Organizational Governance

Levi Strauss Sets Industry Bar with Science-Based Targets for Global Supply Chain

Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) today announced a new climate action strategy, which sets aggressive targets for reducing carbon emissions across its owned-and-operated facilities and global supply chain by 2025; among its goals are using 100 percent renewable electricity in its company-owned facilities.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 6 years ago | About a 3 minute read

Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) today announced a new climate action strategy, which sets aggressive targets for reducing carbon emissions across its owned-and-operated facilities and global supply chain by 2025; among its goals are using 100 percent renewable electricity in its company-owned facilities.

While LS&Co. has a strong track record of reducing carbon emissions in its own operations, the most significant climate impacts — and the most difficult to tackle — are Scope 3 emissions, which lie within the apparel industry’s global supply chain. LS&Co.’s new climate action strategy addresses this part of its carbon footprint.

LS&Co.’s science-based targets, which are ambitious in their timeline and aims, are part of the company’s efforts to make the global apparel industry more sustainable. Approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), these 2025 targets include:

A 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in all owned-and-operated facilities, which will be achieved by investing in onsite renewable energy and energy-efficiency upgrades.
A 40 percent reduction in GHG emissions in the supply chain, which will in large part be achieved by working with key suppliers to expand the International Finance Corporation’s Partnership for Cleaner Textiles (IFC PaCT) — an innovative public-private partnership that provides suppliers with technical expertise and access to low-cost financing to support sustainable energy and water investments — globally.

“We believe that business has the opportunity and the responsibility to be a force for positive change in the world,” said Chip Bergh, president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. “We are proud to be one of the first companies to set science-based targets for our global supply chain, and we hope to be an inspiration for others to follow.”

Science-based targets provide companies with a clearly defined way to help prevent climate change by specifying how much, and how quickly, they need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Targets are considered “science-based” if they are in line with the level of decarbonization required to keep global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial temperatures.

“Levi Strauss & Co. has set an ambitious science-based target aligned with the Paris Agreement for its operations and value chain, which will help bring energy efficiency and renewable energy to its suppliers in developing markets,” said Cynthia Cummis, Director of Private Sector Climate Mitigation at the World Resources Institute (WRI), one of the Science Based Targets initiative partners. “The company’s targets represent the kind of forward-thinking innovation that the fashion industry needs, and are a model for business success in a low-carbon world.”

The targets announced today are an extension of LS&Co.’s longstanding commitment to sustainability; the company’s approach complements its advocacy efforts to advance proactive climate policies — whether through its work as a founding member of Ceres BICEP (Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy), a cross-industry network focused on making the business case to policymakers for advancing clean energy and addressing climate change; as a supporter of We Are Still In, which reaffirms continued support for climate action to meet the targets under the Paris Agreement; or as an educator, raising employee awareness and creating climate ambassadors through Al Gore’s Climate Reality Training.