JUSTYNA WERYK
Sustainable Development Manager at LPP
“CmiA remains an important source of cotton with a lower carbon footprint and a reliable value chain for us”
Over a period of more than 30 years, the Polish clothing company LPP has developed into what is reputedly the largest fashion company in Central and Eastern Europe with brands such as Reserved, Mohito, and Sinsay. In 2022, LPP became a partner of CmiA in order to reduce its environmental impact and to achieve more transparency in its cotton value chain. Demand for CmiA-verified cotton rose between 2022 and 2023, and Justyna Weryk, the sustainable development manager at LPP, is convinced that it will continue to grow in the coming years.
Ms Weryk, in 2019, LPP announced its sustainability strategy, “For People For Our Planet”. What are its goals, and what role does CmiA cotton play in this regard?
Our sustainable development strategy is based on four pillars: sustainable products and production, chemical safety in production, plastic under control, and sustainable development in the headquarter buildings and retail network. CmiA plays an important role in achieving our strategic goals related to offering our customers products with a lower environmental impact because one of the key contributors to the carbon footprint is the acquisition of raw materials for the production of fabrics in the clothing industry. Cotton is often used in our assortment and constitutes approximately 45 percent of our collections. By joining the group of CmiA partners in 2022, we wanted to find an appropriate, reliable, and transparent source of cotton. At the same time, it gave us a strong partner for the regular acquisition of the goodquality raw materials we needed at a reasonable price. In addition to that, the Mass Balance system offers us a reliable way to source a defined amount of CmiA cotton and balance it with other cotton, where needed, in the supply chain. With CmiA, we also get detailed data on the environmental footprint of CmiA cotton, including its greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2023, LPP sold 48 million items produced in accordance with the CmiA Mass Balance system, significantly more than the previous year. What are the reasons for this increase?
As I mentioned, CmiA remains an important source of cotton with a lower carbon footprint and a reliable value chain for us. By benefiting not only the environment but also cotton producers and local communities, it further helps us to meet the goals of our sustainable development strategy. As part of our efforts to provide our customers with clothing that has a lower environmental impact, we set ourselves increasingly ambitious goals related to the use of preferred materials. The increase in our demand for CmiA cotton is related to these goals, and we plan to continue this trend in the coming years.
How are you, as a company, responding to growing consumer and regulatory demand for transparency and sustainability in the supply chain, and how can Cotton made in Africa support you in this?
We care about being transparent and credible. Therefore, in 2023, we updated our list of preferred materials and included only two categories of fabrics: recycled fabrics and fabrics for which we have access to verifiable data on their carbon footprint. This reduces our dependence on primary materials and, at the same time, directs our focus to the recycling process for used materials (used clothes or PET bottles). CmiA has a lower greenhouse gas emission rate than the global average, and it guarantees that the income generated is reinvested at the source of origin.
Will you continue to expand your sustainability strategy in the future, and what goals will you pursue through Cotton made in Africa in the coming years?
Our decarbonisation strategy aims to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the purchase of goods and services by 51.6 percent by 2030. One of the ways we intend to achieve this is by substituting even more preferred materials for their conventional counterparts. CmiA will be one of the partners helping us to reduce our emissions and achieve our goals for 2030. Our demand for CmiA cotton will certainly grow.
JUSTYNA WERYK
Sustainable Development Manager at LPP
“CmiA remains an important source of cotton with a lower carbon footprint and a reliable value chain for us”