Greenpeace amped up their campaign against Zara over the last week following the company’s failure to respond to the GP report “Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch-Up” released on Nov. 20, which outlines how textile manufacturers release hormone-disrupting chemicals and other hazardous materials into China’s waterways.

As part of its promise to discontinue its unsustainable habits, Zara’s parent company Inditex will require 20 supplies to disclose pollution data as soon as March 2013 so that those living near the plants know exactly what is being released into their environment.

By the end of 2013, at least 100 suppliers will be required to do the same.

Zara is the eighth company to sign on to Greenpeace’s “Zero-discarge Roadmap,” after a massive campaign supported by 315,000 activists around the world. Tens of thousands of people urged Zara to change their ways on their Facebook and Twitter pages and 700 people took to the streets to wage public campaigns.

After nine days of this, the company’s leadership wisely opted to negotiate with Greenpeace.

“Greenpeace welcomes Zara’s commitment to toxic-free fashion. If the world’s biggest fashion retailer can do it, there’s no excuse for other brands not to clean up their supply chains and make fashion without pollution,” said Martin Hojsik, Detox Campaign Coordinator at Greenpeace International.

“People around the world have spoken out against toxic fashion and it’s now time for other brands such as Esprit, Gap and Victoria’s Secret to listen to their customers and urgently Detox.”

Read “Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch-Up here”

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Several other clothing manufacturers rose to the environmental advocacy group’s challenge to clean up their act. Zara’s failure to do the same has resulted in a massive global campaign to besmirch the firm and pressure its leadership to re-evaluate their environmental policies.

This sign outside a Zara store in Israel reads “Fashion is not Pollution”

Zara = Poison?

Last week Greenpeace initiated an international campaign to pressure Zara to incorporate a more responsible approach to its production and activists everywhere are spreading the message – even on the company’s Facebook page, where slogans such as ZARA = POISON have proliferated in the last few days.

Greenpeace sent Zara clothing to be tested in independent laboratories and discovered that many of the chemicals found in China’s polluted waterways are present in the world’s largest clothing companies products.

Children’s jeans, for example, are made with dyes that release a carcinogenic amine under certain conditions, as well as nonylphenol ethoxylates that break down in the environment as toxic hormone-disrupting chemicals.

Given that the they develop a new line every two weeks and produces 850 million garment pieces every year, Zara has a profound environmental impact. But if the textile giant commits to reducing their impact, their influence could have a positive overall impact on the industry.

Zara under fire

“That is why we singled out Zara as the next brand to lead us on the road toward a toxic-free future,” Greenpeace said in a recent press release.

“Its sheer size and scale mean Zara is ideally positioned to be a catalyst for wider change within the clothing industry. Suppliers listen to brands like Zara because they provide them with such huge amounts of business, and as an industry leader it is clear that where Zara go, others will soon follow.”

When the initial Dirty Laundry report was released, Greenpeace named a host of other companies in the industry that are also guilty of having few to no substantial chemical control protocols designed to mitigate their environmental impact.

Of those, a small handful have stepped up and provided Greenpeace with firm dates by which time they plan to switch out harmful chemical processes for something that is less toxic – both environmentally and socially.

“Marks & Spencer, for example, have committed to release pollution data from several of its suppliers by February 2013,” Greenpeace reports.

“Another close competitor, H&M, has given a concrete date for when it will phase out PFCs – one of the most hazardous chemical groups used by the sector. H&M says this is possible by 1st January 2013, so what’s to stop Zara from doing the same for this and other chemicals of concern currently being used to make its clothes?”

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