SHEIN & The Sustainability Challenges of Fast Fashion

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that a truckload of abandoned textiles is incinerated or dumped in landfill every second.

Fast fashion has an enormous number of sustainability issues and is the third most polluting industry, only behind food and construction.

The world’s largest fast fashion brand, SHEIN, with an estimated US$32.5bn revenue in 2023, lists between 2,000 and 10,000 new items on its site every day.

Full outfits (including accessories) are available on the site for less than US$15.

Despite its low monetary cost, SHEIN’s products are undoubtedly coming at a cost to the planet.

The company’s enormous growth, over 1000% from 2019 to 2023, has also been accompanied by a significant increase in negative ESG impact.

“At SHEIN, our mission is to make the beauty of fashion accessible for all," says Chris Xu, CEO at SHEIN.

"However, we recognise that producing affordable apparel and delivering it quickly to our customers all over the world comes with significant challenges that we, along with the rest of the industry, must address."

Alexis Eyre, Co-Founder of the Sustainable Marketing Compass framework, wrote this on social media:

 “It's a real shame that they didn't build sustainability into their core offering from day one whilst using their innovative thinking as the picture could be a lot less stark." 

SHEIN’s greenhouse gas emissions

The company is expanding rapidly, but its GHG emissions appear to be growing even faster.

Between 2021 and 2022, SHEIN’s Scope 1 emissions rose by 1.43%, Scope 2 dropped by 26% due to the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) and Scope 3 increased by 52%.

This represents absolute emissions growth of 51%, alongside estimated revenue growth of 44%.

The growth continued into 2023, with Scope 1 emissions rising by nearly 100%, Scope 2 by 32% and Scope 3 by 12%.

This amounts to absolute emissions growth of 81%, alongside estimated revenue growth of 43% in the same period.

SHEIN has set a target to reduce emissions across all scopes by 25% by 2030, based on a 2023 baseline.

The report reads: “We recognise that we still have much more work to do on our climate mitigation journey and are committed to driving progress.”

The reality of fast fashion working conditions

The WWF states that garment factory workers, particularly in fast fashion production, typically receive less than the living wage and work long hours in unsafe conditions.

In Guangzhou, China, workers creating clothing for SHEIN sit behind sewing machines for around 75 hours per week, according to a BBC investigation.

SHEIN’s 2023 Sustainability and Social Impact Report reveals that the company found two cases of child labour in its supply chain from Q1 to Q3.

“Both cases were resolved swiftly, with remediation steps including terminating contracts with underage employees, ensuring the payment of any outstanding wages, arranging medical checkups and facilitating repatriation to parents/legal guardians as needed,” the company says.

Throughout 2023, SHEIN’s Responsible Sourcing Audits uncovered age-related violations in fewer than 0.1% of its 3,990 total audits.

Lubomila Jordanova, CEO and Founder of Plan A, wrote on social media: ”The industry’s dependence on cheap labor results in poor working conditions and wage suppression, which can destabilise supply chains and lead to costly disruptions and legal challenges.”

Explore the latest edition of Manufacturing Digital and be part of the conversation at our global conference series, Manufacturing LIVE.

Sign up to our weekly newsletter here.

Discover all our upcoming events and secure your tickets today.