Apparel Company CEOs Call for Strong Climate Deal

Citing droughts, temperature shifts and other impacts that will make apparel production “more difficult and costly,” the CEOs of seven top global apparel companies today issued a statement calling on government leaders to reach a strong climate change agreement here that will stop the growth of greenhouse gas pollution that is causing damaging global warming.

The declaration, signed by top executives at Levi Strauss & Co., Gap Inc., VF Corporation and four other companies, was issued as government leaders from 190 countries are in Paris for climate negotiations known as the 2015 United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP21). The negotiations began on Monday and will culminate with a possible international agreement on Dec. 11.

The statement was organized by the nonprofit sustainability advocacy group Ceres.

“We come together … to acknowledge that climate change is harming the world in which we operate,” wrote the business leaders, which also included CEOs at H&M, Eileen Fisher, Adidas Group and Burton Snowboards. “Climate change mitigation and technological innovation are vital to the health and well-being of those who make and use our products, as well as to the future supply of materials needed to make those materials.

“Therefore, we call on you to reach a global agreement that provides the certainty businesses need and ambition climate science demands.”

The statement highlights negative impacts from climate warming, whether from compromised cotton production for farmers to garment factory exposure in some of the world’s “least climate resilient regions.” The seven companies are among the world’s biggest users of cotton, with VF Corp. alone buying roughly one percent of the world’s cotton.

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