Is Benetton Fast Fashion? An Expert Breakdown!

November 6, 2023

Based in Ponzano Veneto, Italy, Benetton is a multinational fashion business that was established in 1965. Benetton operates retail locations in 22 South American, North American, and Australian countries, as well as 31 countries in Europe and 4 Asian countries.

Benetton is a clothing, swimwear, accessory, and shoe manufacturer. Under the names United Colors of Benetton and Sisley, the holding firm Edizione operates in the major worldwide markets and is the owner of Benetton.

Bennet enjoyed great popularity in the 1990s, but over time, its appeal has waned. The corporation had a €180 million loss in 2017.

But Benetton sprang back to prominence in 2020, and today it boasts over 6000 outlets, 1500 employees, and 25,000 workers who work for them remotely. Every year, more than 150 million individuals enter one of its physical locations.

Benetton is an expensive brand compared to other fast fashion brands and uses mono fibers which makes its clothing more durable and can be washed and worn often.

Benetton's clothing has a longer lifespan than those of other fast fashion companies.

Sustainability Rating: 5/10

Category: Clothing, accessories, shoes, bags

For: Women, men, kids

Products: Tops, shirts, blouses, dresses, jumpsuits, jackets, coats, sweatshirts, trousers, jeans, skirts, knitwear, underwear, outerwear, loungewear, swimwear, nightwear, flats, sandals, boots, sneakers

Style: Casual

Quality: High

Prices: $

Sizes: XS-XL, 2-12 (US), 4-14 (UK), 6-16 (AU), 34-42 (EU)

Fabrics: Cotton, linen, lyocell, hemp, modal, polyester, nylon, viscose, acetate, spandex, acrylic, polyurethane, neoprene, rubber, polyethylene, leather, wool, silk, down

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: No

Ethical & Fair: Yes

Recycling: Yes

Manufacturing countries: Albania, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, India, Egypt, Romania, Serbia, France, Portugal, South Korea, Greece, Thailand, Tunisia, Italy, Laos, Moldavia, Morocco, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Pakistan, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam

Certifications: FSC, BCI, RDS

Interpretation Of The Sustainability Score

If a brand receives a rating of 5/10, it is somewhat on the right track to make fashion sustainable. It is more transparent and responsible than most apparel brands and takes massive action to reduce its impacts.

What Are The Sustainability Practices Of Benetton?

Even though Benetton is not a 100% sustainable brand, it is highly eco-conscious compared to other fast fashion brands, which is focusing on producing more and more of its products constructed from recycled or organic materials that come from approved supply channels.

The brand uses about 80% natural fibers, ranging from wool to cotton and linen, to make clothing, which has a smaller environmental impact.

Furthermore, the majority of the products are made of monofiber, which facilitates recycling. In order to better satisfy market demand, the company has been implementing a production reduction strategy over the past year.

Additionally, it has been working on raw materials, gradually increasing the amount of certified materials and recycled fibers in their collections.

The brand is committed to utilizing only sustainably produced cotton by the end of 2025. Cotton that is BCI, recycled, and organic are all included in this classification.

They are also lessening their influence on the environment. The goal of the Science Based Target effort is for them to significantly cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

By 2030, Benetton wants to achieve net zero deforestation and is developing a methodology to measure the extent of deforestation in order to achieve this aim.

The brand is implementing best practices in the meantime, such as using FSC paper for shopping bags and selected certified man-made fibers.

Are There Any Ethical Practices Of Benetton?

Benetton understands how critical it is to uphold, defend, and promote human rights as well as workers' rights along the whole value chain.

Benetton guarantees courteous and good working conditions in the nations in which it operates, including with regard to working hours and wage determination, by rejecting child labor and forced labor as well as any form of verbal, physical, sexual, or psychological harassment, abuse, threat, or intimidation in the workplace.

The brand prohibits slavery in all its supply chains and demands that all of them be transparent and ethical.

They require their suppliers to abide by their values as well as all relevant laws pertaining to worker rights, health and safety, and environmental preservation.

Because of the significant proven danger of fundamental human rights violations in this sector, the brand does not accept cotton from Uzbekistan or Xinjiang; instead, it prefers to utilize more sustainably farmed cotton.

Does Benetton Give Back To The Community?

Benetton launched two concrete projects aimed at granting sustainable livelihood to women who work at home or in the readymade garments sector in Bangladesh and Pakistan, under the umbrella of its Women Empowerment Program

In Bangladesh, Benetton supported 5,000-6,000 women currently employed in the RMG sector. It organized training courses to help them strengthen their professional skills. The brand also helped them sign up for basic financial products at local banks, such as loans, insurance, and savings accounts.

In Pakistan, Benetton supported around 1,500 women living in the manufacturing district of Sialkot. The brand helped them obtain formal employment and worked together with the local textile factories to make workplaces more welcoming to women.

Furthermore, the #IBelong creative campaign by United Colors of Benetton offers a voice and a face to the world's invisible stateless people. United Colors of Benetton's visual tools and merchandise will inspire people and help UNHCR attain its target of 10 million supporters in ten years to end statelessness.

United Colors of Benetton's dedication to social issues has always been fundamental to the brand's ethos throughout its almost 50-year existence. Its dedication is best demonstrated by its social media campaigns and multiple partnerships with eminent non-profits, such as UNHCR, UNDPI, and UN Women.

Are There Any Animal Welfare Policies at Benetton?

Benetton considers the guarantee of the welfare of the animals involved in its supply chain of primary importance.

With regard to products of animal origin, the brand requires all suppliers to source exclusively from farms managed in an ethical manner that respects the Five Freedoms recognized internationally for animal welfare.

Even though Benetton uses animal leather, it provides complete detail about how ethically it sources it.

The brand only uses leather that is waste from the food industry and prohibits the use of real furs and exotic and wild animal skins.

Benetton is committed to using only leather from fully traced and certified sources by 2025 and undertakes to explore more sustainable alternatives to leather, as well as to favor those suppliers whose processes are more sustainable from an environmental point of view.

In addition to contributing to the spread of this culture and committing to more and more precise traceability of its materials of animal origin, Benetton supports the use of recycled animal fibers.

Benetton prefers wool from farms where there are no practices of mulesing, as well as from countries where it is prohibited by law.

In general, as regards wool, cashmere, and mohair, Benetton Group prefers fibers certified according to the Textile Exchange protocols and recycled fibers.

Benetton also prohibits the use of angora and any other yarn deriving from animals reared in cages for their hair. Some examples are rabbits, raccoons, foxes, squirrels, chinchillas, ferrets, and minks.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benetton_Group#:~:text=7%20External%20links-,History,struggled%20to%20regain%20this%20position.

https://www.pentagram.com/work/benetton/story

https://www.benettongroup.com/en/sustainability/products/sustainable-materials/#:~:text=100%25%20of%20the%20cotton%20used,low%2Dimpact%20suppliers%20by%202030

https://world.benetton.com/l/sustainability.html

https://www.benettongroup.com/en/sustainability/environment/

https://www.benettongroup.com/site/assets/files/1134/2022_benetton_group_modern_slavery_policy.pdf

https://www.benettongroup.com/site/assets/files/1087/code_of_ethics-ok.pdf

https://www.benettongroup.com/site/assets/files/1087/code_of_ethics.pdf

https://www.unhcr.org/news/news-releases/united-colors-benetton-develops-ibelong-campaign-support-unhcrs-aim-end

https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/benetton-groups-commitment-to-support-women-starts-in-bangladesh-and-pakistan-599001931.html#:~:text=In%20Pakistan%2C%20Benetton%20Group%20will,to%20ethnic%20and%20religious%20minorities.

https://www.benettongroup.com/site/assets/files/1109/animal-welfare-and-materials-policy.pdf