How sustainable is Canada Goose?
This screening has been done by Fairify on July 3rd 2020
Canada Goose is a luxury, Canadian outerwear brand that is mostly known for its jackets. The company publishes a sustainability report and shows the first signs of improvement, but the combination of very bad sourcing policies and little climate action reveals a very long road ahead.
The company has been the subject of criticism particularly for its sourcing policy and rightly so. It still uses uncertified down, wool and, even more alarmingly, coyote fur for its jackets. This fur is sourced from Canada and the United States and originates from the trapping of these wild animals. After a lot of outside pressure, the company finally gave in and announced it will stop purchasing new coyote fur by 2022, but it’s still happening today and stimulates the absolutely unnecessary killing of these wild animals.
The reports mainly show a desire for improvement, which is sometimes backed with data or committed targets, but factual data on current performance remains largely unknown. The company does specifically mention that it aims to improve its material sourcing policy and has already started to work with Bluesign and the Responsible Down Standard to do so throughout its supply chain. Canada Goose also wants to achieve carbon neutrality for its own operations by 2025 and mentions it’s working on adopting more climate targets, but more specific environmental or material traceability is missing.
Labor rights remain largely unknown as well. Even though the company produces in Canada for almost half of its total production, it doesn’t publish a factory list nor does it provide any information about the quantity and results of third-party assessments. This lack of transparency poses a risk for labor rights violations in its supply chain.
When a brand doesn’t offer information, there are several risks you take as a consumer. For example, the climate impact of that particular brand or product can be much higher compared to its industry peers. The company might use certain harmful chemicals or there might be animals or humans harmed for the manufacturing of its products. For these reasons, we believe that you should be aware of how products are produced and how a company as a whole operates in regard to our pillars. When there’s no transparency, you are at risk of supporting some or more of the previously mentioned harmful conditions.
