Irish Examiner view: Primark takes lead with sustainability plan 

Penneys strategy designed to reduce fashion waste, halve carbon emissions across its value chain, and improve the lives of the people who make Primark products.

says consumers won’t feel a pinch in their pockets while it intends to pay factory workers making its clothing a living wage, so something has to give. File picture

In recent decades, fashion waste has become an environmental crisis to rival plastic pollution in oceans. Every year millions of items of clothing are discarded as consumers ditch so-called fast-fashion styles for a new wardrobe. 

While individual consumers who care about the environment can simply decide to keep their clothes longer, it is up to the major fashion producers to do their bit, as well.

Primark, which trades as Penneys here, has said it will take a lead on this issue as it unveiled a sustainability strategy which it says is designed to reduce fashion waste, halve carbon emissions across its value chain, and improve the lives of the people who make Primark products.

Primark, which has 397 stores across 14 countries, says consumers won’t feel a pinch in their pockets while it intends to pay factory workers making its clothing a living wage, so something has to give. 

There’s plenty to like in its plan, however, so let’s hope it isn’t “greenwashing”, that Primark leads real change in the industry and isn’t simply pulling the wool over our eyes.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB