The world’s main verifier of corporate climate targets – the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has seen the list of apparel companies seeking its validation rapidly grow in recent years. The latest to join the ranks is Chinese fast fashion giant Shein.
To continue reading, subscribe to Eco‑Business.
There's something for everyone. We offer a range of subscription plans.
- Access our stories and receive our Insights Weekly newsletter with the free EB Member plan.
- Unlock unlimited access to our content and archive with EB Circle.
- Publish your content with EB Premium.
The retailer announced in late May that SBTi has approved its near- and long-term emissions reduction targets, describing it as a “milestone” in its climate journey. It commits to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent, and its Scope 3 or value chain emissions by 25 per cent by 2030.
By 2050, it aims to reduce emissions across all scopes by 90 per cent. All its emissions reduction targets are with reference to a baseline year of 2023.
Worldwide, SBTi has become broadly recognised as a leading assessor of company climate goals and whether they credibly align with the Paris Agreement goal to cap global warming at 1.5ºC. Mustan Lalani, Shein’s newly-appointed global head of sustainability, described the validation as a “starting point” for the fast fashion group, and said it will share more updates later.
“(The) validation of both our near-term and long-term targets gives us a science-based foundation for action – and impetus to deliver,” he said. “My teams and I are focused on translating the targets into outcomes.”
But Shein’s publicisation of its SBTi-approved goals immediately drew criticism from many in the sustainability sector who said there was a lack of clarity as to whether the group intends to shift away from its core business model – the hyper-fast production of cheap, disposable clothing. Production on this scale is deemed incompatible with genuine climate action.
“Establishing SBTi targets on a fundamentally flawed and unsustainable business model is like putting a band-aid on a sinking ship,” said one comment by a sustainability consultant under Lalani’s LinkedIn post announcing the SBTi approval. Others asked if Shein will be sharing a more comprehensive transition plan that details how it will meet its climate goals.
Big fashion chases SBTi
Just over 8,000 companies worldwide have achieved SBTi-approved net zero targets – a fraction of the global corporate landscape. However, the apparel sector has in recent years come under the spotlight as SBTi target-setting becomes more popular with fashion retailers and firms keen to develop a roadmap for reducing emissions, while at the same time polishing their green credentials.
According to a SBTi monitoring report published in July last year, companies in the apparel sector seeking the standard-setter’s validation increased by more than 150 per cent between 2022 and 2023, coming second just after the biotechnology, healthcare and pharmaceuticals sector which saw a 225 per cent jump.
Between 2021 and 2023, the number of apparel firms seeking SBTi approval for their decarbonisation targets grew by about 40 per cent.
The apparel sector saw the second-largest jump in companies seeking SBTi target-setting between 2022 and 2023. Image: SBTi Monitoring Report 2023
A check on the SBTi dashboard shows that about 400 firms that have set SBTi targets are in the apparel and textile sector, as of June 2025. Other than early adopters like H&M and Gap, mid-sized brands like Allbirds and Everlane have also joined the list.
Experts told Eco-Business that fashion brands’ motivation to seek validation for their emissions reduction targets is often under doubt due to the transparency and clarity around Scope 3 target-setting under the SBTi process.
While Scope 3 represents a big portion of most company’s emissions, that share is outsized for fashion. More than 90 per cent of the total emissions of major fashion brands is Scope 3, which occurs in the industry’s supply chain, and in their products’ use and eventual disposal. Yet, at the moment, SBTi’s requirements for companies to align their targets to 1.5ºC emission trajectories are only for Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
The standard-setter has said the methods to assess Scope 3 alignment are not robust enough to provide a benchmark for temperature classification, and that it will work to increase the transparency and accessibility of Scope 3 targets on its dashboard. But this has not stopped companies from publicising their Scope 3 target validation – most of the time without communicating the nuances.
Research published in August last year in a report titled ‘What fuels fashion?’, which analysed 250 of the world’s biggest fashion brands and retailers with a turnover of US$400 million or more, showed that almost half of the brands that have SBTi-validated decarbonisation targets have reported increases in their Scope 3 emissions over time.
Kenneth Pucker, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School at Massachusetts-based Tufts University, who teaches sustainable business practices, questioned Shein’s ability to meet its targets, pointing to how the group’s carbon emissions have almost tripled over the past three years based on what it has reported.
He told Eco-Business: “Their business also continues to grow, making emissions more challenging.”
Public offering
According to Shein’s latest 2023 sustainability report, its Scope 1 and 2 emissions are at a negligible 0.2 per cent of its total carbon footprint.
For any fashion company, the single largest source of its emissions is a Scope 3 sub-category known as emissions from “purchased goods and services”, which represents the bulk of the upstream part of the fashion supply chain – all of the emissions from the processes of producing fibres, dyeing and finishing substances required for turning raw materials into clothes.
Shein’s reported emissions in this category were 10 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2023, almost double the Scope 3 emissions in 2022. In fact, its emissions across all emissions categories saw substantial increases.
Shein’s emissions in 2022 and 2023 across all scopes. [Click to enlarge] Image: Shein 2023 Sustainability and Social Impact Report
The constant scrutiny that Shein has faced for a range of social and environmental controversies including instances of child labour in its supply chain has derailed its initial plans to list in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the same month it announced the SBTi target validation, it was also reported in the media that the group was considering switching its planned initial public offering (IPO) to Hong Kong from London.
A growing body of academic evidence now shows concrete links between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) credentials and pre-IPO performance. Increasingly, companies going public in the European Union and the UK must deliver on measurable ESG reporting as part of the price of admission.
In January this year, Shein hired Lalani from food and beverage packaging company Tetra Pak to helm its global sustainability function as it was pursuing the potential IPO on the London Stock Exchange.
Pucker sees the hire and Shein’s efforts to communicate its environmental credentials as linked to its IPO ambitions. But he reiterated that circularity and climate action for a brand built on the business model of “selling inexpensive synthetics” is an illusion, and pointed to Shein’s problems which sees suppliers working excessive hours and its labour law violations, which he said needs to first be resolved.
All the recent initiatives, including Shein’s latest bid to validate its emissions reduction targets with SBTi, are likely undertaken to “brush a patina of sustainability on a troubling record”, he said.
Shein has said it has a zero tolerance policy for forced labour and child labour in its supply chain. It sought Beijing’s approval to go public in London last year. The retailer’s clothes are sold online in more than 150 countries and produced in thousands of factories located mostly in China.
