Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Apparel Sustainability Services - Anthesis

Retail & CPG

Sustainable Apparel

Sustainable Apparel, Footwear + Textiles through Strategy, Transparency & Integration

Sustainability in the Apparel, Textiles, Footwear and Homeware Industries

Brands and retailers are facing increasing pressure from the media, consumers, NGOs, investors, and governments to deliver on sustainability goals. To thrive in the industry requires innovation and transparency across the value chain, careful consideration of all stakeholder perspectives, and the integration of a solid, sustainable business model to address company and sector-wide issues and, ultimately, drive sustainable performance.

Our team is trusted advisors to some of the most well-known clothing companies – including in the world. Expertise and experience along the whole value chain combined with a genuine passion for the sector, both people and product, allows us to put our clients on a strategic pathway to sustainability and success.

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Framework for Sustainable Apparel

Our Framework for Sustainable Apparel

Apparel, Textiles, Footwear & Homeware Sustainability Consulting

Building productive, long-lasting relationships with clients is at the heart of the Anthesis approach to deliver sustainability agendas that result in long-term, positive impacts. With extensive experience in the sector, we support a wide range of  apparel, textiles, footwear, and homeware clients from fast-growing online retailers to luxury players and independent brands. Our experts are proud members of the SBT Apparel & Footwear Expert Advisory Group and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), as well as the Textile Exchange.

We have proven experience in delivering sustainable solutions for fashion, textiles, footwear and homeware clients in a range of areas, including:

  • Strategy Development and Target Setting
  • Responsible Chemical Management and Sustainable Chemistry
  • Sustainable Products and Fibres
  • Environmental and Social Issues within supply chains
  • Circular Economy and Waste Solutions

The Anthesis Way

The Fashion and Textiles industry creates enormous impacts across the value chain. With that comes enormous responsibilities and enormous opportunities for positive, systemic change and innovative, collaborative solutions.

With misinformation rife, it is hard to know who to trust to support you to understand your impacts and the opportunities your business and brand have to make a difference. Anthesis supports brands, retailers, and other sectors players to take practical, measurable action on sustainability issues in their business and value chain.

We work collaboratively and flexibly with our clients to support them to grow their knowledge and understanding and make real, lasting change.  With a full suite of services to support our clients from baselining through to communications and reporting to internal implementation support, Anthesis is here to help as a trusted advisor and critical friend, lightening the load, shortening your to-do lists, and finding a path through.

Higg Framework

The HIGG Brand & Retail Module (BRM)

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition, representing more than one-third of the global apparel and footwear industries, was formed by sustainability leaders and leading organizations to address current social and environmental challenges. Recognizing that improved supply chain practices are both a business imperative and an opportunity, the Coalition seeks to lead a shared vision of industry supply chain sustainability through the creation and use of the Higg Index.

DOWNLOAD THE HIGG BRM GUIDE

"

We valued their expertise and knowledge in chemical management which enabled us to establish appropriate criteria for clean beauty and propel us forward on our H Project Approved responsible buy icon program.


Holt Renfrew

"

We started working with Anthesis in 2017, when they helped to write and produce our CSR report. Since then, we have collaborated on a pilot chemical management project with our key denim mills. I’ve worked with several teams and individuals within Anthesis and have been continually impressed by the quality and concerted effort they put into delivering value to our business through our sustainability programs.

Jaclyn Allen
Director of Corporate Sustainability, Guess? Inc.

"

Aritzia initially worked with Anthesis to set our environment baseline – which highlighted the areas to focus on in our sustainability strategy. Part of this process included using RiskHorizon™ to assess where and what the likely risks are in our raw material supply chains. We look forward to continuing collaborating with the apparel team to support our objectives.


Corporate Responsibility Director, Aritzia

"

Anthesis has been an important thought-partner for us. They’ve been so helpful in getting the vendors on board and engaged. We’ve really relied on their expertise and experience to guide us through this process.


Former Sr. Manager of Sustainable Innovation, Gap

"

We partnered with industry expert Anthesis to ensure we could meet the rigorous requirements of an SBTi-approved goal for Scope 3 emissions. With Anthesis’ guidance, we were able to footprint our current Scope 3 impact as well as model out all the underlying initiatives and activities that will help us achieve our 2030 target.


Former VP of Corporate Responsibility, Target

"

We were able to create a leading policy on a tight timeline, thanks to the great collaboration and leading expertise provided by Anthesis.

Beth Greenaway
Team Lead Circular & Sustainable Products, Zalando

"

The supply chain report produced by Anthesis was a key element of the success of the initial public offering (IPO) of In The Style. The report ensured investor confidence in ITS and set out a clear roadmap to guide progress.

Liberum

GAP Logo
aritzia logo
Holt Renfrew
Target
Guess logo
liberum logo small
zalando logo small

Tools to Support the Apparel Sector

We build custom tools and leverage leading technology solutions to support our apparel, fashion, textiles and footwear clients. While we are software agnostic, we are experts in deploying, using and training clients on the following software tools:

Footprinter – Footprinter supports clients in a number of ways; from sustainable product design assessments to operational level footprints. Our clients using the software include Reckitt Benckiser, Target and Pepsico.

Clean CO2 – Clean CO2 is a carbon management tool that allows companies to offset and reduce their carbon footprint. It accompanies users throughout the process of neutralising their company’s activities and greenhouse gas emissions, helping them to achieve carbon neutrality by investing in projects to reduce emissions, such as energy efficiency, renewable energies and carbon sinks.

ACDC – Anthesis Compliance Data Collection is a free spreadsheet-based tool designed to alleviate the common barriers to efficient data exchange and promote reuse of declarations across the supply chain.

Supply Shift – This is a leading software tool for collecting data from supply chains, helping drive action on sustainability and ESG performance specifically.

Learn More about Anthesis Technologies

supply shift logo

Contact Us

We’d love to hear from you

Apparel, Textiles, Footwear and Homeware Sustainability Services

Building productive, long-lasting relationships with clients is at the heart of the Anthesis approach to delivering sustainability agendas that result in long-term, positive impact. With extensive experience in the sector, we support a large range of apparel and homeware clients from fast-growing online retailers to luxury players and independent brands. Our experts are proud members of the SBT Apparel & Footwear Expert Advisory Group and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC).

 

 

Apparel Sustainability Services

We have proven experience in delivering sustainable solutions for fashion and homeware clients in a range of areas, including:

Strategy Development and Target Setting – with a wealth of experience in developing strategy and targets for the retail sector and brands, we will help you to prioritise action, set targets and develop a robust strategy to create the foundation of your sustainability programme. We can also support on materiality assessments, impact assessments, sustainability reporting, ESG programme recommendations, brand pathways and positioning, and the internal development and sign off of sustainability and GHG targets.

Responsible Chemical Management and Sustainable Chemistry To avoid supply disruption and reputational risk, it is essential to understand what chemicals are present in products, the level of risk they may pose to the human health and environment, and also to monitor whether they are targeted by any regulatory actions.

With world-leading expertise in sustainable chemistry and responsible sourcing, we are well-placed to help organisations develop and implement leading chemical management programmes and RSLs, identify substances to phase out and develop substitution strategies for hazardous chemicals.

Sustainable Products and Fibres We have a wealth of knowledge and strong track record in realistic, easy-to-use solutions that help companies baseline and footprint different fibres, benchmark fibres and products, and implement sustainable resource design. Our team has world-leading expertise in training and resource development, product assessment (i.e. LCA) and can provide certification guidelines and support to become certified to standards like GOTS or GRS.

Environmental and Social Issues within supply chains We understand the need for data to drive business decisions and can support capturing your scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, as well as the support needed to tackle those emissions across your business and supply chain.

Circular Economy and Waste Solutions – We have world-leading expertise in waste and resources, including lifecycle assessments and footprinting, benchmarking, baseline assessments, and data collection, combined with cutting-edge capabilities in the new and growing field of circular economy, circular business models, and recycling.

Find out more about our Circular Economy Strategy

"

Anthesis has been an important thought-partner for us. They’ve been so helpful in getting the vendors on board and engaged. We’ve really relied on their expertise and experience to guide us through this process.


Former Sr. Manager of Sustainable Innovation, Gap

"

Aritzia initially worked with Anthesis to set our environment baseline – which highlighted the areas to focus on in our sustainability strategy. Part of this process included using RiskHorizon™ to assess where and what the likely risks are in our raw material supply chains. We look forward to continuing collaborating with the apparel team to support our objectives.


Corporate Responsibility Director, Aritzia

"

We valued their expertise and knowledge in chemical management which enabled us to establish appropriate criteria for clean beauty and propel us forward on our H Project Approved responsible buy icon program.


Holt Renfrew

"

We partnered with industry expert Anthesis to ensure we could meet the rigorous requirements of an SBTi-approved goal for Scope 3 emissions. With Anthesis’ guidance, we were able to footprint our current Scope 3 impact as well as model out all the underlying initiatives and activities that will help us achieve our 2030 target.


Former VP of Corporate Responsibility, Target

"

We started working with Anthesis in 2017, when they helped to write and produce our CSR report. Since then, we have collaborated on a pilot chemical management project with our key denim mills. I’ve worked with several teams and individuals within Anthesis and have been continually impressed by the quality and concerted effort they put into delivering value to our business through our sustainability programs.

Jaclyn Allen
Director of Corporate Sustainability, Guess? Inc.

"

The supply chain report produced by Anthesis was a key element of the success of the initial public offering (IPO) of In The Style. The report ensured investor confidence in ITS and set out a clear roadmap to guide progress.

Liberum

"

We were able to create a leading policy on a tight timeline, thanks to the great collaboration and leading expertise provided by Anthesis.

Beth Greenaway
Team Lead Circular & Sustainable Products, Zalando

zalando logo small
liberum logo small
Logotip de GAP
aritzia logo
Target
Holt Renfrew
Guess logo
Other Contributions, Mentions and Publications

Biofabricate LLC Report and the Circular Fashion Report (December 2020) – Anthesis Experts provided input to the reports that will help shape how the apparel and textile industry can define and align on driving innovation at scale and with purpose. 
Year Zero Circular Fashion Report (December 2020) – Anthesis’  Technical Director Susan Harris contributed to the report by sharing her circularity and sustainable apparel expertise and insights.
 
Apparel Insider Article (November 2020) “Tackling the Deforestation Risk in Leather and Viscose Supply Chains” was written by Anthesis consultant James MacPherson and Emma Thomson from Global Canopy.
 
Accelerating Circularity (October 2020)Anthesis contributed to the formation of the project and the post-industrial waste aspects of this research alongside REvolve Waste.
APPG (September 2020) –  Anthesis supported this work with Hubbub for the APPG on Ethics and Sustainability, to present research on why the UK government should do more to reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry.
UNFCC (September 2020) – Article discussing GHG tracking and target setting for mid-small apparel and footwear companies. Anthesis is listed as a consultancy available to support this work.
UC Berkeley (August 2020) – Paper discussing the impact that the Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM) has on apparel factory practices and performance
Vogue (August 2020) – Our work with House of Dagmar, supporting the implementation of a sustainable fibre strategy
Pacific Institute (July 2020) –  Case study includes our data analysis to support water targets for apparel facilities in the Noyyal-Bhavani River Basin, India
Apparel Insider (July 2020)Claudia Amos and Georgie Edwards coauthored an article on biomaterials
Apparel Insider (July 2020)Technical Directors Claudia Amos and Susan Harris contributed to an article on recycled polyester
Science-based Target Initiative (June 2019) – Anthesis served as an expert advisor for the Apparel and Footwear Sector Guidance Report 
Vogue (April 2019) – Anthesis’ Honor Cowen weighs in on the sustainability of vegan leather 
WRAP (June 2017) – Anthesis contributed to the Sustainable Clothing Guide

Meet our Apparel Experts