While fast fashion giant Shein is making efforts to become more sustainable, a report shows its carbon pollution has increased by over 20% compared to 2023.
What’s happening?
Shein has been in the spotlight for various issues, including its massive impact on the environment from high levels of pollution and waste.
Shein’s 2024 Sustainability and Social Impact Report outlined several areas the company is focusing on to improve: Equitable Empowerment (People), Collective Resilience (Planet), and Waste-Less Innovation (Process).
These three pillars include goals such as sourcing responsible materials, decarbonizing its supply chain, designing circular systems, and expanding sustainable innovation.
These are impressive strategies, but Shein has a long way to go before it can hit those targets.
As Sustainability Magazine detailed, the report revealed that even though it’s taking steps to cut carbon pollution, its Scope 3 emissions — indirect air pollution within a company’s value chain — increased by 23.1% from 2023.
Meanwhile, its Scope 1 and 2 pollution, direct and indirect air pollution from purchased electricity, respectively, soared to over 94% for dirty energy and nearly 33% for location-based pollution.
The company’s total heat-trapping air pollution in 2024 was roughly 28.9 million tons.
“Like many companies, we face the complex challenge of decoupling our growth from resource consumption,” the report noted.
Shein said it is “actively” working on reducing its planet-warming pollution production in both its day-to-day operations and throughout its supply chain.
“As of May 2025, we have approved near- and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets with the Science Based Targets Initiative, and the SBTi has verified our net zero science-based target by 2050,” the report continued.
Why is Shein’s pollution output concerning?
Pollution released from manufacturing and other industrial activities contributes to poor air quality and higher global temperatures, which can result in more extreme weather, displacement for people impacted by disasters, and greater strain on the health of communities.
As extreme weather events are becoming stronger, longer, and more frequent worldwide, it’s concerning that Shein’s pollution levels are moving in the wrong direction.
Aside from the negative effects of pollution on people and the planet, fast fashion also creates massive amounts of textile waste and requires tons of resources to support its operations.
According to Earth.org, 100 billion garments are produced each year, and more than 101 million end up in landfills (sometimes after just seven to 10 uses).
That’s not entirely the fault of companies, but they do encourage people to constantly replace garments because they’re typically of poor quality and don’t last long.
Because most fast fashion clothing is made of synthetic fibers that shed easily, the industry is a huge source of microplastic pollution, which ends up in waterways, the soil, and other areas in the environment.
Since the industry prioritizes the rapid production of trendy, inexpensive clothing, it also requires the use of immense amounts of water, chemical dyes, and energy.
What is Shein doing to help the planet?
Sustainability Magazine explained that the company set a goal to supply all of its energy for operations from renewable sources by 2030, through both on-site solar panel installation and the purchase of energy attribute certificates.
It has already made impressive strides, as 76% of its electricity for operations came from renewables last year. In addition, it plans to deploy hundreds of electric vehicles for warehousing and logistics needs in China.
As far as reducing waste, Shein has implemented recycling at all 33 of its warehouses in China and its Center of Innovation for Garment Manufacturing. According to the report, these measures have led to a 95% recycling rate.
It appears the fashion world could be slowly becoming more sustainable, but in the meantime, there are plenty of thrift stores and eco-friendly clothing brands that offer high-quality items at major discounts, and you can feel good knowing they benefit the planet.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
