Levi’s Sets New Water-Reduction Goals

After passing the one billion liter mark for water saved since it instituted its Water<Less finishing process in 2011, Levi Strauss & Co. is upping the ante for its own sustainability practices and those of its consumers and cotton suppliers. Levi’s is using Water<Less for about one quarter of its products, but by expanding the program in bottoms and moving it into tops and other categories, has set a goal of employing it for 80 percent of its products by 2020. Additionally, as a member of the Better Cotton Initiative, it’s working to train farmers to optimize water use in growing cotton. Levi’s uses BCI cotton for about 6 percent of its production, a number it wants to lift to 75 percent by 2020. Citing BCI data, Levi’s noted that cotton farmers in China using BCI protocol consumed 23 percent less water than those not using BCI techniques in 2013. Levi’s estimated that a typical pair of jeans uses nearly 3,800 liters of water through its life, beginning with the growing of cotton and ending with repeated washings by consumers. Of the total amount, the vast majority — 68 percent — can be attributed to cotton cultivation, 23 percent to consumer use and the remaining

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