Business

SCAP 2020 Sets The Tone To Scale Up Fashion Circularity

Led by WRAP, the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) was a groundbreaking framework designed to reduce the environmental footprint of clothing in the UK. In its final report, released in October, WRAP reveals that 90 organisations, including brands and retailers representing 43-48% of UK clothing by sales volume, managed to collectively reduce their environmental footprint.

Against a 2012 baseline, the signatories had a target of reducing their carbon footprint by 15%. They achieved a reduction of 21.6%.
Against the target of reducing water consumption by 15%, the achievement was a reduction of 18.2%.
Waste footprint reduction target was 3.5%, but the achievement fell short at 2.1%.
And clothing in household waste reduction target was 15%, however, the outcome was just 4%.

The 90 brands and retailers took 251 improvement actions in total over the course of eight years.

102,000 tonnes of imporved fibres were used in 2020 alone.
63% of cotton sold in 2020 was from more sustainable sources.
14% of polyester sold in 2020 was from recycled sources.
690,000 tonnes of clothing was collected by 2020 by reuse and recycling signatories.
3 circular clothing initiatives have been inspired by SCAP to date.

Carbon emission reduction Impactful factors:

Changes in electricity grid mix (accounting for 7% reduction in carbon footprint)
Changes in washing and use behaviours of consumers (5% reduction in carbon footprint)
Shift in fibre mix away from carbon intensive fibres such as acrylic and wool

Water footprint reduction Impactful factors:

Use of more sustainable cotton fibre
Improved dyeing techniques
However, changes in fibre mix in 2020 led to large increases in cotton consumption, negatively impacting water footprint
In 2019, water footprint had reduced by almost 20%
Final reduction is however, 18.2%

Waste footprint Impactful factors:

Biggest factor was changes in fibre mix
Retailers’ waste reduction, alongwith reuse and recycling, resulted in 2.1% reduction in waste.

Clothing in household waste reduction Impactful factors:

4% reduction in clothing waste to landfill or incineration between 2021 and 2018.
There is a large gap between target and outcome
Growing population spending more on average on clothing
Data excludes other ways to dispense with clothing – online resale platforms, informal exchange with family and friends, etc

The next step – Inspiring Circularity Textiles 2030 sets out to scale circular fashion models industry wide in the next ten years. In fact, some industry observers predict that, in the next ten years, fashion resale will become bigger than fashion retail. “The pioneers in SCAP have helped us to shape Textiles 2030, the next chapter in our journey. The new agreement is more ambitious and bigger in scope. It is bringing the whole UK fashion and textiles sector together to identify priorities, introduce changes, measure progress, influence government policy and significantly reduce the GHG emissions of the industry – by 50%, in line with the Paris agreement on climate change. This November, world leaders will meet in Glasgow at COP26 (the 26^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) to negotiate how we can work together to reach net zero; and the fashion and textiles sector needs to be ready to play its part in a cleaner, greener form of economic growth,” said Marcus Gover, CEO, WRAP.