While advocates of Uniqlo argue the brand is more like a green innovation tech company than a fast fashion outlet, detractors portray the brand as a major player of the corrupt and destructive fashion system, only more cleverly masked than Zara or Primark.
The brand appears to care about sustainability with its LifeWear ethos, along with its carbon neutral goal by 2050, shifting to 100% renewable energy, producing 50% of all apparel with 50% recycled materials by 2030, tracing back to raw materials, and becoming 100% zero waste with packaging.
Uniqlo now offers recycling boxes at many stores through the Recycling Program, through which, as of August 2022, they had supposedly collected and redistributed 50.50 million items to 80 countries and regions.
That said, the primary issue with Uniqlo is the lack of verifiable evidence to back any of their claims or to track any progress towards their various feel-good goals.
Materials
For its low price point and compared to others, Uniqlo is surprisingly good quality, thanks to decently made materials. Uniqlo claims all fabrics are sustainably sourced. They’re also now members of the Better Cotton Initiative; that said, BCI cotton is also rife with greenwashing and inadequacies.
They use a small percentage of recycled PET bottles to create nylon and polyester, and are now trying to determine the sources of wood materials used for their cellulosic fibers. But while they state they won’t use materials from endangered forests, habitats of endangered species, and illegally logged forests, we need to see a plan of action and evidence.
With the LA-based Jeans Innovation Center, Uniqlo uses BlueCycle for their denim, which reduces water use in the finishing process by up to 99%. They claim jeans are finished with just a teacup’s worth of water. They also ensure a “better working environment” by using lasers to distress jeans.
Manufacturing
In 2014, Uniqlo joined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), and in 2016, they introduced a sustainability department. Since 2017, Uniqlo has published yearly reports on sustainability to provide some degree of insight into manufacturing.
In late 2021, Fast Retailing unveiled its sustainability plan for the next 28 years, until 2050, which includes having totally sustainable garments by that year (we say that’s still too far).
Uniqlo does take some actions to reduce water use in their supply chain, have initiatives to combat microplastics, started using renewable energy in all of its offices and stores, and set a science-based target to reduce GHG emissions throughout both their direct operations and supply chain—but again provide no evidence for progress on any of these actions.
One way that Uniqlo’s manufacturing is undeniably better than its fast fashion competitors is in its approach. While Zara steals from the runway and squeezes its apparel-making processes (designing, manufacturing, distributing, and retailing) into the span of a few weeks, Uniqlo aims to achieve the exact opposite.
They plan wardrobe production up to a year in advance, with some products and fabrics being perfected for years before being released. Uniqlo’s operative agility also reduces waste by using advanced tech in-store to understand what is selling, which translates back to their factory floors.
Carbon Footprint
The brand told fashion reporters they reduced 18,000+ tons of carbon emissions from 2019 to 2020. Their stated goal is to have it reduced by 90% in 2030. That said, Uniqlo has a ways to go in terms of transparency to truly understand their progress.
In January 2020, FR signed the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. The Charter supports the Paris Agreement’s goals in “limiting global temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”.
Fortunately, they are indeed significantly reducing packaging and bag waste; that said, we haven’t heard any plans to mitigate their massive global shipping and distribution footprint outside this statement: “We aim to improve transport efficiency by consolidating containers and trucks for transport and shipping.”
One positive thing the brand introduced is its RE.UNIQLO project, which collects old Uniqlo clothes and re-purposes or resells them. After a successful Harajuku RE.UNIQLO vintage pop-up, we’re hopeful the brand scales the tiny pilot project to encompass all twenty-five countries that their thousands of stores operate in.
So, is Uniqlo fast fashion?
To avoid greenwashing and human rights accusations and for us to really believe they’re working to reduce their carbon footprint, they’ll need to work on transparency and third parties to verify their claims.
Compared to most, Uniqlo stands out with their timeless staples over trendy pieces that fast go out of fashion. But aside from that, there just isn’t enough info or transparency yet to confirm with confidence that Uniqlo is, indeed, better than most.
