Nowadays, it’s possible to track our food miles, our air miles – but what about our fashion miles? If you’ve ever ordered an item online, only to discover that it’s been sent from, say, the US or Italy, you may have wondered about the hidden carbon impact of shipping our garments around the world.
In fact, Veja decided to ban transporting its trainers by air, after discovering in 2019 that 19 per cent of its products were shipped by plane – making up 95 per cent of its emissions from distribution. “We stopped directly using all plane transportation [for our products],” Sébastien Kopp, Veja’s co-founder and creative director, tells Vogue, noting that the brand’s transport emissions went down from 18 per cent of its total carbon footprint in 2019 to 12.8 per cent in 2021. “Some stores were buying Veja sneakers directly from Brazil, and [used] plane transportation. We said to them that we would stop working with them if they [continued shipping by plane].”
At times, avoiding air transportation can lead to difficult decisions. Take the success of Veja’s newly relaunched Volley style, which has been selling out within days in store. As shipping the trainers by sea from Brazil takes five weeks, sending them by plane would allow the brand to more quickly replenish its stock, and sell more product. “I replied, ‘No, people will wait for them,’” Kopp says.
At Reformation, the focus is also on shifting away from air transportation as much as possible. “Transportation is an increasingly important part of our climate action plan,” explains Kathleen Talbot, the brand’s chief sustainability officer and vice president of operations, noting that it comprised 26 per cent of its total emissions in 2023. “Air travel is 20 to 30 times more carbon intensive than moving things via cargo ship, road or rail.”
Although McKinsey’s 2018 Fashion on Climate report suggests that transportation only makes up three per cent of fashion’s carbon footprint, the true figure could be much higher, five years on. “The share quoted was prior to the massive acceleration of ultra fast fashion, relying heavily on airfreight as a means to deliver quickly, direct to the consumer,” Karl-Hendrik Magnus, leader of McKinsey’s apparel, fashion and luxury practice, notes. “This will increase the share of emissions from transport significantly.”
Indeed, one of the major challenges of reducing transportation emissions is consumer expectation about how quickly they’re able to get an item delivered, particularly with the rise of next-day and express delivery. “We live in an on-demand culture, which skews perception of what actually is an acceptable shipping timeline,” Talbot says.