Through a partnership with IFC, Levi Strauss hopes to meet its corporate sustainability objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use in its supply chain. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group. As the largest global development institution, with deep sectoral and wide regional expertise, IFC is well placed to provide support to this important and necessary initiative. Levi Strauss is one of the world’s leading brand name apparel companies.
IFC will work with 42 designated Levi Strauss suppliers and mills in ten countries to identify and implement appropriate renewable energy and water-saving interventions that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lead to improved water efficiency and wider adoption of renewable energy supply options. The work, which will take place in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Mexico, Lesotho, Colombia, Turkey, Egypt, and Vietnam, will incorporate IFC’s Partnership for Cleaner Textiles approach for reducing resource consumption and wastewater pollution.
The global textile, apparel and footwear industry is a major driver of industrialization and economic growth in many countries, employing 60 million people, the majority of them women. But the industry also contributes as much as eight per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions and uses sizable amounts of water in cotton farming and textile production.
