Spanish fashion retailer Zara has announced that 100 per cent of the cotton, linen and polyester used in its clothing will be more sustainable, organic or recycled by 2025.

Zara's holding group, Inditex – the world's third largest clothing company according to Forbes – made the sustainability pledge at its annual shareholders' meeting on 16 July.

The company stated that it will only use cotton, linen and polyester that is "organic, more sustainable or recycled", as one of a number of sustainable targets for the next six years.

"Sustainability is a never-ending task"

Cotton, linen and polyester – along with viscose, which the company plans to make more sustainable by 2023 – make up 90 per cent of all raw materials purchased by the brand.

The target will be enacted by all eight of Inditex's brands – Zara, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Uterqüe, Oysho and Stradivarius.

"Sustainability is a never-ending task in which everyone here at Inditex is involved and in which we are successfully engaging all of our suppliers," said Inditex chairman and CEO Pablo Isla.

"Our digital transformation and determined progress towards the most demanding sustainability standards are complementary and underpinned by the efficiency of our long-standing business model, which is based on offering our customers the best in quality fashion."

 Zara plans to make buildings eco-efficient

Along with the commitment to use more sustainable fabrics Inditex announced a range of other aims. The first goal for this year is for all of its head offices to meet the "highest green building certificates", and for 100 per cent of stores to be eco-efficient.

With this in mind, it plans to use 80 per cent renewable energy across all of the company's activities, including in its stores, logistic centres and offices.

By 2020, Inditex hopes to fully eliminate the use of plastic bags across all its brands – a goal it has already achieved at Zara, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti and Uterqüe.

The company also claims that by 2023 it will have fully eliminated single-use plastics from customer sales, and will be sending 100 per cent of the waste generated at its head offices and stores for recycling or reuse.

According to Inditex, it is currently recycling or reusing 88 per cent of its waste.

Clothing recycling to be available at all stores

The company is also committing to introducing collection and recycling systems for all of the materials used in its store displays for reuse.

Next year, the retailer claims that all of its stores will have been fitted with containers for collecting used clothing to either be reused, recycled or sent to charity, in an effort to make a move towards a circular economy.

Since its launch in 2015, these dedicated clothes banks have collected over 34,000 tonnes of used garments, footwear and accessories.

The announcements come in the midst of wider recognition of the impact of textile production on climate change. In February, the UK Parliament issued a report on "Fixing Fashion", stressing the need to change the unsustainable way we make, use and throw away our clothes.

Royal College of Art fashion student Laura Kraup Frandsen refused to present a physical collection at her graduate show as a protest against overconsumption in the climate crisis.

Instead, she staged a "die-in" demonstration at her degree show with the help of 20 Extinction Rebellion members to encourage consumers to sign a pledge to not buy any new clothes for a year.