{
  "id": 9138322,
  "title": "Levi’s, Marks & Spencer launch a collaborative effort to get fashion suppliers on renewable energy",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/22/levis-marks-spencer-launch-a-collaborative-effort-to-get-fashion",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-22T12:01:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91610566/levis-marks-spencer-launch-a-collaborative-effort-to-get-fashion-suppliers-on-renewable-energy"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The fashion industry faces a significant challenge in reducing its carbon emissions, with 70% of its total emissions coming from upstream activities in supply chains like fiber and fabric production. To address this, Levi Strauss and Marks & Spencer have launched a collaborative effort called the Fashion Renewable Collaborative. This program, in partnership with Schneider Electric’s SE Advisory Services, aims to help fashion suppliers switch to renewable energy, a crucial step in decarbonizing the apparel sector.\n\nThe Fashion Renewable Collaborative shares similarities with a program Levi’s launched last year called the Levi Energy Accelerator Program (LEAP), also in partnership with Schneider Electric. The LEAP program focused on helping Levi’s garment manufacturers in India with renewable energy procurement. However, Jennifer DuBuisson, Levi’s senior director of sustainability, realized that fashion suppliers face fragmentation from different brands and that suppliers are already facing fragmentation from different brands. This led to the idea of creating an industry-wide scale effort to reduce the complexity and noise created by different brands asking suppliers for similar but slightly different solutions.\n\nLevi’s has set a goal to reduce absolute Scope 3 emissions by 42% by 2030, which mainly come from its upstream supply chain and downstream transportation and product use. Fashion suppliers face challenges in transitioning to renewables, including varying energy markets, financing constraints, and renewable electricity options. Additionally, suppliers may be spread across different geographical regions with unique economic, regulatory, and market considerations for renewable energy purchasing. Some suppliers may struggle with tasks like Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs), which often require obtaining bids from multiple renewable energy developers.\n\nTo overcome these challenges, the Fashion Renewable Collaborative offers a digital platform for suppliers to share information and access educational resources on renewable energy and jurisdiction-specific details. Schneider Electric will help procure bids from developers and handle requests for proposals (RFPs). The program will provide various solutions based on a supplier's needs and capabilities, such as renewable energy credits, power purchasing agreements, on-site solar, or on-site battery storage. Suppliers will complete feasibility assessments to determine the most suitable solutions for their circumstances. By working together, the Fashion Renewable Collaborative aims to aggregate demand among suppliers, making it more cost-competitive for suppliers with smaller demands to switch to renewables. The Collaborative officially launched during Climate Week, with over 450 facilities already engaged in the program, and it is already in talks with other fashion brands to expand its reach.",
  "summary": "When it comes to making the fashion industry more sustainable, there’s only so much a brand can change about its own actions. Around 70% of the industry’s total emissions come from upstream activities in supply chains, like fiber and fabric production. That means for fashion brands to really meet their climate goals, they have to help their suppliers become more sustainable, too. Now, Levi…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}