Fortune Magazine: Moving Fashion Forward With Purpose

Global retail and apparel company PVH is staying true to its corporate sustainability efforts throughout COVID-19 and beyond.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a driving force of unprecedented change across multiple industries, including apparel and its supply chain. Global consulting firm McKinsey forecasts the apparel industry will contract by up to 30% this year. “It has made us rethink what is important and what we expect from brands and companies,” says Stefan Larsson, president of PVH Corp., a fashion company with a portfolio that includes Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and Izod.

As a result, PVH has leaned into its Forward Fashion corporate responsibility strategy it launched last year, focusing on eliminating negative environmental impacts, increasing positive impacts, and improving the more than 1 million lives across its value chain. As Larsson explains, “COVID-19 has made sustainability even more core to what we do. We see the business and sustainability objectives as one, driving toward the same outcome.”

PVH aims to promote a circular economy through collaboration and policy change. It was the first U.S. company to join the Fashion Pact, a pledge to combat climate change, restore biodiversity, and protect the oceans that has now been signed by more than 60 other fashion and textile companies representing approximately 200 brands. This type of commitment is rooted in science-based targets, such as achieving decarbonization levels set by The Paris Agreement to limit a temperature increase higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“Having a lasting positive impact goes beyond any individual company,” Larsson says. “It is an industry challenge, and such a partnership has the potential to change the industry beyond what one company or group can accomplish on its own.”

The company’s commitments traverse inclusion and diversity, human rights, environmental protection, and community engagement. The pandemic’s impact has also brought forward a consumer-first mindset, and PVH has focused on data-driven business discipline and strategic supply chain agility to cut production lead times and better match inventory to demand.

“We are embracing the disruption and are going where the consumer is going,” says Larsson. “We’ve looked at every step of the value chain and asked ourselves: How can we better connect with our consumer? How can we produce in a different way? How can we anticipate demand in an even better way? How can we be better at forecasting demand and removing excess production for a more efficient operating model that drives business performance and positively affects sustainability?”

Ultimately, it is the company’s 40,000 associates around the world that have come together to move the needle across all its initiatives, not only on an industry level but as a force for good in the global community. The PVH Foundation, a philanthropic fund, donated more than $2 million to COVID-19 relief efforts, and to efforts that advance social justice.

“Running a sustainable business means running one that is inclusive and embraces diversity, [that] addresses human rights and racism, and [is a place] where we hold ourselves accountable,” says Larsson. “We are amplifying the voices of our Black associates, launching global initiatives around listening and learning, and evolving our talent-pipeline in partnership with Howard University. We also joined the Black in Fashion Council pledge to advance the company’s ongoing efforts toward equality and racial justice.”

Larsson knows PVH has a lot of work ahead, but he feels the organization is headed in the right direction. “Our purpose as a company is to drive fashion forward for good, and to do that we have to be both consumer- and sustainability-focused at the same time.”

While each brand within the PVH portfolio is individual in its own way, they are working toward a unified goal to accelerate recovery and drive the company’s Forward Fashion agenda toward a more sustainable and inclusive future.

Commissioned by Fortune Inc. and PVH to write an editorial feature for their Change the World issue.

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