Set a certified-content threshold for circular fashion

Submitted through the COP31 Sustainable Transformation Awards · SKD Türkiye (WBCSD Global Network Partner)

The group is a luxury fashion and lifestyle retailer in Türkiye. It operates the Beymen, Beymen Club, Beymen Collection, Academia, Network and Divarese-George Hogg brands, boutiques of international fashion houses, e-commerce sites and mobile applications, and restaurants combining luxury retail with gastronomy, with more than 4,000 employees, over 250 stores and more than 1,500 brands featured in its stores and online.

The environmental load of luxury fashion sits mainly in its raw materials. Cotton cultivation, leather tanning, denim finishing and wood-based cellulosic fibre production consume large volumes of water, use chemicals and draw on land and forest resources. Almost all of that happens upstream, in tiers of the supply chain the retailer does not own and cannot instruct directly.

The second problem is verification. There is no mandatory sustainable product ratio for the textile sector in Türkiye, and product-level environmental claims in the market are often stated in terms that cannot be tested. A retailer that wants to change what its products are made of therefore has to write the standard itself, then prove compliance product by product.

The group's Sustainable Product Programme, launched in 2024 as part of its "Leadership in Circular Luxury Fashion" approach, is an institutionalised practice covering all of its private label and own brands. It was developed to respond to deepening environmental pressures in the luxury fashion sector, growing consumer expectations around sustainability, and the need to shift towards low-environmental-impact production in the supply chain. The core goal is to raise the share of sustainable products in the private label and own brand portfolio across the Beymen, Beymen Club, Beymen Collection, Academia, Network and Divarese-George Hogg brands to 60% by 2030. Within this scope, the programme pursues increased use of certified raw materials, systematisation of product development processes based on the sustainable product definition, and guidance of suppliers according to these criteria.

Its distinguishing feature is placing "sustainable product" within a clear, measurable framework: under the group's sustainable product definition, a product is considered sustainable if at least 50% of its components (fabric, lining, pocket fabric, zips, buttons and comparable parts) consist of approved certified materials (Jeanologia Denim, LWG, BCI, European Flax and FSC-certified Lenzing EcoVero, Modal and Lyocell). This definition moves beyond the vague green claims common in the sector to establish a verifiable and traceable standard. The approach is systemic and not limited to product selection alone, but also targets transformation across the supplier base.

Location of the initiative: Türkiye

The programme converts a portfolio-level target into a rule that can be applied at the point where a product is specified, and uses purchasing volume to move the supply base towards it.

The programme is carried out through written commitments that go beyond legal requirements or sectoral standards. There is no mandatory sustainable product ratio target for the textile sector in Türkiye, and the group, through the globally valid certifications and measurement methodology set out in its sustainable product definition, is setting a reference point for the sector. 2024 was taken as the base year. In that year, 32% of the PL and Own Brand product portfolio, i.e. 2,320,098 products, met the sustainable product definition. By the end of 2025 (1 January – 31 December 2025), this ratio had risen to 47%, with the total number of sustainable products reaching 3,796,657. This result exceeded the 2025 target of 40%, demonstrating that the programme is progressing beyond expectations.

Three elements hold it together. The first is the definition itself: the certified-material share of a product's components must reach the 50 per cent threshold before the item may be counted. Because the test is applied to the bill of materials, compliance is a matter of record rather than of judgement, and the same rule works across outerwear, denim, knitwear and footwear.

The second is a fixed list of approved certification schemes, so that brand teams and suppliers work from one reference. The list covers cotton certified under the Better Cotton Initiative, European Flax certified linen, leather from tanneries certified by the Leather Working Group, low-impact certified denim finishing under the Jeanologia system, and FSC-certified wood-based cellulosic fibres in viscose, modal and lyocell form, supplied as Lenzing EcoVero, Lenzing Modal and Lenzing Lyocell. Animal fibre and finished garment standards such as the Responsible Wool Standard and the Global Organic Textile Standard extend the same logic to animal welfare and working conditions, and the Global Recycled Standard covers verified recycled content.

The third is supplier direction. Rather than instructing manufacturers to change, the group makes certification a condition of participation in the range. Suppliers that want the order enter certification processes themselves, and in doing so gain access to other international buyers who apply comparable requirements. Purchasing volume, not audit pressure, is the instrument.

A fourth element takes the definition outside the group's own ranges. It has been shared with fifteen international brands sold on the group's platform, together accounting for around half of group revenue, with a request that each identify the products in its own collections that meet the test. Five have returned lists, covering 967 items now being flagged as qualifying products on the group's e-commerce site. A multi-brand retailer has no authority over a third-party brand's materials, but it does control assortment and product presentation, and that is enough to make its own definition worth answering.

The definition is designed to widen over time. A plastic-free nanocellulosic biomaterial developed as a vegan leather alternative, LUNAFORM™, was introduced into a collection for the first time in Türkiye with Beymen Collection, and a naturally coloured wool fabric is being developed by Beymen Club with Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, removing a dyeing step rather than making it cleaner.

The water-saving impact has been measured in concrete terms. Calculations based on the use of certified raw materials show that in 2024, products certified under Jeanologia Denim, LWG, BCI, European Flax and FSC (Lenzing EcoVero, Lenzing Modal, Lenzing Lyocell) achieved water savings of more than 400,000 tonnes (equivalent to approximately 160 Olympic swimming pools). In 2025, this figure rose to more than 600,000 tonnes (approximately 240 Olympic swimming pools), a 50% increase within a single year. The group, together with SKD Türkiye, has sponsored the Water Management in the Textile Sector Programme, aimed at increasing water efficiency in the textile sector, improving wastewater management, expanding circular water use, and disseminating good practices across the entire textile sector.

The programme is directly aligned with multiple SDGs. Under SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), the rise in the sustainable product ratio within the PL portfolio from 32% to 47%, together with the 600,000-tonne water saving achieved, stand out as concrete outputs. In line with the objectives of SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), water consumption and chemical use arising from production are being reduced through the use of certified raw materials. In the context of SDG 15 (Life on Land), certifications such as FSC and BCI support sustainable forest management and agricultural ecosystem health. In terms of SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), certifications such as RWS and GOTS strengthen supply chain standards that safeguard animal welfare and workers' rights. Through its holistic approach that addresses environmental and social dimensions together, the programme positions sustainable development as a set of interlinked goals.

Results are monitored on an annual cycle by a product and recycling working group, and the share, item count and certificate-level breakdown are published in the annual sustainability report.

Figure 1: Private label sustainable product share, 2024 base year and 2025, against the 40% target for 2025.

Sustainability impact

Climate

The programme acts on Scope 3 emissions embodied in purchased private label products rather than on emissions from the group's own stores and offices, since the environmental load of a garment sits mainly in cotton cultivation, tanning, denim finishing and wood-based cellulosic fibre production upstream of the retailer. Those purchases are accounted under Scope 3 Category 1, purchased goods and services, reported as 55,862 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in the 2024 base year — around 95 per cent of the group's Scope 3 emissions and 80 per cent of its total footprint. The programme therefore acts on the category that dominates the inventory.

The company calculates Scope 1-2-3 emissions but does not measure them specifically for this programme. It measures the impact of this transition through water savings rather than greenhouse gas emissions; it does not calculate or claim any specific emission reduction figures.

The quantified proxy is the portfolio conversion itself: the share of private label products meeting the sustainable product definition rose from 32 per cent in the 2024 base year to 47 per cent over 1 January to 31 December 2025, against a published commitment of 60 per cent by 2030, and certified purchases saved more than 600,000 tonnes of water in 2025 against more than 400,000 tonnes in 2024.

The enabling mechanism is demand rather than instruction. Manufacturers that certify in order to hold the order apply the same standard to the rest of their output, so the schemes behind the threshold — low-impact denim finishing, FSC certification of the wood-based cellulosic supply chain, and Better Cotton and European Flax certification of cultivation practice — raise production conditions on volumes the group never buys, in the agricultural and forestry stages where land use and material choice determine the footprint of the finished garment.

Nature

The primary reported effect is on water. Savings are calculated from the volume of certified raw materials purchased, using the water-use reductions the certification schemes attribute to certified production against conventional production.

On that basis, certified purchases under the low-impact denim finishing, Leather Working Group, Better Cotton Initiative, European Flax and FSC-certified cellulosic fibre schemes saved more than 400,000 tonnes of water in 2024, an amount the company describes as roughly 160 Olympic swimming pools. In 2025 the figure rose to more than 600,000 tonnes, or about 240 Olympic pools, an increase of 50 per cent in a single year.

The volume behind that saving is the portfolio shift. The share of private label products meeting the sustainable product definition rose from 32 per cent in the 2024 base year to 47 per cent over the period from 1 January to 31 December 2025, against an interim target of 40 per cent for that year. In absolute terms the count rose from 2,320,098 to 3,796,657 items.

The certification set carries the wider ecosystem effect. FSC certification addresses forest management in the wood-based cellulosic supply chain, Better Cotton and European Flax address agricultural practice and chemical use in cotton and flax cultivation, and Leather Working Group certification addresses tannery water and chemical management. The effect is therefore spread across forests, farmland and water catchments upstream rather than concentrated at the retailer's own sites.

The company also sponsors a water management programme for the textile sector run with SKD Türkiye, aimed at water efficiency, wastewater management and circular water use across the sector rather than in its own supply chain alone.

Social

Two of the approved schemes carry social conditions as well as environmental ones. Responsible Wool Standard certification covers animal welfare in the wool supply chain, and Global Organic Textile Standard certification covers workers' rights and chemical safety at manufacturing sites, so that a purchasing decision taken for environmental reasons also raises the labour standard applied to the order.

For suppliers, certification is a commercial asset rather than a compliance cost. Manufacturers that complete certification become eligible for orders from other international buyers who apply the same schemes, which is the mechanism by which the requirement is intended to create shared value rather than transferred cost.

Academic collaboration extends the same principle to product development. The naturally coloured wool fabric project run by Beymen Club with Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University brings academic research into a commercial collection, and gives textile researchers a route to see their work applied at production scale.

Customers are addressed through visibility rather than instruction: qualifying products are identified within the collections and results are disclosed in the annual report, with market research, collection performance data and public responses to the report used as feedback channels. Qualifying items are being flagged individually on the group's e-commerce site, across both its own ranges and the international brands that have returned lists, so that the definition is visible at the point of choice.

The group builds its long-term shared value creation approach on supplier transformation, consumer awareness, academic innovation, NGO collaborations and measurable data management. Within this scope, sustainability metrics are monitored with MAP360 and S360; collaborations in the field of social impact are carried out with NGOs such as AÇEV, TEV, SemtPati and Koruncuk. The chief executive's active role on the boards of SKD Türkiye and KAGİDER also contributes to the sector's sustainable transformation.

Business impact

Benefits

The measurable business benefit is portfolio conversion at scale without a separate product line: 3,796,657 items in 2025 met the definition, which means the change was delivered inside the commercial ranges rather than in a capsule collection.

Because the definition is written down and evidenced by third-party certificates, product claims can be made without the legal and reputational exposure that accompanies unsubstantiated environmental marketing. That matters in a market where regulators and customers are increasingly testing such claims.

The purchasing requirement also improves supply base quality. Suppliers that certify become more competitive internationally, which lowers the risk that certified capacity disappears when demand rises, and gives the group a wider pool of qualified manufacturers. A parallel audit programme against environmental and social criteria covered all 327 local suppliers by the end of 2025, raised the proportion passing from 78 to 93 per cent and exited 41 suppliers that did not improve.

Integrating certified raw material purchasing into brand budgets keeps the decision with the commercial teams, so the sustainability target is planned into collection cost structures at the design stage rather than absorbed centrally afterwards.

Finally, the annual measurement produces data that is already in the form required for the sustainability report and for the group's public commitments, so disclosure does not require a separate data-gathering exercise.

Costs

Certified raw materials generally cost more than conventional equivalents, and the difference is carried in the product cost. The programme therefore requires the certified-material premium to be built into brand budgets from the start of the collection planning cycle.

Certification is also a cost for suppliers. For small and medium-sized manufacturers the audit and membership costs of international schemes can be an access barrier, and the group treats this as a live risk to be managed through capability-building support and longer-term purchase commitments that make the investment recoverable.

Supply availability is a second constraint. In some product categories certified alternative raw materials remain limited, which caps how quickly the share can rise regardless of purchasing intent, and explains why the target rises in annual steps rather than in one move.

Running the programme requires continuous certificate tracking, supplier compliance assessment and component-level data management across several brands, which is an administrative overhead carried by the working group structure and supported by external sustainability data platforms.

The costs are contained by using one definition across all brands rather than brand-specific rules, by relying on existing international certification schemes instead of building a proprietary audit system, and by letting supplier certification be financed by the wider market access it creates.

Impact beyond sustainability and business

Co-benefits

The demand-led model produces effects beyond the group's own orders. A manufacturer that certifies in order to supply one buyer applies the same standard to the rest of its output, so the environmental standard rises for products the group never buys.

Asking fifteen international brands to test their own collections against the retailer's definition puts the same question to supply chains the group has no commercial relationship with, and gives those brands a reason to produce the underlying evidence in a market where it is not otherwise requested.

Introducing a plastic-free nanocellulosic biomaterial, LUNAFORM™, into a collection for the first time in Türkiye creates a commercial reference point for a material category that otherwise struggles to reach production volume, and the academic wool project shows a route by which university research can enter commercial ranges.

The sponsorship of a sector-level water management programme spreads the water agenda to textile manufacturers outside the group's own supply chain, including those supplying competitors.

Potential side-effects

The threshold approach has boundaries that need to be stated. A 50 per cent component threshold is a materials test, not a life-cycle assessment: it says what a product is made of, not what its total footprint is.

The water figures are derived from certification-scheme calculation methodologies applied to purchased volumes, not metered at mill level, so they should be read as modelled savings against conventional production rather than as measured abstraction reductions.

Certification cost can concentrate purchasing on larger suppliers that can afford audits, which would work against smaller manufacturers unless capability support and longer contract horizons are offered. This is the reason the programme treats supplier support as part of the model rather than as goodwill.

Finally, the definition widens the demand for specific certified fibres, which puts pressure on those supply chains. Broadening the approved list as new verified materials mature is the intended way to avoid concentrating the sector on a narrow set of inputs.

Typical business profile

The model suits retail and consumer goods companies that own private label ranges, control their own product development and buy at a volume that gives them influence over manufacturers they do not own.

It is most relevant where several own brands share a sourcing function, because one definition can then be applied across brands with different price points and categories without renegotiating the rule each time. Multi-brand retailers can extend the same rule to labels they do not own, using assortment and product presentation as the lever in place of purchase specification.

Delivery engages product development and design, sourcing and merchandising, brand budget owners, sustainability, quality and compliance, and corporate reporting, working to a shared annual measurement cycle. Beyond fashion, the same component-threshold method transfers to home textiles and packaging, where a comparable certification landscape exists.

Approach

1. Write a testable product definition: Set a component-level threshold — at least 50 per cent of a product's components made from approved certified materials — so that qualification is decided on the bill of materials rather than argued case by case.

2. Fix the approved certification list: Name the schemes that count for each material family, covering cotton, flax, leather, denim finishing and wood-based cellulosic fibres, and publish the list so that brand teams and suppliers work from the same reference.

3. Measure the whole portfolio before setting targets: Establish a base year and count how many items already qualify; the 2024 baseline of 2,320,098 items and 32 per cent came from applying the definition retrospectively to the existing range.

4. Commit publicly to an end point and break it into annual steps: Publish the 2030 portfolio target, then set an interim figure for each year so that collection teams plan against a number rather than against an aspiration — here 40 per cent for 2025, 50 per cent for 2027 and 60 per cent for 2030.

5. Route the target into brand budgets: Build certified raw material purchasing into each brand's cost structure rather than funding it centrally, so that the buying decision and the target belong to the same team.

6. Steer suppliers through purchase volume: Make certification a condition of range participation and communicate it in advance of the buying season, so that manufacturers enter certification processes on their own commercial logic rather than under instruction.

7. Put the same definition to brands you do not own: Share the rule with the third-party labels on your platform and ask each to identify its own qualifying products, then flag those items alongside your own, so that the standard travels beyond the range you specify.

8. Open a route for new materials: Run pilot introductions with universities and material developers, and add verified alternatives to the approved list as they reach production quality, so that the definition widens rather than hardening around existing fibres.

9. Verify and disclose annually: Track the qualifying share, absolute item count, breakdown by certificate and the water saving attributable to certified raw material use, review them in the working group, and publish the results in the annual sustainability report.

Stakeholders involved

• Project leads: Sustainability progress is reported to the group chief executive and monitored by the board, which includes a member with responsibility for sustainability. The 2030 target of a 60 per cent sustainable product share is one of the publicly declared Beymen Promise commitments held at board level, which is what keeps the annual figure a governance matter rather than a marketing one.

• Company functions: Operational management sits with the corporate communications and sustainability team together with a product and recycling working group. The working group monitors the sustainable product share, tracks certificates, assesses supplier compliance and prepares the annual figures. Product development, sourcing, brand budget owners and reporting are connected through this cross-functional structure, so that certified raw material purchasing, product specification and disclosure follow one cycle.

• Main providers: Certified fabric, trim and leather manufacturers supply the materials that allow the threshold to be met, and enter international certification schemes in response to the purchase requirement. External sustainability data platforms are used to track sustainability metrics, and material developers supply the newer alternatives being trialled in collections.

• Other: Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University runs the naturally coloured wool fabric project with one of the group's brands, Beymen Club. SKD Türkiye is the partner for the sector water management programme the group sponsors. The group chief executive sits on the boards of SKD Türkiye and KAGİDER, which links the programme to sector-level dialogue. The certification schemes themselves — the Better Cotton Initiative, European Flax, the Leather Working Group, FSC, the Responsible Wool Standard and the Global Organic Textile Standard — provide the verification the definition depends on. Civil society organisations including AÇEV, TEV, SemtPati and Koruncuk partner on the group's social programmes, and customers act as a feedback channel through market research, collection performance and public response to the report. Fifteen international brands sold on the group's platform have been asked to apply the definition to their own collections.

Key parameters to consider

The definition is the parameter that determines everything else: at least 50 per cent of a product's components, assessed across fabric, lining, pocketing, zips and buttons, must come from approved certified materials.

Five indicators are tracked: the sustainable product share of the private label and own brands portfolio, the total number of sustainable products, the share by individual certificate, the annual water saving attributable to certified raw material use, and performance against the annual target.

The base year is 2024 and measurement runs on calendar years, with the 2025 result covering 1 January to 31 December 2025. Targets are set annually against a 2030 end point of 60 per cent, with an interim milestone of 50 per cent in 2027.

The programme applies to private label and own brand products only. Third-party branded merchandise sold by the group is outside its scope, which is why the denominator is the private label and own brand portfolio rather than total sales. The 967 items identified by international brands are tracked and flagged separately and do not enter the percentage.

Results depend on certified raw material availability by category, which varies, and on suppliers holding valid certificates at the time of production, which requires certificate tracking rather than one-off supplier qualification.

Implementation and operations tips

Define before claiming. The difficult work is agreeing a threshold that is strict enough to be credible and achievable enough to apply across a whole range; once the threshold exists, measurement becomes an accounting exercise rather than a debate.

Count components, not garments. A garment-level claim can rest on the outer fabric alone, while linings, pocketing and trims — which are numerous and cheap — remain untouched.

Use purchase volume rather than instruction. Suppliers respond faster to an order condition announced ahead of the buying season than to a compliance request, because certification then carries a commercial return for them.

Expect category-level supply constraints and plan the target curve around them. Some material families certify quickly and others do not, so a single annual step applied uniformly across categories will fail in the slowest ones.

Publish the definition alongside the number. A percentage without the rule behind it invites the same scepticism as an untested claim, and the rule is what allows another company to reproduce the method.