production to contractors in China, where they can avoid taking responsibility for the carbon emissions created by manufacturing their products.

The apparel industry is a huge contributor to global climate change. Manufacturing a single pair of denim jeans produces 44 pounds of CO2, roughly equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from driving a passenger car nearly 50 miles.

One study shows that clothes manufacturing alone generated about 3% of the global CO2 emissions in 2011 -- roughly equal to climate pollution created by putting 163 million new cars on the road.

Tragically, global warming will likely have the most severe impacts on the developing countries that produce most of the world’s apparel. This means the people getting paid the least in this industry will bear the brunt of the impacts on their health and homes.
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