HanesBrands, the parent company to Hanes, Champion, Bonds, Maidenform, and Bali, has announced it has made substantial progress in reaching its sustainability goals.
Hanes, long synonymous with men’s “tighty whities” underwear, is more green than white these days — at least when it comes to the company’s environmental footprint. In its recently released 2023 Sustainability Summary Report, Hanes parent company, HanesBrands Inc., details its commitments to its 2025 and 2030 environmental and social objectives. The company says it has dramatically decreased its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 53 percent and reduced its intensity by 41 percent since 2019. Additionally, the underwear giant is on track to achieve zero waste in its operations by 2025 and to use 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.
In 2023 alone, HanesBrands’ sustainability initiatives saved the company more than $10 million, contributing to $23 million in savings since the goals were set in 2020. The company’s products have also made their mark in Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly program, where products are GreenCircle Certified to ensure they meet high environmental standards. It is also reducing packaging weight by 25 percent with a goal to “eliminate single-use plastics” by 2030. At least 70 percent of HanesBrands’ cotton is sustainably grown; it sources most of its cotton from U.S. producers across the Southeast. The company has also taken steps to reduce its overall packaging weight by 11 percent by 2025.
In a statement last year, Chris Fox, chief sustainability officer of HanesBrands, said the company’s commitment goes back decades, with a longstanding history of “ethical and responsible business practices and our ongoing commitment to ‘Do What’s Right.’” Fox, who’s been focused on sustainability at HanesBrands for more than two decades, told WWD that the company’s sustainability goals are a “top to bottom” effort. This means everyone across the HanesBrand teams work together to achieve the goals. “It is critically important,” Fox said. “And with it, you can move mountains. Without it, you’re pushing a rock up the hill, probably perpetually.”
And it’s all because of the commitment and expectations of the HanesBrands customers, Steve Bratspies, CEO of HanesBrands, says. “Our consumers expect quality, comfortable products from our iconic brands at a great value that are manufactured with the planet and people in mind,” he said in a statement accompanying the new report. “Thanks to our associates who are passionate about doing what’s right, we’re able to deliver on those expectations while making sustainability accessible for all.”
HanesBrands said last year it is committed to using 100 percent recycled and/or biodegradable polyester and sustainably sourced cotton, for its products. In 2016, it partnered with Re/Done on a revamp of its iconic white t-shirt. “Everybody is always in search of the perfect tee,” Sean Barron, co-founder of Re/Done said in a statement at the time, noting that the Hanes t-shirt is not a highly designed or conceptual tee, “but rather a t-shirt based on the best vintage t-shirt one could find and would never get rid of. That vintage tee was perfect, but irreplaceable until now.”
HanesBrands’ commitment extends beyond products and production to its workforce and communities. In its “I’M IN” campaign, 90,000 commitments were made by associates to engage in simple, sustainable actions, from washing clothes in cold water to carpooling, to promote environmental responsibility. The company’s efforts have not gone unnoticed, as it has been awarded the Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award or Partner of the Year Award for 14 consecutive years and recently earned an A- in both climate change and water security from CDP, positioning it as a leader among its peers.
Further boosting its social good commitments, HanesBrands’ philanthropic efforts have positively impacted 3.4 million lives through various initiatives, including its Green for Good program which has provided essential medical services and life-changing surgeries since 2007. On the corporate governance front, 52 percent of senior management positions in the U.S. are held by women, underscoring the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
“I think there’s a tremendous amount that we can do together in communicating at the
consumer level, which is where that issue, in particular, needs to be,” Fox told WWD. “You’re
trying to change consumer behavior at the end of the day. And the more we collaborate together, the more that we sing that tune together, and sing it in very different places and in
different mediums, the more likely we are to change that consumer behavior over time.”
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