Reformation’s Sustainability Report Drops—Along With Its Scope 3 Emissions
Reformation’s annual sustainability report has landed, and the results reflect the struggles of the industry at large when it comes to advancing environmental goals.
From scaling sustainable innovations to driving down emissions across the supply chain, small steps, rather than large strides, often characterize the forward movement in the fashion industry’s evolution. But the Los Angeles-based women’s apparel brand, which first established its climate-positive commitment in 2020, has also seen significant triumphs over the past 12 months that it believes will propel its progress throughout 2024.
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Materials
Materials represent nearly half (48 percent) of the brand’s overall carbon emissions, and “from the beginning, we knew that material transitions were going to be at the heart of that work,” Kathleen Talbot, Reformation’s chief sustainability officer and vice president of operations, told Sourcing Journal. The group’s material portfolio “represents such a disproportionate part of our emissions as a as a fashion brand, and so that continues to be the anchor of so much of the climate action and commitment from Ref,” she said.
According to Talbot, Reformation saw both advancements and setbacks in 2023 that have informed its forward-looking strategy. The group has sought to reduce its reliance on virgin cashmere, silk, leather and viscose, and transitioning away from these inputs has been a goal for several years. “We’ve been able to introduce qualities and alternatives to a lot of those,” but establishing scale within the supply chain has taken more time than the brand anticipated.
A resource intensive fabric to produce, silk currently makes up about 5 percent of the brand’s material portfolio, but drives 15 percent of its materials-related emissions. Reformation has been moving toward replacing silk across a number of products with its Eco Satin formulation, made from Naia Renew, an Eastman innovation that combines recycled waste and renewable wood pulp, since 2022. “We really were able to scale that [program] in 2023,” Talbot said, noting that 18 percent of the brand’s silk-like fiber sourcing now relies on Eco Satin—a number that is slated to double this year.
Cashmere, too, represents a small slice of the label’s material makeup—just 1 percent—but it accounts for a whopping 38 percent of materials-related emissions, far outpacing any other input. The group introduced 90-percent recycled cashmere in 2022, driving down emissions significantly, but it grew its sweater program in 2023 to offer more styles. It sourced 10 percent more virgin material than the year prior, and that “led to more of an outsized emission than what we had planned or forecasted,” Talbot said.
The sustainability lead pointed to several factors that make it a challenge for brands to transition to sustainable materials. Firstly, “It’s not the product or the design team or the customer that are asking for this change—it’s really an impact driven change, which means that it has to be a zero-trade-off proposition.” A material must perform the same—or better—than the conventional option in order to serve as a suitable replacement. And even then, brands must work to educate shoppers about why sustainable alternatives hold the same value, especially against traditionally desirable materials like silk and cashmere.
What’s more, the purveyors of many innovative fibers and materials are also working to grow their businesses to serve a broader market, and it’s not always practical—or possible—to completely replace a material with a sustainable alternative. Reformation has leaned into its work with established industry players, with Tencel Lyocell making up 18 percent of its material uptake, for example.
“In terms of scalability, we are investing in innovative fibers from some of the incumbents,” like Lenzing and Eastman, “that are commercially viable and ready and available—while also working with the earlier stage innovators” to drive advancement, she said.
The group has also leaned into sourcing more preferred materials, increasing its uptake of deadstock fabrics, regeneratively grown cotton and recycled cashmere over the past 12 months.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Reformation aims to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 42 percent, and its Scope 3 emissions by 48 percent by 2030—a goal it set several years ago.
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions—which account for the company’s direct energy use and what it sources from utility providers—represent just 2 percent of the company’s total GHG output. According to Reformation’s report, the group missed its sub-400 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT of CO2e) target last year, instead emitting more than 700 MT of CO2e.
According to Talbot, because Reformation already sourced 100-percent renewable energy in its baseline 2021 year, achieving absolute reductions across Scope 1 and Scope 2 was always going to be difficult. The company has been opening eight to 10 new retail stores each year, which has contributed, somewhat inevitably, to the growth of emissions in this area of the business. Today, Reformation operates 44 stores across the globe.
“Getting an absolute reduction on a growing [store] fleet is a compounded challenge, and so you are seeing that miss or that increase grow a little bit in 2023,” she said. “Especially as we go into more malls and shopping complexes, it’s not as simple as our will or desire to invest in on-site renewable [energy]—it’s about what you can actually do in those in those facilities.”
Moving forward, the brand is exploring electrifying some of the infrastructure of its retail locations and taking other measures to drive down emissions, hopefully with the help of retail property owners.
But the brand is claiming a major win having beat its Scope 3 emissions reduction target last year—a heavier lift, given that the vast majority of GHG emissions originate in this part of the supply chain. And despite the misses in Scope 1 and Scope 2, overall GHG emissions totaled 45,867 MT of CO2e, besting Reformation’s 2023 target of 51,423 MT of CO2e.
“We have driven more reductions than required by our science-based reduction target,” Talbot said—a similar result to 2022—which she attributes largely to material transitions. Reformation’s Factory Forward program, too, has helped accelerate emissions reductions, helping its suppliers to drive energy efficiency and strive for reductions in wastewater and chemical usage at the factory level.
The group also launched its first European warehouse—its only other distribution center in the world outside of its Vernon, Calif. headquarters. Because transportation emissions accounted for 26 percent of the brand’s overall GHG output, this development should help the brand to reach consumers on that side of the globe more quickly and efficiently.
Circularity
According to Talbot, one of the things she’s most proud of is the brand’s introduction of circularity into its official goal-setting framework. Last year, Reformation worked to establish a baseline for its current circular efforts, and found that 97 percent of the materials it uses were recycled, regenerative or renewable, 26 percent were deadstock or next-generation (not virgin), 39 percent was made textile-to-textile recyclable through the RefRecycling program, 17 percent of business volume was represented by resale, vintage and rentals, and just 0.1 percent of garments produced were unsold or donated.
“There’s still lots of good work ahead, but it feels like we were starting from a place of strength,” Talbot said. “That can really help motivate and inspire our teams to take this to the next level.”
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