PVH Corp has set bold targets for waste, fabrics, water and chemicals. Nicolas Prophte, a driving force for change in Tommy Hilfiger’s denim ranges, tells us that as well as lowering the impact on environment and workers, it seeks to scale its learnings across the industry.

2020 was a year like no other in recent history, says PVH CEO Stefan Larsson in the introduction to the clothing group’s latest corporate responsibility report. While the owner of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein – and indeed the world – was focused on navigating the covid-19 pandemic, it also continued to make progress on its commitments “with a renewed sense of urgency”.

Goals set within the report include recycled materials, water usage, reducing chemicals and energy, improving worker safety, ethical sourcing and diversity. Through its Forward Fashion strategy, the group aims to “reduce negative impacts to zero, increase positive impacts to 100% and improve the estimated 1 million lives throughout the value chain” (associates and supply chain workers, their families and communities). By 2030, it expects a 30% reduction in supply chain emissions; renewable energy-driven offices, warehouse and stores, with zero waste and no single-use plastics; and 100% of suppliers meeting or exceeding its social and environmental standards.

Recycling forerunner

Part of these targets will be met by transforming denim, with Nicolas Prophte, vice-president of sourcing, production and innovation in denim for Tommy Hilfiger, and his team at the helm. They are nudging suppliers towards more environmental ways of producing, and designing product that has more “responsible” fibre as well as end-of-life solutions in mind.

Tommy Jeans has been one of the forerunners on using recycled cotton for the past few seasons, launching a 100% recycled jean – 80% pre-consumer and 20% post-consumer recycled cotton fibre (POCR) – as early as Spring/Summer 19, in collaboration with Turkish mill Kipas. It has also scaled up the use of POCR to a minimum of 20%, and this is now standard across its denim collections.

Mr Prophte tells us that, supported by strong relationships with mill partners, the group has achieved its initial targets faster than anticipated and, as of this autumn, 2.3 million pieces of denim contain a minimum of 20% POCR. “This means that we are already close to achieving our goal of 3 million pieces by 2025,” he says. “In just two years, we’ve achieved this standard in 75-80% of all our fabrics, and we believe this could soon reach the 90% ratio.”

Part of this success was due to using the latest spinning techniques and mills using more of their own waste, but securing high quality POCR waste streams has also been vital. “The main challenge is not technical, but to do with securing post-consumer waste textiles to feed the recycling lines,” he says, of why these things take time to increase. “We must continue to engage with new stakeholders to ensure that that we’re able to collect and sort textile waste in an efficient way that can be scaled up.”

In October 2020, PVH launched its first circular business model, Tommy for Life, in The Netherlands. In partnership with The Renewal Workshop, the company sorts and repairs items collected via customer takeback and damaged products from retail stores and e-commerce. Items that cannot be restored are reinvented into unique styles as part of the Remixed collections. Those that cannot be used are recycled into yarns or repurposed, for instance into insulation, or donated via Tommy’s philanthropic arm, Tommy Cares. Following its successful expansion into France in May, the project will be expanded into Denmark and Germany this autumn.

Laundry targets

As part of the CR report, PVH pledged all water leaving wet processors (mills, dye houses, laundries) will have zero hazardous chemicals and be filtered for harmful microfibres by 2025. Many of these suppliers have submitted Higg Facility Environmental Module data and are setting targets to improve water usage. For denim, the group’s Low Impact Washes (LIW) programme has been measuring and comparing metrics from laundries for a number of years, helping to benchmark and reduce impacts. Laundries’ recent big investments have focused on recycling water systems, renewable energy, laser and ozone technologies as well “smart chemistry” to reduce the impact on water resources, greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and improve worker conditions.

“We also have a role to play in driving change, and our PVH Product Innovation Lab [in Amsterdam] is a means towards this,” explains Mr Prophte. “It also requires us to collaborate with technology providers or chemical groups to pilot and scale innovation with our laundry partners.”

Digital push

As with every organisation around the world, 2020 brought a fresh set of challenges, with stores and factories closed, supplies halted and sales plummeting. PVH changed several of its plans and business practices and, at times, had to “make difficult decisions to balance interests and needs”.

Mr Prophte says in many ways the pandemic accelerated industry changes that were already under way. “As with the rest of the world, we shifted our work from physical to digital engagement and found new ways to interact with our mills, vendors and even reach people and partners we never reached before.” Previously in-person bi-annual PVH Europe Denim Fairs went digital, allowing access to participants who previously may not have had the opportunity.

As a group, PVH helped create International Labour Association’s Call to Action, supported by more than 120 organisations, focusing on protecting garment workers’ income, ensuring goods are paid for and establishing long-term systems of social protection.

Industry alignment

This kind of industry collaboration is key and “competitiveness should not be a reason not to partner on such initiatives”. In the past year, PVH has signed the United Nations Global Compact’s Business Ambition for 1.5°C Commitment letter, recognising the need for multilateral partnership in finding climate solutions; and joined Fashion for Good’s Full Circle Textiles project, testing textile-to-textile chemical recycling with Evrnu, Infinited Fiber Company, PhoenixT, Re:Newcell and Tyton BioSciences.

Last October, PVH Europe joined the Dutch government’s Denim Deal, serving on the steering committee to help make recycling fibre the “new norm” through collectively setting up a “reverse supply chain” for recycled cotton. It was also one of the early signatories of Ellen MacArthur’s Jeans Redesign initiative, with the first products made to the guidelines launched in March.

“Partnerships, like the ones we have with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Dutch Denim Deal, allow us to share learnings, insights and findings with industry partners,” says Mr Prophte. “Rather than approaching challenges alone, these partnerships help us align industry resources to find the best solution possible, allowing us to meet commercial needs and scale faster than ever before.”

The group was also noted among leaders in the Textile Exchanges’ Material Change Leaderboard 2020, alongside denim brands such as Mud Jeans and Nudie Jeans, for demonstrating “exceptional progress in preferred materials and actioning circularity agendas”. Inclusion in voluntary assessments such as these set the tone for accountability. “The denim industry must continue to lead on key issues like sustainability by aligning on concrete actions and clear commitments in their production processes, and by adopting the same measurement tools to enable cross-industry benchmarking and roadmap building,” adds Mr Prophte. “Real, impactful, change can only be achieved if industry partners come together to collaborate, share ideas and commit to driving change, together.”

As of last year, half of all denim pieces used lower-impact manufacturing in finishes. By 2025, half of all Tommy Hilfiger denim pieces will use lower-impact fabrics.

Photo: Tommy Hilfiger

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